Warré plans Groups / Fora Google e-group Abbé Warré's book |
Warré Beekeeping |
Original site:
warre.biobees.com These pages are dedicated to beekeeping using the hive developed by Abbé Émile Warré (1867-1951) and any of its modifications. Responding to the obvious decline in beekeeping in France since his youth, Warré experimented with some 350 hives of various designs with the aim of producing a hive that was simple, economical, bee-friendly and assured a surplus for the beekeeper. The result was his People's Hive (Ruche Populaire) whose construction and operation he described in his book Beekeeping For All (L' Apiculture Pour Tous, 12th edition)1. Warré's hive comprises tiers of identical boxes fitted with top-bars, but no frames. Its essential design and usage features can be summarised as follows:
An important feature of Warré's method is that the hive need be opened, in the strict sense, only once a year, namely at harvest. The addition of boxes underneath (nadiring) in spring and later in the season does not constitute opening the hive in the sense that its heat and atmosphere is let out. The importance of the retention of nest scent and heat (Nestduftwärmebindung) for bee health and productivity was discussed by Johann Thür in his book Beekeeping: natural, simple and successful (1946) which also presents Abbé Christ's (1739-1813) hive that is almost identical in concept to Warré's. No frames Even in early editions of Beekeeping For All, Warré advised against using frames as shown in the 5th edition:
This web site is premised on the 12th edition of Beekeeping For All which describes the top-bar version of his hive only. But, for the sake of completeness, we provide a translation of the pages of the 5th edition describing the two versions of his hive with frames, the latter having no bottom-bars.3 On a separate page devoted to frames, we list Warré's objections to them and compare his frame dimensions with those of two Warré hives currently used with frames. Present day beekeeping with the Warré hive The geographical focus of Warré beekeeping is France and the hive was also initially used in Belgium and Switzerland. The first in use in Germany and Russia were populated in 2006. An experiment was started with six modified Warré hives in Wales, UK, in 2007. In 2008, beekeepers in Canada, USA (including Alaska) and Spain made Warré hives in readiness for spring 2008. By late 2009, Warré beekeepers were also known in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden and Uruguay. English, French and German sites and fora of Warré beekeepers and hive manufacturers can be reached via the 'Links' page. An English language e-group for Warré beekeeping can be joined via https://groups.google.com/g/warrebeekeeping There is Warré beekeeping thread in the forum at Top Bar Beekeeping with the Barefoot Beekeeper (www.biobees.com/forum/). Plans for constructing an authentic Warré hive. Complete newcomer to beekeeping? Please read our page of advice for complete beginners. Variants of the Warré hive In France the Warré hive is variously referred to as Ruche Populaire, Ruch Warré, Ruche Écologique, Ruche Climatstable and Ruche Française. Many modifications have been introduced, some of which depart in varying degrees from Warré's intentions of simplicity, economy and bee-friendliness. However, some of the modifications may eventually prove to be necessary, for instance in climates other than that of France, or in areas where legislation requires combs to be easily movable. We therefore offer descriptions of these variants in separate pages accessible via the links below: Roger Delon's Stable-Climate Hive (Ruche
Climatstable)
Left: 'Exploded' view of a Warré hive. The top-bar
cloth here is coarsely woven hessian. Notes 1) Beekeeping For All by Abbé Émile
Warré is translated into English from the 12th edition of L' Apiculture Pour Tous
which is dated 1948. For details of this book and e-book click here.
2) Translated from page 46 of L' Apiculture Pour Tous - Manuel-Guide Des Fixistes Et Des Mobilistes (Beekeeping For All - A manual for fixed comb and mobile frame beekeepers) by Abbé Warré, Bureau du 'Travail au Grand Air', 17 Rue Littré, 17 Tours, France, 5th edition, 1923. Downoad PDF of scan/OCR of 5th edition in French. 3) English translation of pages 60-71 of L' Apiculture Pour Tous - Manuel-Guide Des Fixistes Et Des Mobilistes (Beekeeping For All - A manual for fixed comb and mobile frame beekeepers) by Abbé Warré, Bureau du 'Travail au Grand Air', 17 Rue Littré, 17 Tours, France, 5th edition, 1923. Download PDF.
These Warré pages are authored by David Heaf who is based in North Wales, UK. We thank Phil Chandler for offering space for these pages on his site biobees.com. Copy-editing by Cleartext. See also www.bee-friendly.co.uk for more pages on running Warré hives. |