Warre' Hive Beekeeping

In the spring of 2009 we installed our first Warre hive at Bjorn Apiaries. The following is an assessment of our experiences to this point.

We built and installed a Warre hive, to learn from some of the principles and observations made by Abbe' Emile Warre' (D-1951). In reading some of his observations, there seems to be many good ideas in regards to stress, heat retention, comb building, under supering, and so on. Many of which we already utilize in our own operation with other hives.

We made the Warre hive exactly as his protocol stated, with a few modifications such as the observation windows. Throughout the year, the bees built up seemingly fast, and had little problems from what we could see. The following are some of the our observations:

Advantages:

The comb is naturally drawn in a Warre hive. We love this concept and management strategy, and actually use natural (foundationless) comb in TBH (Top Bar Hives), standard hives, as well as other type hives.
Moisture thus far does not seem to be a problem. Warre hives use a "quilt" and a box of wood shavings for moisture absorption. This does seem to be very effective.
Under supering seems to promote good brood growth as the bees initially used the upper box and grew the chamber larger only when the dynamics of the hive allowed. Early spring buildup seems very strong. (*We do think that supering in a standard hive may interrupt the heat retained and utilized by the bees in spring brood buildup.)

Disadvantages:

There is no readily available supply for Warre hives. So if you want one, you probably need to build it.
As per the Warre protocol, opening the hive is done as little as possible. The comb is built using top bars and then the comb extends down to the top of the bars of the next box that is placed below. Making removing combs for inspection without serious damage almost impossible. The smaller sized box used with Warre hives, makes comb attachment on all sides and bottom a given. The quilt will also be glued very well to the top of the bars.
After 2 or 3 boxes, further under supering becomes a real effort due to the weight of the hive. You must actually pick the entire hive up to place the new box under the hive. All boxes are added with new top bars where new comb will be drawn.
We found that the best way to separate the boxes, is to use a piano wire, and pull it through the top box (between the boxes), slicing the comb along the top of the box positioned below. This presents a risk of killing bees that are be in the way of the slicing string, and possibly may include the queen.
There seemed to be a good amount of clustering outside the hive all summer. It seemed that as much as heat retention was positive in Warre's observations, that there may also be a lack of air circulation in the summer time.
This type beekeeping requires (as per Warre protocol) very little interaction from the beekeeper. Except for under-supering and taking off the honey at the end of the year, it would be very destructive and disruptive to open the hive on a regular basis. Warre advised against this, for reasons of stress, loss of retained heat, etc. But lets just call it what it is... a real problem inspecting comb or your hive.

Bjorn Apiaries promotes "Best Beekeeper" practices, in regards to beekeeping within the communities that we operate. Part of those practices include swarm control. A Warre hive is not conducive to knowing if your bees are building swarm cells. We believe we did have our Warre hive swarm this year. Some will suggest that a Warre hive will actually stop all swarming. We do not think that. It may lessen the swarming urge by always providing open space below the brood chamber by constant swarming, but how is one to tell when opening up the hive is nearly impossible.

Bjorn Apiaries also tries it's best to control genetic selection. Warre hive beekeeping makes this very hard to accomplish. Not knowing if the bees have swarmed, not being able remove each comb to find the queen, and not being able to take advantage of requeening, all making Warre hive beekeeping questionable in our opinion.

We love the Warre hive for what it can teach. Warre had many good observations and ideas. But he also lived in a time without small hive beetles, trachea mites, varroa mites, and a host of other bacterial and viral problems. Chemical and pesticide use may also be more of a concern today. A "hand off" approach that Warre promoted 75 years ago, may not be the best approach in today's environment

But that does not mean that we can not learn from Warre. Such ideas as lowering stress within the hive, understanding heat retention and benefits, under supering to help lower swarming impulses, and other ideas are well worth understanding. Many of these concept can be used in other type hives.

Two attendees of the annual picnic check out the Warre hive

At the same time, allowing inspections, showing your hive to new beekeepers, inspecting frames, and learning from more than observing the front door to hive, are all lost for the most part with Warre hive beekeeping. It is not for everyone.

We are not out to promote or come out against Warre hive beekeeping. It is something to learn from. And we are hoping to pass along our observations without any agenda, or bias. We will continue to learn from our Warre hive, and have plans to add more. They are unique, interesting, and you can learn much from them. If you want to drop by and check a Warre hive out, please contact us.

***Please do an internet search for plans, and other information for Warre hive beekeeping if you are interested. We will not link other sites, as many of them make very wild claims and some sites are used solely for promotion of Warre hive beekeeping, while denigrating other types of beekeeping. Something we are strongly against.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We hope this was helpful.