Hi Nick,

1 question I have re: dealing with varroa mites- with Langs you have a sticky board so you can check on mites – I am wondering how you keep tabs of varroa mite with a Warre hive, and from what I am reading it seems as though one leaves it to nature and are not doing anything to get the mites to drop off the bees, onto a sticky board, etc. Is this correct? and how do you look out for mites and what do you suggest beekeeper w/Warre hive do to keep an eye on those pesky mites?

Many thanks!
Marika

You can get a sticky board and put it on the floor under your bottom hive box. Do a 24 hour test on your Warre Hive. Count your mite drop after that time is up. If you have less than 25-35 or even 40 mites, your hive is fine. David Heaf in Wales has reported mite counts higher on some of his healthy hives. Could it be that that the Warre Hive allows the bees to sustain higher mite loads without a problem? The jury is still out on that one…

If you have a high mite drop (55-65 mites or more) during the 24 hour period, you have two choices. You can leave the hive alone and hope it does alright on its own (which it may), or you can pursue a natural treatment of some sort.

You can try treating with essential oils like spearmint or lemongrass alone, or mix the essential oils with canola or vegetable oil. The theory is that the oils cover the bees and as they clean, they will spread the oils all over the beehive. Apparently the oils cause the mites to fall off, or as the bees clean themselves, they knock the mites off.

Many beekeepers have had good success with powdered sugar

I am also experimenting with essential oils for mite control. I have not encountered a bad mite problem in my hives yet, for which I am grateful! If I did need to treat for mites, I would probably use powdered sugar.

Many beekeepers have had good success with powdered sugar over the years. I know of several folks who swear by it, and it does seem to be a viable solution. Application is as follows: the beekeeper dusts the whole hive with a liberal application of powdered sugar. As the bees clean themselves, they remove the varroa mites as well.

On a last note, don’t just copy my example without researching the various treatments available. You need to make the choice for yourself. Be an informed beekeeper. Make decisions based on your own research, not just on hearsay. Be able to stand up and say why you do what you do.

With a little research into various treatments, and a little mite drop testing from time to time on your own hives, you will be able to develop your own Varroa Mite solution. Of course, you may be one of those lucky beekeepers who never has a problem with Varroa. You would be the envy of us all.

But, how can you feed your bees if the weather is too cold for them to leave the hive?

Emile Warre solved the problem in his book, “Beekeeping For All.” On page 62 he describes the Spring and Summer feeder. He states:

“To feed colonies that are short of stores in spring and summer, and to stimulate comb building in weak colonies, we have another feeder. It will hold 200 g syrup.”

Warre Hive Feeder Description:

• A. Float made of 9 mm wooden rods side by side for the bees to stand on while feeding
• B. Syrup Trough 20 mm deep. External dimensions: length 250 mm; width 150 mm..
• C. Drawer. This is holds the Trough and Float together.
• D. Feeder Surround having the external dimensions of a hive-body box and a height of 2 mm more than the frame in C.

Build the Warre Spring and Summer Feeder

This feeder is simple to build. It is just a (very) short hive stand with one end open so you can slide a feeder box with syrup under the beehive.

The feeder surround should be built to be 34 cm long by 30 cm wide. These are the external dimensions of the Warre Hive Box. Leave one end of the frame open as in the picture above.

The feeder drawer does not need to be complex. You can build a small box with a flat bottom and add some strips of wood inside the box for the bees to stand on. You can add a piece of wood to the front of the box as in the picture above…but this is optional.

The Warre Feeder is great for both spring and summer feeding

You can also add some small pieces of light wood to the trough. When filled with syrup, the wood will float and create a landing place for the honeybees.

Build this feeder, fill the trough with some syrup. Fill until the syrup almost covers the float, but not quite. The bees should be able to stand on the wood float to feed.

Now, slide the whole feeder assembly under your Warre beehive. Your bees can stay inside the hive in cold weather and feast on the food you provide.

To refill the syrup, simply slide the feeder drawer out from the surround, pour some more syrup into the trough and then put the feeder drawer back.

Your honeybees will thank you!

So, go check each beehive. You can heft each one to see if the beehive is the proper weight. If you think a beehive is too light, then you will want to give them something to eat.

If you are overwintering Warre Hives, each hive should weigh at least 26 pounds (12 kg). If you hive is lighter than that, you probably need to feed your beehives.

I don’t heft. I just feed all my beehives. I am a lazy smart beekeeper.

Here is what you should feed your bees:

• Feed your bees honey, if you have some. Just put it out in a dish, or bucket. Maybe add some sticks for the honeybees to stand on. When feeding honey, never use store bought honey! Store bought honey can contain contaminants and is often heat treated. Use your own honey or honey from a local beekeeper.
• If the weather has changed in your area, you can feed your honeybees some sugar water. Just mix about 1/3 sugar to 2/3 water. You can also feed about 1/2 water and 1/2 sugar if you want a stronger feed mix. Only feed sugar if spring has really sprung.

Just keep in mind that sugar water is not very healthy for your bees compared to honey. Also, do not feed sugar if it is still cold and wintery in your area. Doing so could cause dysentery.

I put out some of my own honey for my bees. They are really enjoying the tasty winter treat. You can see them buzzing their thanks in the video above.

P.S. Thanks to my friend Robin for some extra tips I used in this post!

We all want stuff for free. So what if you could build a bee hive for free? That’s right…no materials cost, no wood cost, no glue cost. Free.

Free Beehives?

Would you do it?

Here is the basic idea…

Just build two hives and sell one.

All you have to do is this:

When you cut a piece of wood, cut one extra.

When you glue one side, glue one extra.

When you nail a board, nail one extra.

When you finish your Warre beehive, you will have one extra!

Then, sell it for whatever you feel is a fair value.

You could sell on Craig’s List. Or eBay. Or to your next door neighbor.

In the end, you will cover your hive costs.

Who knows, you might even make some money!

If you do this, let me know how it goes…I would love to hear from you!

We’re pretty much beginners, our third try at keeping bees.  We have learned from our mistakes, but our latest hive has just succumbed to raiders after being so promising. We had a healthy hive as far as we could tell and had added two honey supers and were looking forward to harvesting one after opening the top one and finding it almost completely full.

We noticed frenzied activity

Yesterday evening we noticed frenzied activity around the entrance and upon closer examination it became apparent the hive was being raided by other smaller, darker bees.  We do not know how long this had been going on.  I tried driving away the raiders with a smoker then a garden hose, but the raiding continued till dark.  After browsing a little, I found a source that said close the hive entrance to about a 1/2 inch opening–it had been wide open to facilitate ventilation.  What causes raiding ? How can it be prevented or thwarted if it is discovered ‘in time’?  Our hive is now totally emptied out, stripped bare–both supers and brood box……..We are stunned.

Ouch.  Hive robbing is never good. From the sound of it, Fred’s beehives were being robbed by feral, or wild, bees.  Scout bees from a feral swarm probably smelled the large amounts of honey inside the hive.  They probably found that the beehive had a weak defense and they were able to slip into Fred’s beehive quickly, grab some honey and get out.  The scout bees would have gone back to the main colony and reported to the other bees where to find the honey.  Soon, all of the feral foraging bees were robbing from Fred’s beehive.  Robbing can get so bad that the bee colony being robbed will abscond, which is apparently what Fred’s did.

How can you prevent hive robbing?  Reducing the entrance does help.  This assists the honeybees in defending their home by giving them a smaller space to guard.  However, the best defense against hive robbing is a strong hive.  The healthier and stronger your beehive is, the better it can defend itself.  Also, make sure that your bees have plenty of forage.  If your beehives are in an area with few flowering plants, move them to a better location.

Try to remove the robbing beehive

Once hive robbing starts, there is really no way to stop it except to eliminate the robbing hive. You must follow the robber bees back to their hive and find a way remove them to another location for a few days.  If the robbing bees are from another beehive, try to move the beehive at least two miles away.  Move the beehive at night so that you are sure to get all the honeybees inside the beehive.  If the robbing hive is a feral colony, you can remove them from their location and install them into a new beehive.  Then, move them at least two miles away.  After a couple of days, move them back to see if this stops the robbing.

Often moving the beehive will take care of the problem.  But sometimes a bee colony is a chronic robber colony and nothing can be done to stop this beehive from robbing other hives.  In this case it is up to the beekeeper to decide if he should re-queen the hive.  Some beekeepers will even kill a robbing hive, seeing that robbing can spread throughout an apiary with each bee colony following the bad example of the others.  While these can be drastic measures to take, they might be the only way to save your beehives.

Build strong beehives!

In summary, the best way to protect your beehives from robber bees is to build them up strong in the spring and summer, reduce their hive entrance in the late summer and early fall, and to check your beehives on a regular basis.

One of my beehives was going crazy

Talk about unsettling! Two days ago I looked out of the window and saw one of my beehives going crazy.  I instinctively thought, “Oh no, they are going to swarm!”  Then I remembered I had just added another hive box, so there was plenty of room for them to build more comb.  What was going on?

I ran out to the hive and looked at the bees buzzing around the entrance.  I could see that some of the bees were fanning, which means only one thing…The Hive Is Being Disturbed!  Sure enough, at that moment I saw something yellow streak into the mass of bees at the hive entrance and grab a bee.  It was a yellow jacket.  There were yellow jackets attacking the beehive and eating honeybees!

A Yellow Jacket (Genus Vespula) - Source: Wikipedia

The honeybees fought back bravely. I saw two or three bees attacking one yellow jacket.  They rolled around on the ground in a ball, trying to sting each other…a battle to the death.  Then, another yellow jacket joined the fight and started to sting the honeybees.  Sadly, it was all over for the honeybees in that skirmish.  Two yellow jackets against two honeybees is certain death for the bees.   But, in this case it was also curtains for the yellow jackets.  I squished them with my boots. For the next five minutes, I stomped on yellow jackets.   I must have killed twenty or more.  The dying yellow jackets emit a scent which draws other yellow jackets to the fray.  I had a regular stompfest there in front of my beehive.

After a while, the beehive settled down, and peace once again reigned in the kingdom of Apis.  The bees returned to gathering nectar and pollen and I returned to my other tasks of the day.   Since then, I have been watching my hives more closely than before…still wary of the lurking yellow predators who want to eat my bees.

He was astonished to see a lot of bees flying

The owner informed me that he had let his RV sit for over two years.  He was just now getting ready to sell it.  The owner had not noticed anything out of the ordinary when he was inside the RV, but when he went to the back to check on something…he was astonished to see a lot of bees flying in and out through a keyhole in a cubbyhole door.  So, he gave me a call.  When I got there, I went around back of the RV and opened the door to the cubbyhole. (I put on my bee suit first!)  Sure enough, they had built a nest right inside the cupboard.

The honeybees had only built 7 or 8 combs, and the combs were only about 8 inches from top to bottom, so I knew that the bees had not been in the cubbyhole very long…most likely less than a couple of weeks.  From the looks of the nest, I could tell it was probably a small swarm to begin with.

Using my Owens Bee Vac, I gently vacuumed the bees off the combs.  By the way, I highly recommend the Owens Bee Vac.  You can get one from the good folks at Brushy Mountain Bee Farms.  After vacuuming off the bees, I detached the combs from the top of the cupboard and laid them aside.  I wanted to keep them since they were full of larvae and baby bees.

After a bit, all the comb was laid out, and the bees were in my bee vac.  I scraped the inside of the cupboard with my hive tool to remove any beeswax that was left.  Then I packed up my tools, put the comb in a bucket, and drove home.

At home, I took a Warre hive box and removed some of the top bars.  I have them tacked down with very small nails so they are easy to remove.  I took some rubber bands and attached the comb to the top bars by stretching the bands around the comb and the top bars.  The bees will affix the honeycomb to the top bars with wax.  Then they will chew the rubber bands apart and throw them out the hive entrance.

A river of bees ran into the hive

After I set up the Warre hive, I layed a board onto the hive entrance.  Then I dumped all the bees from the bee vac onto the board.  It was amazing.  The bees literally ran up the board into the hive.  They smelled their own wax and baby bees and ran towards the smell.  They formed what looked like a river of bees flowing up into the hive.  It was pretty neat.

I will probably need to feed this new hive with some honey to get them through the winter.  Their stores need to be around 20-25 pounds of honey and pollen in order to survive the Oregon winters.  I checked them just today, and they are happily pulling in pollen and nectar…a good sign that the queen is alive and well.  It looks like the honeybees are happily adjusting to their new home.

Listening to Your Bees

by Peter Dight

I believe the hiss is a warning…

I’ve a reasonable library of beekeeping books, and a couple of years ago I was reading an old book which mentioned listening to your bees to see if they are going to swarm.  It told of how a queenright colony, when their hive is sharply tapped upon, will react by ‘hissing’.  I believe the hiss is the bee equivalent to a warning signal, generated by a section of the population fluttering its wings in response to the vibration caused by the tap.

If the colony is making swarm preparations, weeks before a queen cell is drawn the queen will be slowing down her laying rate as she becomes exhausted or as the bees, sensing a drop in queen pheromone, start withdrawing food for the queen.  Thus the emerging young bees have fewer larva to feed when they emerge as nurse bees.  This surfeit of nurse bees, as yet not fully developed in their first 10 days since hatching from the comb, are milling around in the hive with little or nothing to do.  Now, when we tap a hive in this state, the normal hiss starts, and the idle nurse bees react by imitating the response, but their underdeveloped wings and/or inexperience cause the resulting sound to differ noticeably.

A longer hiss may indicate a swarm

So, on tapping a colony, if you get a short sharp hiss it will be queenright, while if you get a longer deeper toned attack followed by a sustained decay, which resembles a wave more than a hiss, then you are likely to be facing a swarm soon.  This can be noted some two weeks before the first queen cells are drawn and can cut the number of intrusive manipulations required for swarm control, and save a lot of time if you have a quantity of hives.

When I read about this and asked other beekeepers I was laughed at, and still am when I ask some beekeepers.  I tried it the next season after learning about it and after months of noting no difference in the hiss’s I heard, one day noted an easily recognizable difference; and yes, a week later queen cells were starting to be drawn.

Since then I discovered a 1950-60 invention called the Apidictor, and if you know of a beekeeper with electronic and audio design background, you may try to get them interested in building one for you.

End of Article

Hive tapping does work…I tried it

As soon as I read this article I went out to my hives and started tapping them to hear how they were doing.  Sure enough, they responded exactly as Peter wrote that they would.  I also did some research and found a schematic for the ” Apidictor” at Beesource.com. There I learned that one E. F. Woods created a device which was able to electronically isolate the key “swarm” sounds…the sounds which could indicate to a beekeeper a possible swarm in the future.

So, try it out…listen to your bees.  Who knows, we may yet learn something from nature!

Thanks to Peter Dight for letting me share this article!

Welcome to the Warre Hive Construction Guide brought to you by The Bee Space.  In this guide you will learn how to build a complete Warre beehive.  A Warre (pronounced war-ray) hive is a vertical  or supered top bar hive that is simple to build and easy to use.  The hive management methods of the Warre hive are quick and few, thus it is a suitable beehive for urban and backyard beekeepers.

Description

The Warre hive is smaller than a regular ten frame Langstroth hive so it consumes less energy and resources than a regular hive.   The cost per beehive for all new materials is around $50-$75 US depending on what type of wood is used.  It takes around 2-3 hours to build a complete Warre hive…definitely a nice weekend project.

Disclaimer

Before we begin, I need you to understand that building a Warre Hive involves potentially dangerous activities such as using hammers and saws. Therefore, you use the information in this guide and on this site completely and entirely at your own risk. Be sure to read the Site Policies and the Terms of Use before using this construction guide.

Outline

Let’s begin with an outline of the Warre Hive Construction Guide.  Each title is also a link to the respective section.

1. Introduction
2. Tool List
3. Materials List
4. Construction Tips
5. The Quilt
6. The Floor
7. The Hive Box
8. The Roof
9. Finishing the Warre Hive
10. Installing the Warre Hive

As I post each section, I will place a quick link in the right sidebar so it is easy for you to find.  Also, just to let you know, you can click on any picture in the construction guide and view a larger version in your web browser.  Now onwards to the Tool List for some tools you may need to build a Warre Hive.

Go on to the Tool List →