The Warre Hive - Part 1.

As both of you know I have a Top Bar Hive that I am very fond of despite being [perhaps because its] no use for producing 'retail' honey but its allegedly good for the bees.

I attended a talk that explained these hives were widespread in Africa as they don't need complicated machinery to make and thought to mimic the situation where bees take up residence in a fallen log and the colony expands horizontally.

Therefore its not surprising that this type of hive is popular with what I unkindly call the 'eco hippy' beekeepers who practice 'natural' bee keeping.
This begs the question 'what is unnatural bee keeping?' but it's true that conventional hives like the ones I use, are not an entirely natural environment for bees and they have to do things they wouldn't do in the wild.

There are other types of 'natural' hive and one of the most common is the Warre [pronounced War ray] hive.
It was invented by Emile Warre [1867-1951] a French monk who looked at dozens of different hive designs before coming up with what he called the 'people's hive' and plans were included in his book 'Beekeeping for all'

It was his goal to find a hive system that was simple, natural, economical, and bee-friendly and it mimics the situation where a colony lives in a hollowed out tree - its a vertical Top Bar Hive.

It is usually three/our identical boxes stacked on top of each other and like the TBH has bars that the bees can build their comb on.
On top is an insulation quilt and on top of that the roof.

The boxes don't have a queen excluder so the colony can move up and down the boxes as they would in a tree. The boxes can have windows so you can check where the colony is and how its doing.

Warre provided detailed plans of how to build one and I'm going to give it a go.
Although the Top Bar Hive turned out OK my woodworking skills are minimal. However my son in law is a joiner and he will be able to advise.

In Warre's book he says:-

The production of honey is the main purpose of beekeeping, one that the beekeeper pursues before everything else

Don't agree with that and for me the Warre, like the Top Bar Hive, is more of a curiosity piece and I'm not concerned with 'retail' honey production. Extracting honey from this type of hive is a PITA.

Warre also said:-

I pity those who keep bees only to earn money. They deprive themselves of a very sweet enjoyment.

'pity' is a bit strong but I agree with the sentiment.

Next: - Part 2 - Making the boxes

November update

November update

We've had some mild spells at the beginning of the month and the girls took the  opportunity to build up stores.
Click the button to see the bees in action.

The autumn liquid feed has now been completed and most of the hives has taken about a gallon each. One was a little slower than the others but still took lots on.

During November I will get fondant blocks ready for the Winter and put some covers around the hive to keep them warm.

The hornets have gone.

I noticed that the nest wasn't visible from the entrance as it has been and there was no activity in the box.
Eventually I plucked up enough courage to open the box up and all the hornets had gone.
At the bottom of the box was what looked like the remnants of a birds nest and then the remains of the hornets nest on top
It had largely disintegrated although some of the comb was intact.

Hopefully they will be back next Spring.

Solitary Bee Hives

I have made a couple of these for next Spring.
As I said before they, and the expensive posh things you buy in Garden Centres ARE NOT for honey bees or bumble bees.
They are better for the bees than the 'box of bamboo' things as at the end of the season you can take out the cocoons, clean them and then keep then until you release when the time is right the following Spring.
Also you can clean the hive up to stop the build up of pollen mites and other parasites.
The cassette can be taken out so you can see whats going on.

I will be selling these things for £15 and include a booklet about solitary bees, how to set up the hive and how to look after the cocoons.

A good year for honey ???????????

The British Beekeepers Association produce annual figures of the honey production of their members.
Apparently this year production was up from 23lb per hive to 30lb.
This produced numerous headlines like this.

I have to say I was a little surprised by this as the cold winter then very hot Summer meant things in the Bedfordshire area was pretty poor.
I haven't been able to find figures for each county but apparently Wales saw a big increase.
I was also surprised how many of the newspaper headlines attributed the increase to the warm weather.
Bees will fly between 15C and 19C but won't fly if its too hot.
Warm weather might mean the bees can fly but this doesn't mean they will be able to find forage. Locally it has been very dry so plants cannot produce nectar which in turn means the bees can't produce honey.
Apparently Welsh bee keepers have said that that they had hot humid weather for plants to produce nectar.
The BBKS press release says:-

It was a difficult year in climactic terms with a very cold snap nicknamed the Beast from the East halting the honey gathering in Spring and then a long drought in many parts of the country which meant plants with shallow roots stopped producing nectar.