#16 Bees on the Homestead
Teresa is at it building Bee Hives. This year she is building the “People’s Hive” the Warer Hive.
Émile Warré was a French priest and beekeeper who
published several books and invented the Warré Hive,
also known as the People’s Hive. – Source Wikipedia
Why build this type of hive?
- Cheep Cost of Build
- Great for out of the way locations
- Langstroth Hives are Heavy
- Little or No Inspection
- Little or no Maintenance
- Little to no Chemicals Used
- Mimics a Tree
- More resistant to Varroa Mites
- My Wife can manage these frames
- No Foundations Needed / No Frames
- Produce 10# to 60# of Honey in a season
- Simple Build
- Small foot print
- Smaller Colony of Bees
One of Teresa’s finished Warre Hives. This will be painted.
Four hive boxes will get added over time.
It will grow taller. Five frames or hive boxes total. Some people go up to seven hive boxes. Id ratchet strap these down to keep them from falling over. 4 or 5 boxes high will be les tippy. Teresa will leave the bottom two or three frames for over winter honey.
Teresa has built two starter Warre Bee Boxes for this year. She will add about four or five more hive boxes later. It will be much taller by the end of the season.
Price to make two (2X) starter boxes = $60.00
The center “quilt” square will get screening stapled to it and burlap added above it. This “quilt” square gets filled with sawdust in the winter for insulation.
More Photos in Updated ‘Rockbottom Survival Skills” the book: coming out this fall
with dimensions and step by step.
5/16/2023
The First Round of bees (Saskatraz Bees) is in the Warre Hive. Second Nuc will be here soon. I’ll post more photos later. The bees were supposed to come from California. Bad year for everything in California. These came from KY.
Saskatraz Bees
Also, bees got moved to a more secluded, shaded in the summer, protected, and less visible site this year.
It will keep them warmer in the winter. Bees can range up to five miles to forage.
5-17-2023
The Next batch (Carniolan honey bees) of Bees arrived. It is going to be cold tonight. Frost in the area. This second batch will go in tomorrow with warmer weather.
The cold bees from the first batch will protect the queen.
“The Carniolan honey bee is a subspecies of the Western honey bee, that has naturalized and adapted to the Kočevje (Gottschee) sub-region of Carniola (Slovenia), the southern part of the Austrian Alps, Dinarides region, southern Pannonian plain and the northern Balkans.”
-Wikipedia
Bee Keepers rate these as a great choice behind the Italian Honey Bee.
Yesterdays Bees
This is what cold bees look like. The Saskatraz Bees. They are not Dead just slow. It will be 60 degrees tomorrow. 70’s the rest of the week.
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