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!

You can’t get the honey out without killing the baby bees. And you can’t get the baby bees out without ruining the honey.

Not a good situation.

So how do you keep the baby bees out of the honey?

The best way to prevent baby bees (or brood) from getting in the honey is to keep the queen bee from laying eggs in the honey cells. That is simple enough…right? I mean, if you can keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey cells, then you fixed the problem.

That should be easy enough…

Well, sort of…

If you have a beehive with wax foundation and you put a new swarm into that beehive, the bees will often start to draw out honeycomb on several different frames at once.

They may start building comb in the upper hive box…and they may start building in the lower hive box. I have even seen them build comb in both boxes at once.

Baby bees in the honey? Hmm…

Is this a bad thing? No, but it can lead to baby bees in the honey. Here is why…

The queen bee always lays eggs in the newest and freshest honeycomb. That is just how honeybees do it. So, if you have a frame hive, the queen bee will find the new honeycomb and lay eggs in that honeycomb.

Often the bees will draw out comb in the upper hive boxes, and then start to put honey into that comb. At the same time, the queen bee will smell the new honeycomb and lay her eggs in it.

The result? Baby bees in the honey. Not the easiest to work with.

If you have a frame hive you can try to use a queen excluder to keep the queen bee towards the bottom of the hive. This does not always work. Furthermore, is a queen excluder really good for your beehive? The excluder forms a barrier in the hive. Such a barrier is not a natural feature in wild beehives. In natural hives, the queen bee is free to roam about the hive at will.

But, if the queen can go anywhere in the hive, won’t she lay eggs anywhere she chooses?

If you have a Top Bar Hive, the solution is simple!

In a top bar hive there is no foundation. The bees begin building honeycomb at the top of the hive box. They draw it down towards the floor of the hive. So, the older comb is always towards the top of the hive.

And the newer comb is towards the bottom of the hive. The picture on the right displays this building process.

Since the queen always lays eggs in the newest comb, the baby bees will always be towards the bottom of the hive.

And the all of your honey will be towards the top of the hive, since the honeybees prefer to put the honey into the older honeycomb.

If you take a look at the Cut Comb Honey Harvest post you will see how I harvest the top hive box from a Warre Hive. This box was completely full of honey. There were no baby bees at all, since all the brood was laid in the new comb in the bottom of the hive.

By the way, it is important to add hive boxes to the bottom of the bee hive so that the bees can always build comb downwards towards the floor. Since each box has a set of top bars, the comb is separated into sections the height of each hive box, making it easy for you to handle each box as a unit of honeycomb and honey.

So, in summary, when you use a top bar hive and let the honeybees build their own honeycomb without using wax foundation, you will hardly ever have baby bees in with the honey.

This translates to easier beekeeping for you, a more natural beehive for the bees, and a much more sustainable beekeeping experience since you don’t need to buy or use a metal or plastic queen excluder.

I like that. How about you?

First, I removed the roof and the quilt. This exposed the cloth that covers the top hive box. Then, I carefully peeled back the cloth on the top box, and took a look at the bees. They were happily attending to the honeycomb. I used my smoker to blow some smoke into the beehive to move the bees into the lower boxes. Then, I slowly twisted the top box in a circle to break the propolis bond the bees had put into place to seal the hive boxes together.

As I worked, I made sure I was gentle and calm around the honeybees, and I also tried to make my movements smooth and efficient. This goes far to help the bees to remain calm.

As I took off the top box, a cluster of honeybees gathered on the top bars of the next box to gather some of the honey which dripped from the honeycomb in the top hive box. You can see these bees at work in the photo below.

I needed to put the cloth back onto the hive, so I took my smoker and gently smoked the bees back into their hive. Unlike those misrepresentations of beekeepers in “The Bee Movie,” I do not routinely smoke my beehives to the point of annihilation. I prefer to use either no smoke at all, or a gentle spray of sugar water. Actually, this was the first time I used the smoker on this beehive all summer!

I gently replaced the cloth, and laid the quilt back on top of the hive. Then I replaced the hive roof. Now I could focus on how to get the bees out of the hive box and back into the main beehive. Even though I had used the smoker, there were still plenty of bees in the hive box.

Go on to the next page to continue the adventure!