Warre Hives

[alexinmadison]

Does anyone have any experience with Warre hives? I'm curious about them.

[James]

I've built two and I like them and the bees seem to do well in them, the next hives I build will also be Warre. They are a little different than working with Langs.

  

No frames, just topbars, you could make your own frames with foundation if you want, but it isn't necessary.

I suggest building a stand into the ground and strap the hive to the stand.  The hives can get pretty tall and top heavy.

You add boxes to the bottom. 

The brood are raised in the bottom boxes, and your honey comes top boxes with oldest comb which has had brood in it.

To harvest honey, crushing and straining the comb works well.  

I've found the bees tend to attach the comb to the walls, so if you want to observe put windows in your boxes.  

Because this hive is non-Lang dimensions, it is not easy to install a nunc (frames don't fit).  Packages or swarms are no problem.

Fairly easy to build with some woodworking skills.  You can find plans here: http://warre.biobees.com/plans.htm  I think you can also buy pre-made.  

[jeanne hansen]

So in other words, a Warre hive is a top bar hive built vertically?  That's a good idea.

I'm distressed by the remark that supers are added at the bottom.  That means, you have to disassemble the entire hive to add a super, which sounds like extra work to me.  Of course, people also bottom-super Langstroth hives, which is the same amount of extra work.  Of course, I could go against convention and add Warre supers on the top.

My management technique, to get the advantages of both top bar and Langstroth hives is to give the bees foundationless frames (wooden starter strips.)  They draw out the comb they need with the cell sizes they want, but the combs are easy to handle because they are in wooden frames.

I like the crush and strain method, because I want to harvest wax as well as honey.

James, do you make candles?

 

Thanks!

Jeanne Hansen

824 Jacobson Ave

Madison, WI 53714

608-244-5094

---

From: James <james...@hotmail.com>
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 11:11 PM
Subject: [madbees] Re: Warre Hives

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[James]

Correct, it is a vertical topbar hive. I think of the topbar hives
normally discussed here as horizonal topbars (I have both).

You really don't have to disassemble the whole hive to add a box at
the bottom. Individual boxes are smaller (and lighter) than Langs, so
lifting a couple at a time is no problem. The stand where I keep my
Warre's is wide enough to put the new empty box down next to the hive
and pick up the whole hive and put it on the new box. This is easy
early in the year when you are dealing with a couple boxes. Once you
have 4 boxes stacked up, it can get heavy. I'm fairly strong, but I
still stop at 5 boxes.

Supering from the top doesn't work very well (from my experience)
because the bees are hesitant to move up into the empty box. I've had
thousands of bees bearding from the entrance and an empty box on the
top. If you supered the top with a box full of comb from a deadout,
no problem.

I don't make candles from the comb, I probably should. It does have a
bit of propolis in it from a couple generations of brood.

Best regards,

James

On May 24, 9:58 am, jeanne hansen <jeanniealabean...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> So in other words, a Warre hive is a top bar hive built vertically?  That's a good idea.
>
> I'm distressed by the remark that supers are added at the bottom.  That means, you have to disassemble the entire hive to add a super, which sounds like extra work to me.  Of course, people also bottom-super Langstroth hives, which is the same amount of extra work.  Of course, I could go against convention and add Warre supers on the top.
>
> My management technique, to get the advantages of both top bar and Langstroth hives is to give the bees foundationless frames (wooden starter strips.)  They draw out the comb they need with the cell sizes they want, but the combs are easy to handle because they are in wooden frames.
>
> I like the crush and strain method, because I want to harvest wax as well as honey.
>
> James, do you make candles?
>
> Thanks!
> Jeanne Hansen
> 824 Jacobson Ave
> Madison, WI 53714
> 608-244-5094
>
>
>
>
>
> >________________________________

> > From: James <james_tr...@hotmail.com>

> >To: mad...@googlegroups.com
> >Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 11:11 PM
> >Subject: [madbees] Re: Warre Hives
>
> >I've built two and I like them and the bees seem to do well in them, the next hives I build will also be Warre. They are a little different than working with Langs.
> >
>
> >No frames, just topbars, you could make your own frames with foundation if you want, but it isn't necessary.
> >I suggest building a stand into the ground and strap the hive to the stand.  The hives can get pretty tall and top heavy.
> >You add boxes to the bottom.
> >The brood are raised in the bottom boxes, and your honey comes top boxes with oldest comb which has had brood in it.
> >To harvest honey, crushing and straining the comb works well.
> >I've found the bees tend to attach the comb to the walls, so if you want to observe put windows in your boxes.
> >Because this hive is non-Lang dimensions, it is not easy to install a nunc (frames don't fit).  Packages or swarms are no problem.
>
> >Fairly easy to build with some woodworking skills.  You can find plans here: http://warre.biobees.com/plans.htm I think you can also buy pre-made.
>
> >On Tuesday, May 21, 2013 1:43:06 PM UTC-5, alexinmadison wrote:
> >Does anyone have any experience with Warre hives? I'm curious about them.
> --

> >-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups madbees group. To post to this group, send email to mad...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to madbees+u...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group athttps://groups.google.com/d/forum/madbees?hl=en