Note: most of these are sold locally and are picked up by appointment. However, we now can ship these to the lower 48 states! 

The follower creates the form of the hive. We've put a lot of thought in the simple design of these followers. They fit snugly agains the wall of the hive. We use premium grade oak plywood so the board doesn't warp with the changes in humidity. 

Each hive comes with two follower boards, but there are reasons why you may want to have a spare.

• Internally feeding the hive with a jar feeder is easy with a follower cut to fit the feeder or with a hole drilled in the follower to give the bees access to the feeder. A standard jar feeder will fit inside the hive and take up 3 bars of space. 
• When preparing a split/nuc, you can use extra followers and your Tri Gable Lea Hive to compartmentalize each split. The followers are used to reduce the cavity the bees need to heat. When making a split or a nuc, you need to be careful not to put them in too big of a volume. By making the split/nuc only 5-7 bars wide, you can help the new bees keep the heat they have generated. 
• You may decide not to buy one of our hives, but instead use our plans (or your own), bars, and followers to build your own custom hive. The followers and top bars can be one of the most frustrating parts to construct with symmetry and precision. By buying two of ours, you know you have two identical followers to make your own hive.
• You may want to build your own nuc or bait hive. Like building your own hive, it's handy to have two identical followers to make a symmetric nuc or bait hive. 
• You may buy one to have as a template to loan out to your friends. If other local top bar beekeepers are using the same sized followers, you can support each other by trading bars of brood, honey, and nucs. 
• Since the bars are 19" long, they can be put into Langstroth hives. This means you can sell or give bars to other local beekeepers to help them in a time of need.