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The
Warre Hive |
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Another
great alternative (Photo of Warre hive © Nick Hampshire) |
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© 2010 by National Lilac Publishing, LLC
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Some beekeepers feel the Warre hive is almost as simple, or even more so, than the LINK horizontal top bar hive. This hive is named after Emile Warré who invented it in France in the early 20th century. It's also sometimes called the "vertical top bar hive." It's bottomless and also uses bars like the horizontal top-bar hive does for the bees to build their comb. Advantages of the Warre Hive But it's different than the horizontal top-bar hive in that several boxes with bars are stacked vertically, as you can see in the photo above, and the comb is built vertically. Though from a distance it can somewhat resemble a Langstroth hive to the (extremely) untrained eye, it is actually smaller and lighter than conventional hives. Warre hives are kept fresh and clean by adding new boxes to the bottom, usually in spring, and removing honey-filled boxes each fall. (Langstroth hives can get very dirty.) The Warre hive is considered a type of hive bees enjoy living in, allowing them to follow more of their natural instincts. And, it's much more of a hands-off method for beekeeping compared to conventional hives. Like the horizontal top bar hive, a Warre hive is easy to build yourself with simple materials and is great for natural beekeeping.
Opinion of Beekeeper who Instructs on the Warre Hive: Nick Hampshire, who provided the Warre hive photo for this article and who is author of the LINK: "Garden Hive Construction Guide," http://diybeehive.com/?hop=lilacbook which we've affiliated with, lives in Gaston, Oregon. He is familiar with all types of hives and their differences. He likes the Warre hive for a number of reasons, and I'll let him share their differences and his preferences in his own words. "In the case of the horizontal top bar hive, the whole brood chamber extends horizontally and no comb is built up or down from the lateral line determined by the horizontal top bar roof. In the case of the vertical top bar (Warre), boxes are added to the top or the bottom of the stack to create more hive space as needed. This allows for infinite hive space. So, really, the only difference is in the orientation. One is horizontal and the other is vertical." More Warre Hive Advantages Nick continues with the advantages he sees to the Warre hive. "There a lot of advantages to a vertical brood nest, one of the best being increased hive warmth during winter. The vertical orientation allows the bees to cluster in a tight huddle, whereas the horizontal top bar is often more spread out and the hive huddle is not as tight. Also, any of the modules are replaceable at any time. If a horizontal top bar develops rot or mildew, you have to replace almost the whole hive since it is not modular." Nick feels bees prefer the vertical orientation as well. "Bees normally prefer vertical hive spaces for their living quarters. Of course, this is a generality... as many beehives can be found in horizontal and even slanted hive spaces. But as a rule of thumb, their preferred living quarters are vertically tending spaces." Free and Updated Warre Beehive Construction Plans: Here are free old English plans for Warre hive construction. For a modern, updated guide on Warre beehive construction and usage, Nick (who started out with the old English plans) has refined the design and now offers The Garden Hive Construction Guide which contains:
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Mr.
Warré put much into the development of this hive. He wanted
to create something economical, simple and bee-friendly that all
people could succeed with, and therefore, his hive was sometimes
called the People's Hive. But it has been noted that very similar
hives appear to have been independently created in other areas of
the world, including Germany and Japan.