My First Learnings with the Warre Hive
1) Before introducing a package or a swarm into one box it is beneficial to have marked the position of the top bars if they are not nailed in place. With all the bees crawling around and mainly upwards it was not easy to put the top bars in the appropriate position. I chose not to nail them in order to make room for the bees to drop on the bottom board.
2) When a swarm or a package is introduced in two boxes I will nail the top bars of the lower (2nd) box in future. The dropping bees totally misplaced all of the topbars of the lower box.
3) The main amount of moisture of the hive does not originate from the sugar syrup. Condensation water was formed above the quilt and was dropping back on the quilt whether the hive was fed or not. I saw straw get moldy in the quilt after 14 days only. However, no mold was found in a quilt filled with (fir)wood shavings although the top half inch was wet.
4) The most effective measure to minimize condensation water is to insulate the board that sits on the quilt. This board is part of the roof so the insulation goes between this board and the rooof boards. Since I put the insulation (I used a glass fiber patch with paper towards the quilt) the shavings are considarable less moist if moist at all.
5) My standard hive stand are two H-cement blocks (8×8x16″). Willie had the glorious idea to set the blocks so far appart that the hive sits on the inside edges of the blocks only. That leaves a big space underneath the hive to introduce a bigger mirror for observation.
My Warre finally got started!
Last week it finally happened. I caught my first swarm from one of my hives. It was extremely easy: the bees just crawled up the wall and clustered underneath the roof. I collected them in my swarm box and introduced them into the Warre hive with two boxes.
Swarms are notorious for fast build up so lets see how long it takes them to fill the first two boxes… At a clients apiary I have seen that a swarm in had built as much combs in two week what the package bees took seven weeks to build.
The adventure of Warre Beekeeping in the Pacific Northwest
My own Warre hive is still empty, waiting for a swarm to inhabit it. But I have started 9 Warre hives with packages between April 25th and 28th 2010 for several clients of mine.
I would love to share my observations and experiences with all of you guys out there operating one or more Warre hives in the Pacific Northwest.
To check out all details on our version of a Warre hive click on “Warre beekeeping” at the botom of the page
This Website
To get an overview click about or scroll down to the bottom of this page.
Special Class about Natural Beekeeping coming up
A special class is scheduled for Thursday April 8th 2010. For details click classes.
Raw Honey and Bee Pollen from the Bald Hills for sale
Bee Forever Apiary Honey Label
Our Wildflower Honey
Bee Forever Apiary operates in the Bald Hill area near Yelm, WA. This area is very rural and unpolluted.
Enjoy our pure and unprocessed raw wildflower honey. No heating is applied during the extraction and bottling process and therefore, all the valuable ingredients like enzymes remain intact. The water content is below 17%, so the honey can be stored for a long period of time in a cool, dry and dark place. Eventually the honey will crystallize into a fine creamy texture that maintains its full quality. If you prefer the honey to be liquid simply heat the jar in a water bath with max. temperature of 110F.
1 quart glass jar contains 3 lbs of honey. Price $15.00
More general information about honey see this page: Honey Info
Bee Forever Apiary Bee Pollen Label
Our Air-dried Pollen
Bee Pollen from the Bald Hills area are delicious. Rich in proteins, essential amino acids, vitamines, and trace minerals bee pollen is a very valuable food supplement. Every flower has its distinct pollen color and characteristics. The more variety in colors the more valuable the pollen is. in cool and dark place our air-dried pollen can be stored for one year.
1 quart glass jar contains 1.25 lbs of bee pollen. Price $20.00
1 ziploc bag contains 1 lb of bee pollen. Price $15.00
For more information about bee pollen see this page:Pollen Info
Straw Skep capable of being dismantled: This is how I got started in Beekeeping
This is the way I got started in beekeeping 10 years ago. In a 2 day seminar in Switzerland we built this skep out of Rye straw and prefabricated wooden parts. It is totally capable of being dismantled and every frame can be inspected individually, as requested by law.
The pictures are showing a fully covered basket, a top view and a view from underneath without baskets. The frames are standing individually on the board that divides the skep and can be removed for inspection.
Meanwhile I live in the Great Pacific Northwest and I have changed to standard bee hives.
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