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