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.

Bee me up, Scotty!

Do you want a crash course in Natural Beekeeping? No, it won’t hurt a bit. (Unlike the bee sting I got last week.) The best way to learn about natural beekeeping is…

(insert drumroll) Use the Force! No, just kidding. There is a better way.

The best way to learn about natural beekeeping is to read and do. Read all you can about it. Read online, read books, and read articles. Then go out and put into practice what you have been learning.

To help you, I have compiled my favorite beekeeping articles into a Natural Beekeeping Article Pack. You can download it here: Natural Beekeeping.

What will you find in this collection?

Nothing but articles on natural beekeeping and the Warre Hive that I have found to be thought provoking and meaningful. Articles that will help you get a better understanding of such things as:

• Minimal Intrusion Beekeeping
• The Principle of Nest Scent and Heat Retention
• Wild bee colonies that have naturally survived varroa mites
• Tips and techniques for natural and sustainable beekeeping
• Even a guide for making your own wax starter strips for the top bars
  in your beehive

I have compiled all the best articles into a handy ZIP file. You can download it here: http://warrebeekeeping.com on the natural beekeeping page.

Don’t stop there! Keep reading online, check out books at your local library and browse through great beekeeping sites like http://biobees.com. Always have an open mind ready to learn more about the hive and the honeybee. The more you read, the more you will know.

And every time you have learned something new about natural beekeeping, go out and practice what you have learned. There is no better teacher than personal experience.

As Yoda might say: It is the true beekeeper who knows that the more he learns, the more he discovers how much he has left to learn.

Happy Beekeeping, and may the Force of Learning Be With You!

Disclamer: Nick Winters is neither a Star Wars fan nor a Trekkie. He just thinks it is fun to allude to pop culture now and then.

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!

Ever since this blog was started, many of you have been asking a lot of great questions. Questions about backyard beekeeping, the Warre Top Bar Hive, how to keep bees naturally…the list goes on!

(By the way, if you have a beekeeping question, checkout the Beekeeping Forums. Those guy’s are awesome!)

After a while, I realized that I was being asked a lot of the same questions over and over. Which is good! It means that you are thinking about how to keep bees in a sustainable manner. I like that! The bees like it too!

So, in order to answer your questions in a better fashion, I packaged a lot of the most common questions in a free Quick Start Guide to Natural Beekeeping.

I need your help to make this Quick Start Guide better. Go grab a copy at http://diybeehive.com and read it. Then, post your thoughts about it in the comment area below.

How did you like it? Did it answer some of your questions? Do I need to expand it in certain areas? Do you think it is helpful?

The more feedback you leave, the more often I can update the Quick Start Guide according to your wishes…and as a thank you I will send you a fresh copy of the Guide every time it is updated.

So, download your copy right now, then come back and tell me what you think!

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!

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?

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 moving!

I have been working on a new project that will benefit you if you are interested in backyard and beginning beekeeping!

It has taken longer than I thought, but this new project will be ready very soon.

Part of the project is that The Bee Space will become part of another, larger site dedicated entirely to the Warre style of Top Bar Hive Beekeeping!

You will have access to more Top Bar Beekeeping information and resources, but in a better and easier to use format.

So, subscribe to my feed right now. You don’t want to be left in the dark when things change around here!

If you have ever wondered what to get a beekeeper for Christmas, wonder no longer! Here are some gifts that any beekeeper would give his/her best bee suit to receive. Well, maybe not a bee suit, but you get my point.

Without further fanfare, here is a beekeeper’s wish list:

New Beekeeping Hat

I don’t know of a single beekeeper who wouldn’t like this new bamboo beekeeping hat with veil. A bamboo hat is sturdy, yet cool in the summer. The veil is a white fabric so the it is easy to see through. Besides, it just looks nice, doesn’t it? $19.95US at GloryBee Inc.

Flavored Honey Sticks

I love honey sticks. They are so tasty. Each stick is filled with quality honey that has been flavored with natural flavorings such as raspberry, strawberry, root beer…etc. These honey sticks from GloryBee Inc are USDA certified organic and are even kosher to boot! Yum!

A Real Bee Skep

Most everyone keeps bees in wooden boxes these days, but our ancestors used skeps. A skep is basically an inverted basket used as a beehive. While skeps are illegal to use as beehives in most places, they are perfect as a conversation piece for a beekeeper’s living room, empty of bees of course! $22.95US at Brushy Mountain.

Honeybees for a Needy Family

The best gift on this list is the Gift of Bees from Heifer International. With this gift you can help Heifer provide a family with some honeybees, a beehive and training in beekeeping. This is a life changing gift for those who receive it.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!