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Abbé Warré's book
Beekeeping for All:
Methods
This page covers methods which are either not described in Emile Warré's book Beekeeping for All or would benefit from giving more detail, where necessary with photographs. This page is no substitute for reading, learning and inwardly digesting Beekeeping for All. Page numbers mentioned below refer to pages in Beekeeping for All.
Technical drawings for constructing Emile Warré's hive available here.
Warré hive construction help for complete beginners at woodwork: http://thebeespace.net/
Windows?
Warré's hive had no windows. They add complications to what is
supposed to be 'The People's Hive. But many who try Warré hives like to hve windows, at
least to begin with. And some commercial suppliers provide their Warré hives with
windows. This modification was introduced by Frèrès &
Guillaume. Katherine White provides an illustrated guide to how she makes her Warré hive windows.
Quilt filling
Warré suggests chopped oat straw [chaff], sawdust, etc.
Frèrès & Guillaume (book)
suggest straw or dry leaves. Some use wood shavings or electric planer shavings. A
beekeeper in Kentucky observed that eastern red cedar shavings rather than pine shavings
deterred ants. This is corroborated by another beekeeper (his quilt page). A useful overview of
the quilt and ventilation of the Warré hive has been written by Alexander Templeton and
is available in message number 10786 of the
Warré Yahoo e-Group.
Preparing top-bars
Warré describes how to put comb guides on top-bars on pages
77-80. One method is depositing wax starter strips.
Another is by making the strips to fit on top-bars (video). Both are done with melted
wax. The wax can be delivered very conveniently from a squeeze bottle stood in a bain
marie when not in use.
When it comes to separating boxes at harvest, it can help to have coated the planed upper
surfaces of the top-bars with two coats of raw linseed oil, which should not be allowed to
run down the sides or come in contact with the rough lower side of the bar.
Fixing top-bars in boxes
Warré advises nailing the top bars at 36 mm centres. However, in states where
moveable comb is mandatory this could create difficulties. One partial solution is to use
20 x 1 mm Japanned pins of the kind used by UK beekeepers for fixing frames. Hammer them
in 15 mm deep and snip the head off before completing hammering in. The bars are then
removable with finger pressure or with the help of a hive tool. A more elegant solution is
to have pegs, pins or nails located in slots cut in the top-bar ends. Another method is to drill 3mm holes in
the rebates and place bits of matchstick in them, one either side of each bar locus.
Matchsticks will hold the bars in place unless you apply excessive force. When removing
the combs, the matchsticks can be broken easily to set the bars loose. If necessary
redrill the holes when reusing the box. Advantages: simple; does the job very well; all
wood, no metal. A single matchstick could be used for each bar end if a slot is sawn in
the end of the bar. But, if there is no objection to using metal, thin pins/brads could be
used instead, to save drilling. Yet another method is to make the bars a reasonably tight
fit, then melt wax over the ends of them. When pushed into place the wax is malleable
enough to let them fit but firm enough to keep them in place.
Preparing hessian/burlap top-bar cloths: http://www.dheaf.plus.com/warrebeekeeping/preparing_hessian.htm
Getting bees
Warré advised populating his hive with a swarm of 2 kg. or more (p.
70). However, many Warrés have been successfully populated with 2-pound commercial
packages. Suggested sources of bees:
1) Join your local beekeeping association and make it known that you are looking for a
swarm or artificial swarm. Advantages: you could get locally adapted bees and pay much
less than full commercial rates.
2) Tell your local department that deals with swarms, e.g. pest control department, that
you will take swarms.
3) Set up bait hives. 2-box Warrés can be set up as bait hives. (Photos of
swarm arriving at bait hive)
4) Buy commercial package bees (artificial swarm). Example: Larry Garrett's Russian package.
5) Transfer the bees and queen from a frame hive or nucleus or other type of hive by
driving (pages 83-86). Photos. Video.
6) Transfer combs and
bees of a frame hive colony, or a feral/wild colony in a building or other site where
its presence is not wanted.
Populating a Warré hive
Read pages 82ff. on populating and 96ff. on natural swarms.
1) A natural swarm can be shaken or brushed into an inverted 2-box Warré which is then
set the right way up on its floor, or run in to a Warré that is already set up. (Photos of running a swarm into a Warré)
2) A commercial package (artificial swarm) can be hived by direct release of the queen, if
she has been with the bees for at least two days, as follows: have at the ready a 2-box
Warré and a third box without bars to use as a funnel. Open the queen cage and place it
on the hive floor. Immediately, put on the two boxes with top-bars and the third on top.
Shake the bees from the package into the Warré. Lightly smoke the bees from the top box
down into the hive if necessary and replace it with the top-bar cloth, quilt and roof. If
any bees are still in the package, put it beside and touching the alighting board.
John Moerschbacher, who has hived thousands of packages, offers the following dos and
don'ts. When you hive a package in very cold weather, you must first keep it in a warm
room so that the bees' core temperatures are raised to compensate for the coldness of the
air and hive into which they will be dumped. In this room you should frequently spray them
gently with thin syrup. Do not soak them. Just allow them to take in the syrup and clean
each other off. When you hive them, they will be active enough to cluster up high, even if
the outside temp is very cold.
When you hive a package in very warm weather, keep the package in a cool dark room for a
few hours to calm them. No spraying is needed until jjust before hiving them. Whether
hiving in warm or cold weather, light spraying is recommended. This is not to mask the
scent of bees or queen from different colonies. This is simply to divert their attention
from the trauma that is happening to something more to their liking.
If hiving in cold weather, the source of feed must be within reach of
the cluster hanging from the top bars, or you could have starved bees in a few days.
3) An alternative method with a package is to place on the hive floor a couple of small
sticks about a bee space thick then put one box without top-bars on the floor. Remove the
feed can and queen cage from the package and pour most of the bees into the hive box.
Place the package with its remaining bees on end on the sticks, taking care not to crush
bees. Place two boxes with top-bars on the bottom box. Remove the plug over the candy in
the exit hole of the queen cage and attach it to the bars of the top box so that the mesh
is not covered. Close up the hive. On the following day, when the cluster has formed round
the queen above, remove the bottom box, package and sticks. If pollen is not coming in
after a couple of days, it is as well to check that the bees have released the queen.
4) Transfer the bees and queen from a frame hive or nucleus or other type of hive by
driving (pages 83-86). Photos. Video.
5) Transfer the combs
and bees of a frame hive colony, or a feral/wild colony in a building or other site
where its presence is not wanted.
6) Shook swarm a frame hive colony directly into a Warré using a funnel, then destroy
the frame hive's brood. This is a Varroa control step.
Feeding
Hives are best populated at the beginning of a main nectar flow
in spring. As this is not always possible, feeding is an option. Warré recommends using
two parts honey to one part water by weight. To avoid importing disease it is advisable to
use honey from one's own apiary or from a known disease-free apiary. If no honey is
available then syrup of refined (white) sugar in the same ratio is an option. Warré
describes two feeders (pages 60 and 62). These work well, but a simple feeder can be made
by placing a container on the hive floor in an empty bottom box, loosely filling with
straw as a scaffolding for the bees to climb down on and pouring in the syrup. Photos of feeders.
Whether to feed in autumn is a matter of personal choice as feeding could keep alive
strains that are not thrifty and provident. However, a summer season could have given such
poor foraging that no colony would have been able fully to provide for its winter needs.
If sugar syrup is fed there is a risk of some ending up in the next season's honey
harvest. If feeding has been left until it is too cold for syrup to be assimilated and
stored properly, an alternative way of feeding is to put fondant or candy on the top-bars of the top box. The weight of stores
in the hive is felt by hefting or, more accurately if required, with a weighing
device. For how much to feed see 'Harvesting' below.
Adding boxes
If the bees run out of space there is a risk of swarming (page
89-90). Boxes can be added underneath well ahead of need, if necessary with checking how
far comb growth has progressed in the bottom box. If the boxes have windows, as in the Frèrès-Guillaume
modification, checking is easy. David Croteau's modification has in each box a closable hole through
which comb can be monitored. Without some method of viewing through the side, then the
safest way it to lift the hive off the floor as a unit and look underneath while keeping
it upright. With more than one box this usually requires a helper or a Gatineau lift. If neither are
available it is possible to lift a 2-box Warré as a unit and hold it over a mirror.
Monitoring the colony without opening the hive
After a glazed box has filled with comb, only a limited amount of information can be
obtained through its window (Frèrès-Guillaume modification). But much can be learnt from
observing entrance phenomena, if possible comparing it with other hives in the vicinity. A
helpful book on this is Heinrich Storch's At the Hive Entrance -- Observation
Handbook: How to Know what happens inside the hive by observation of the outside
(Transl. by F. Cells from Am Flugloch. European Apicultural Editions, Brussels,
1985). The cluster can be located by listening with the ear pressed against the back of a
box when ambient noise conditions are sufficiently quiet. If while listening, the hive is
knocked lightly (though not in sub-zero winter conditions), a sudden light buzz/hiss that
fades instantly usually means the hive is queen right. If necessary, a listening tube with
stethoscope ear pieces is inserted in the entrance. The weight of stores in the hive is
felt by hefting or, more accurately if required, with a weighing
device.
Removing combs
Non-intervention is the hallmark of Warré beekeeping. However,
there are rare occasions when combs may have to be removed for examination, for example by
a bee disease inspector. Warré hive combs are not as easy to remove as horizontal top-bar
hive combs because of the easier access and sloping sides in the latter. Where comb
removal is mandatory Delon
frames or Denis
semi-frames could be considered. Even with top-bars prepared with wax starter strips,
Warré combs are not always parallel. However, where they are parallel, they can be
carefully lifted out once cut free from the sides. Bill Wood's Warré comb knife is designed for this. The removed comb, having no
support but the top bar, could be extremely fragile and should be hung vertically from the
top bar throughout the examination. This operation is not without risk of comb failure and
should only be undertaken if absolutely necessary.
Harvesting
Warré describes how to harvest honey on pages 109 to 112. The golden rule is
leave two boxes of drawn comb and enough stores for winter, which for his area of northern
France was 12 kg. Severer climates will require more. Deciding whether to harvest at all
can be done without opening the hive, as a fairly accurate assessment of hive stores can
be made by hefting or with a weighing
device. If combs have bridges or bracing points to the tops of the bars of the box
below, a slight clockwise and anti-clockwise twisting motion will free them. Adhesion at
such points is minimized if the tops of the bars are treated with linseed oil as described
above.
If adhesion is severe, with caution a cheese orv other wire (of nylon monofilament) can be
used as with the Warré-like
hive in Japan. The following guidance on the use of wire is offered by Andrew Janiak:
The thinner the better. It is like a knife; the purpose is to cut, so a thinner one cuts
quicker and easier. It should be sufficiently strong so that you cannot break it
when pulling with both hands using an average force. If you follow the right
technique, the force is not great. Even if it should break, there is no great
damage, just have a spare one at hand. The wire normally used for wiring Langstroth frames
is suitable. You need a hive tool and two wedges. The procedure is as follows:
a. If the combs are alligned cold way, i.e. at right angles to the front, start from the
front. First lift one corner of the box with a hive tool placed 25-50 mm from the corner,
so that you can get the wire under the corner. Do the same with the other corner.
b. Place a wedge at each corner behind the wire so that the wedges carry the weight of the
box. Now you have the wire under both corners and the corners resting on wedges.
c. Now gently and slowly pull the wire. Ideally have a helper on the other side, but you
can do it yourself, one side first, then the other, then the first side and so on. Always
cut along the combs, never across!
d. When you come reasonably close to the other side of the box -- beware. While cutting
along the comb, cutting bees is unlikely, they are not stupid, they can and will go out of
the way. The danger is to cut against the inner edge of the other end of the box - a
scissor/guillotine effect there! Move one wedge closer to the other end on one side
and exit the wire not parallel to the other edge (scissor/guillotine effect), but at 45
degrees towards one corner to give bees maximum chance to get out of the way. There is no
need to cut right to the back of the box. One can stop, say, 40-50 mm before the back
edge. This will prevent guillotining any bees and whatever is left uncut can be broken
with greatest ease if starting lifting from the front edge first.
e. Exit the wire via one corner only, you may shift the wedge to take the box weight off
this corner. Here again a thinner wire works easier. A little practice will help. The
method is most gentle on bees and most gentle on combs.
Extracting honey (this section will eventually
be linked to a page illustrating and describing four types of presses)
See page 115. Photos of extracting by crushing and draining. More honey is recovered
with a suitable press which can be a honey press, a fruit press a sausage stuffer (a
closed press) or an improvised press. For illustrations and descriptions of the various
presses, please see the page on pressing.The resulting wax cake
can be broken up and washed free of honey in water before allowing the wax to dry and
rendering it in a solar extractor.
Managing Varroa
Warré developed his hive long before the Varroa mite reached
France, so Beekeeping for All obviously offers no explicit Varroa control. His
'pioneering method' of artificial swarming (page 84) greatly reduces the Varroa population
and could be supplemented with a Varroa treatment while the swarm is still broodless. But
any treatment of a colony against Varroa merely hinders the long-term co-adaptation of bee
and mite. However, not treating could result in colony loss through Varroaosis and the
virus diseases which the mite spreads. For a beekeeper with one or two colonies this loss
could be intolerable. To treat or not to treat is thus a matter of personal choice. At the
time of writing this, most Warré beekeepers are not treating.
If treatment is given two of the more organic kinds used by Warré beekeepers in France
are thymol (e.g. ApiLifeVar) or flash formic acid. There is an extensive literature on
Varroa treatment on the Internet. A useful all round book on Varroa and treatment,
available in PDF, is Control
of Varroa -- A Guide for New Zealand Beekeepers by Goodwin & Eaton (MAF, NZ,
2001).
Wintering
Warré entrance piece or mouse
guard (page 54).
Adding accented characters to documents on Warré beekeeping
Last edited January 2010. This page will be added to as useful new material becomes available. Suggestions for improvements are welcome.