Showing posts with label Warre beekeeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warre beekeeping. Show all posts

April 17, 2016

Bait Hive

I've been mulling over the idea of a swarm bait hive for awhile now. I hadn't seen many honeybees around our place until we got ours, but I know they're out there. With Honeysuckle Hive now vacant, I seem to have no excuse not to try. After all, if I do nothing I can expect nothing. It's my old "something is better than nothing," and who knows? I may be successful.

Honeysuckle Bait Hive

It's not the perfect set-up, but it does meet quite a few honeybee qualifications. Studies have been done on this subject, plus almost every beekeeper who sets out bait hives has valuable experience from which to learn. Bees do have preferences about potential homes. Scout bees will go out, preview the options, and choose the one best suited for the swarm.

There are no hard and fast rules about this, but in general they are said to prefer:
  • Height of 8 to 12 feet. (Some say as low as 6 feet or as high as 15 feet). Set on the stump mine is only 5 feet off the ground, but I don't see how I can get it any higher at present. I can't see me carrying it up a ladder or hoisting up a tree; and then bringing it back down again after dark! Then I read Pioneer Preppy's "Swarm Traps" post and learned that he's been able to catch swarms without the height, so that was the green light for me to give this a go. 
  • Visibility. If the scout bees can't see it, they won't know to consider it. Some say this is the reason for the height placement, since bees don't fly along the ground but rather up in the air. I would say mine is highly visible as it rather stands out in the yard.
  • Volume of approximately 40 liters, which is roughly 9 point something US dry gallons. One Warré box is roughly the size of one of those square cardboard boxes that are used to ship four gallon jugs of milk, although a little shorter. For a Warré bait hive, two boxes are recommended as being close enough. Also recommended is placing top bars in the top box only. Top bars in both boxes will give the impression of smaller volume, and apparently, scout bees actually do measure the space.
  • South or east facing. Got that.
  • Near a water source. This is near our outdoor faucet which is used several times a day for watering critters. I've seen bees collecting water dripped on plants and in the mouth of the faucet.
  • Some shade. Besides height, this is my other concern. Sun hits the hive at about 8:30 in the morning and shade returns about 5 p.m. That means the hive is in full sun during the heat of the day, which I hope is not a deterrent. 
  • Correct scent. For this, lemongrass essential oil is recommended because it is similar to the pheromones the queen emits. I use this in my homemade honey-b-healthy, so I was good to go there. 
  • Previous occupation by honeybees. This probably contributes to correct scent. I read that apparently they like to find the dark, used comb, also propolis. This is where my old comb from Honeysuckle came in. Because there was evidence of wax moths in that comb, I stuck in in my deep freezer for 24 hours. This is said to kill any eggs, or larvae, or whatever.
  • 300 meters from parent hive. My apiary is only on the other side of the house, but I'm not expecting my new colonies to swarm this year. So I think I'm okay on this requirement as well. 

Of course there are exceptions to each of these "rules," so maybe my points of noncompliance won't matter to a swarm of honeybees in need of a new home. According to our cooperative extension service, swarm season in my neck of the woods is May and June. I'm ready.

Lastly, a few links of interest:

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March 28, 2016

Honeybees! (Here at Last)

After one week's delay, bee day finally arrived: overcast, cool, and lightly rainy. This time, I called ahead to make sure they were ready for pick up. I brought two packages home.


Last year I was excited and nervous, so I didn't try to take photos. In fact, I had to take a card and write out all the steps for hiving the bees. This year I was just excited. I mentally rehearsed the steps and got everything ready, including my camera.

The first step is to pry off the cover of the bee package.

A hive tool comes in handy for many things.

Under the cover is the syrup can. The next step is to pull it out.


Being heavy, it's a little awkward to grab the rim and remove. The white packing strap holds the queen cage in place (unlike last year).


The queen cage is pulled out and inspected to make sure the queen is alive. She is bigger than her attendant bees and marked with a white dot on her back. The color of the dots changes every year so the beekeeper knows how old his or her queen is.

She's in there, alive and hopefully well.

In the above photo you can see that the queen's box has three round chambers. There is a cork plug at each end. The chamber on the left contains sugar candy. The cork on that end is removed.


The bees will eat through the candy to release the queen. This is referred to as an indirect release, as opposed to a direct release. Direct release means the beekeeper releases the queen rather than letting the bees do it. Direct release is not considered the safest way unless the bees are accustomed to that particular queen. If she's in any way unfamiliar to them, they will kill her.

There are different methods for hiving the bees, so what I'm going to show you is not the only way. For those who may not visit my blog often or may not remember, my hives are top bar Warré beehives. (Details here.) To receive the bees, each hive is set up with two boxes like you saw in the first photo. The queen cage is placed on the top bars of the bottom hive box.


Next the bees are dumped rather unceremoniously out of the package and into the hive on top of the queen.


Some folks make room for the package inside the hive, but if I did that I'd have to go back in and remove it. I'd rather not disturb my bees any more than I have to; let's just have one big brouhaha rather than two smaller ones. I will have to remove the queen cage in the near future, but that will be less of a disturbance.

After the majority of the bees are dumped in, the top bars of the top box are put in place.


The feeder comes next, taking care not to squash any bees while putting it on. I used my bee brush to brush away any bees that were in the way and then slid the feeder slowly into place.

I am using 1:1 sugar syrup (by weight) with homemade Honey-B-Healthy
This year I made my HBH with powdered lecithin instead of liquid lecithin.
I think the essential oils blended with the sugar water much more quickly.
The trick is to let the powder soak about an hour before blending in the oils.

The above photo was actually taken the next day when I topped off the feeder. Last year the feeder was open when I put it on and I had a number of bees fly into the syrup and drown. This year I kept it covered with a piece of plywood, sliding the plywood off as I slid on the quilt.

The quilt is a simple box with a burlap bottom. It is filled with an
absorbent material to insulate and absorb excess moisture in the hive.

Lastly I put on the roof. The package still had quite a few bees inside, so I laid it near the hive entrance. By nightfall they found their way into the hive.

So here they are. May I present

Daylily Hive

And

Periwinkle Hive


The last thing I did was to put a welded wire skunk guard around each of the hives. I'll have more on that in an upcoming post, along with other precautions I'm taking to keep my bees safe.


I placed a strip of wood in each entrance to make them smaller at first. The bees have a lot to do to get established, so having a smaller opening will make it easier to defend the hive against potential invaders.


Honeybees make me so happy. 

Next - Queen Check

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March 9, 2016

Preparing for Bee Day

Last weekend Dan and I assembled our two new beehive kits.


For those of you who aren't familiar with this style of hive, these are Warré hives. They are a bit different in both construction and philosophy than the style of hive commonly seen. (To see photos of the unique features of the Warré hive plus why I chose it, click here.)

I started with the one hive last spring, and planned to add two more this year. I bought that first kit off of eBay and was very happy with it. It was not only the most economical, but also the only one with a screened bottom board. Screened bottom boards are helpful for controlling varroa mites, because when the mites fall off the bees they fall through the screen and can't climb back on again. This time I couldn't find a listing from the same seller.

There are plenty of other offerings, but I procrastinated on making a decision. I'd go look at various hives from time to time, and then one day there they were. Another listing from my original seller, but this time it was a set of two hives. Exactly what I wanted. Best of all, the hive boxes came with observation windows!

Observation windows will let me check on comb
building progress and other activity in the hive.

Warré beekeepers refrain from opening the hive often, but we still have to know what's going on inside in order to make sure everything is okay and know when to add more boxes!

Assembling them was the biggest job, but there is more to do to get ready:

Bee pickup day is March 19. I have to tell you that even ordering the bees was another gift of providence. I rarely go by the county beekeeping supply store, but one day I happened to and noticed they were having a sale on package bees. I got two packages for a discount!

The almond tree has just started to bloom. I'm
wondering if there will be any left by bee day.

The other way to get bees (free ones) is to either set up bait hives or capture swarms. Until we got ours, I rarely saw honeybees around and never a swarm, so I'm not confident I'd get anything that way. I do plan to get more equipment, however, so maybe I'll try a bait hive next year.


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November 23, 2015

Beekeeping Resources for Natural Beekeepers

Honeysuckle Hive
Welcome to all of you who have clicked on over from Farmer Liz's! For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I did an interview with Liz about Warré beekeeping on her Eight Acres blog. If you aren't familiar with Liz's blog, please visit and you will undoubtedly become a regular reader. Click here for my Warré post.

What you'll find here are links to more details on my own Warré experience, plus a list of resources for Warré, top bar, and natural beekeeping.

My Warré Blog Posts:

 Warré Hives and Beekeeping

 Horizontal Top Bar Hives

 Plans to build Top Bar Hives

Books (All but the last link will take you to Amazon US, so you may need to do a search of your favorite regional online bookseller to find them closer to home.)

Websites Promoting Natural Beekeeping

 Groups and Forums
  • warrebeekeeping at Yahoo Groups. Moderated by David Heaf. While this group focuses on Warré hives and methods, there are frequent technical discussions about bees and beekeeping in general. 
  • Natural Beekeeping Forum

 Natural Beekeeping Treatments

Miscellaneous

If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can. If I can't, I'll try to point you in the direction of finding more information.

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October 30, 2015

Seasonal Cheese Making (and Beeswax)

Cheese making has become a seasonal chore for me. By trial and error I've learned that I cannot make all cheeses during all times of year, even if I have the milk. This has been part of learning to live with my environment. In the heat of summer, I focus on making soft cheeses and mozzarella. I save the making of hard cheeses for when the temperatures become more autumnish, like now.

One of this year's first cheeses, all dressed up in red cheese wax.

If you look through detailed instructions for making cheese, you will note how specific the temperatures are. The following are examples from Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making.

"It's important to drain the cheeses in a place where the temperature stays close to 72°F."

"Air-dry the cheese at 50°F for 3 weeks. "

"Most cheeses prefer an aging temperature between 46 and 60°F and a relative humidity of 75 to 95 percent."

Fresh out of the cheese press.
Since Dan and I don't use air conditioning, my biggest cheese making challenges are those steps which require specific air temperatures. When the heat and humidity in the kitchen and pantry are high, my newly pressed cheeses don't dry; they remain moist and mold easily. I can battle the mold with vinegar and salt, but they never seem to develop a nice rind. If they dry enough to wax them, the resulting cheeses have an unpleasant sharpness and a lot of mold to cut off. According to Ricki Carroll, this is what happens if when temperatures are too high. Mold and acidity increase to the point where the cheese is not a good one. My solution has been to make such cheeses in the autumn, when temperatures are milder.

And the beeswax? When I used up the last of my cheese wax, I decided I was going to try beeswax instead. Cheese wax is expensive, and even though it can be saved and reused, it still must be purchased. When we got bees, I chose the Warré beehive because it meant I could harvest beeswax as well as honey. I use beeswax in my herbal salves and want to make candles for emergency lighting someday.

Since I'm not harvesting my own beeswax yet, I bought some
in "cones" which I think are made in styrofoam cups as molds. 

I waxed two cheeses with straight beeswax, and then discovered what others already know; that the wax is brittle and cracks easily. Suggestions to make it more pliable include adding a bit of vegetable shortening, lard, or coconut oil. I removed the beeswax from the cracked wax cheese, and then added a lump of coconut oil to my beeswax pan. I rewaxed the cheese with better results.

I wax my cheeses by dipping them. I've tried brushing the wax on, but sheesh, what a mess I make (it's the same with paint and a paintbrush). It still has a honey smell, so I'll be curious as to how that effects the flavor of the cheese after it ages.

Beeswaxed goat cheese.

One idea I read about is to use crayons (which are made of food-grade wax and colorings) to color the wax. That would be handy for identifying different types of cheeses. This particular cheese is my standby - #15. It doesn't use a purchased cheese culture and you can find the recipe here.

For a number of good recipes using beeswax (including cheese wax), check out the "Beeswax Recipes" from John & Debra Bruihler. Also Rona’s “Beeswaxing” Method and this thread from the Permies.com forum. An excellent article about proper waxing and storing (do hard cheeses really need refrigeration?) is "Settling the Cheese Wax Controversy" by Preparedness Pro.


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June 21, 2015

Nadiring Honeysuckle

Morning bee activity at Honeysuckle Hive.
By mid-afternoon, traffic is a lot heavier!

I've been keeping an eye on my bees in anticipation of adding more hive boxes. I got the colony as a 3# package two months ago. In Warré beekeeping, boxes are added to the bottom (nadired) rather than added to the top (supered). According to David Heaf in his Natural Beekeeping with the Warré Hive, this is done when drawn comb fills about half of the bottom box, the idea being to add boxes before the bees run out of room and swarm. To monitor progress, I check through my screened bottom board with a mirror. The other day when I looked I saw this

Looking up through the screened bottom into the bottom hive box

Bees were busy building comb in the bottom box. It was time to do the deed. We removed the roof but left the quilt. I gave the cedar shavings a stir and noted that they weren't very damp, which I believe is a sign that ventilation is good. I loosened all around the bottom with my hive tool, to separate it from the stand. There didn't seem to be a lot of propolis, so the job was soon done.

Dan hoisted the hive,


while I quickly slipped two more hive boxes onto the stand.

I did not to pay attention to box order & my honey
suckle "vine" is not aligned! The bottom box has the
observation window, which was built differently.

I questioned whether to add one or two boxes. It's only June and we have a long growing season, so I'm assuming we can use two. The concern for adding them at the same time is that the hive will be top heavy until the lower boxes are filled with comb, brood, and honey. If we had a hive lift we could add one at a time, keeping an eye on how quickly the bees filled them. But with only Dan's back, I figured it would be easier to add two now. One thing I noticed is that there were quite a few bees simply hanging out at the entrance when the hive had only two boxes. With more boxes they aren't; presumably because there is more room inside(?)

Now it's wait and see. I'm not really expecting a honey harvest because this is an establishment year for this colony and the bees' needs are the priority. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy them for what they are.

Next - Getting Ready for Winter.

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May 12, 2015

Second Hive Check

Two of my questions as a novice Warré beekeeper were how long to feed my hive of package bees, and when to add more hive boxes.

Honeybees in my hive top feeder

In his video tutorial, "About Hivetop Feeders", Chris Harvey of The Warré Store (where I purchased my feeder) says to feed them until the first hive box is entirely filled with comb. In The Backyard Beekeeper Kim Flottum says to feed them as long as they'll consume it. This check was to see how far along they were in building comb in the top hive box.

If you look closely at the bees I've arrowed, you'll see scales
of wax being secreted from glands on their abdomens. 

Dan and I lit the bee smoker, removed the top, quilt, and feeder, and took a look.

This time I had the camera!

The first thing I noticed was that they were drawing comb along the wax beads I painted on the top bars.  That was good news because it will make it easier to remove individual bars of comb if needed. Sometimes they attach comb to two or more of the top bars, making it impossible to remove only one. This is known as crosscombing.

I also noticed that some of the comb is already capped, some cells aren't, and that some of the top bars had not been drawn out yet.

Busy bees at work

I did not look for the queen or brood. I'm trusting that my hive is queenright (has a healthy queen) by the bees' behavior. They are busy, purposeful, and bringing in quite a bit of pollen. Pollen is necessary for initially feeding brood, which takes 21 days from egg to emerging adult bee.

They had emptied the feeder so I put it back on the hive and added more. I'm using a 1:1 sugar syrup with a tablespoon of homemade honey-bee-healthy added to each quart.

How will I know when to add another hive box? According to David Heaf in his Natural Beekeeping with the Warré Hive, boxes are nadired (added to the bottom) when the bottom box is about 1/2 built with comb. How will I know that? With a handheld mirror. The idea is to add more boxes before they fill up the available space and decide to swarm in search of a larger home.

Checking progress. We're looking up through the screened bottom at the
top bars in the bottom box. Bees are present but not yet drawing comb.

That's where a screened bottom comes in handy. When I first took a peek about a week and a half ago, I saw no bees in the mirror. Now I see them because comb-building has progressed so that bees are in the area. Once they fill up that top box they'll start building comb in the next box down. The queen will move down as well, to lay eggs in the new comb. The cells vacated by newly emerged bees will be filled with honey.

About a week ago I enlarged the hive opening a bit.

Traffic is lightest in morning and
evening, heaviest in the afternoon.

Traffic was bottle-necking at the entrance so I swapped out the little chunk of wood to accommodate them. The purpose of narrowing the entrance is to give the new hive a better chance to defend itself, until the bees build up better numbers. Shortly after that I observed a carpenter bee trying to gain entrance. It was not only repelled but literally kicked out on its butt! Much to my relief it gave up after that.

They are certainly busy during the day, bringing in pollen, nectar, and water. I've only had the hive for about three weeks now, so the first of the brood ought to be hatching. These will take up house bee duties for their first several weeks of life, allowing the older bees to enter the foraging ranks. Some time I'll have to write a post about the life stages of a honeybee, because of all of God's creatures, I think they are the most fascinating.

Next - Honeysuckle Hive Varroa Mite Count

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April 25, 2015

First Hive Check

My honeybees were installed last Saturday. After several days it is recommended to check on the queen, to see if she has been released from her cage. Since we had a forecast for deluge all week I took advantage of the first break in the weather to take a look. No photos of this and I'm sorry for that, because the whole thing is so interesting. Right now I'm doing this solo because Dan's at work, and a camera at this stage of my beekeeping experience would be in the way. In the caption to the photo below, I give a brief description of what's what, so hopefully my description makes sense.

Green box is the roof, the unpainted part is the feeder. On top of the feeder is the 
quilt box, hidden from view by the roof section. 2 hive boxes are used at first. The
queen  cage was put  on the topbars of the bottom box; bees were dumped on top

I removed the roof, quilt, and feeder. I was amazed at how much comb had already been built. It all appeared to be following the topbars, which is indeed a good thing, because Warré hived bees are notorious for building comb every whichaway. Next I removed the top hive box and gently set it aside.

I found the queen cage where I'd placed it, but under a pile of bees. I poofed the bees away with my bee smoker and discovered that the queen was still in her cage. It had only been a couple of days so I could have left her in longer, but considering the weather I decided to release her. Opinions vary on how long to give the bees to get her out, but most agree that if she's been with them for at least two days she will usually be accepted.

Now empty queen cage. The white in the top compartment is
candy. If you look closely, you can see where I'd poked a hole
through it. The hole at the cage bottom was where I let her out.

The queen cage has two openings, one filled with candy, through which the bees work to release her. There is also a corked opening on the other end in case a direct release is needed. I removed the cork, set the cage back down, and she walked right out.

After removing the now empty queen cage I reassembled the hive, topped off the feeder, and left the bees to get on with their bee business. As soon as I got back into the house it began to pour!

A small block of wood was used to narrow the hive
opening by about two-thirds. This helps the new
colony better defend the hive from robbers & the like.

The thing to watch for was pollen being brought in. Pollen is the bees' source of protein and is fed to baby bees (larvae). It is mixed with nectar and bee secretions in what is known as "bee bread." If the bees are bringing in a good amount, it means the queen is present and laying.


I'm not yet sure what a "good amount" is, so I still experience a lot of concern as to whether everything is going well. There was only a trickle at first, but I've noticed that pollen deliveries have increased quite a bit as the days pass, so I'm taking that as a good sign!

Next - Bee Plants - Expanding My Definition of Edible

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April 20, 2015

Hiving Success! (But I Wish I'd Gotten Those Bee Gloves)

Honeybee pickup was Saturday, although there was some question as to whether the rain would cause a postponement. It poured all Friday night but Saturday brought clearing skies and sunshine - perfect!

3-pound package of Italian honeybees. They are clustered
around the syrup can & queen cage at the top of the box.

I originally planned to bring the package inside on the back porch temporarily, but changed that to the bench outside the porch door. That was because the bee pick-up area had bees flying everywhere and the packages had dozens of loose bees on them, including the package the gentleman handed me. All the way home I could hear busy buzzing in the back of my jeep. After I got them unloaded, I lightly sprayed the package screens with sugar syrup mixed with a touch of Honey-B-Healthy. By the time I came back out with my camera, all was quiet as the bees feasted.

The exciting moment came during the installation process after I removed the sugar syrup can. I pulled on the attached shipping strap to which the queen cage was supposed to be attached. No queen cage! Now what. I was pretty sure it was on the bottom of the package under a pile of bees. I quickly called the bee folks who told me to dump them into the hive and try to catch the cage as it fell out. Just what I wanted to hear, especially since bee gloves are still on my to-get list.

I procrastinated getting bee gloves because I hadn't planned to use them for this procedure, although I know they're handy for certain situations. It appeared I had one of those certain situations. I grabbed Dan's welding gloves which are way too big and therefore awkward, but I managed to catch the queen cage and proceed as I was supposed to.

With a Warré hive the bees are dumped into the top
box. The queen cage has already been placed on the
top bars of the bottom box. The package is leaned by
the hive entrance for whatever doesn't get shaken out

The next morning (yesterday, Sunday) it was raining again. Less bees were flying but some were on the outside of the hive. I checked my feeder and added more sugar/HBH syrup. Lots of bees were busy feeding which made me happy. The package box was empty so I took that away. The weather is supposed to clear in a day or so and I'll check the queen cage then. I'm fairly certain she's free because I followed the advice to poke a small starter hole in the candy.

Some of you have asked about the placement of our hive. I tried to choose a spot which would have a decent amount of summer shade, plus be protected from bitter winter wind. Below is a detail from our 2015 Master Plan.

Detail of our current Master Plan including bee garden and more.
Things we've added are in blue. The blue lines indicate fencing.

The red dot is where Honeysuckle Hive is located. On the full version of the plan that side yard is named "Bird Garden." As you can see, we have renamed it "Bee Garden" because I believe it will accommodate several more hives. What's nice is that I can see the hive from my kitchen window (near the blue dot which is one of our rainwater collection tanks).

So far so good! I still have a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to learning it. While I'm at it, I think I'll get a couple pairs of bee gloves. :)

Next - First Hive Check


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April 12, 2015

Getting Ready For My Bees

I've been amazed at the interest there has been in my "My First Beehive" post. I shouldn't be, really, because honeybees are a wonderful addition to any farm, garden, or homestead. I promised more information, so here are some details on preparations for my Warré hive.

Preparing the quilt

The quilt is placed on top of the hive boxes and is said to provide insulation. The quilt box consists of a 300mm x 300mm box and piece of cloth, commonly burlap (hessian).

The pieces of the quilt

The burlap is sized to stiffen it and then fastened to the bottom of the box.

Sizing was made of flour, water, and laundry starch. Recipe here. It
is said to help prevent the bees from chewing holes through the cloth.

I painted it on and let it dry in the sun until stiff.

Since I stiffened the burlap so well, no stretching was necessary.

The quilt box is filled with absorbent material such as straw,
wood shavings, dried leaves, or shredded paper. I read that
cedar shavings help deter ants, so that's what I'm using. 

An interesting alternative for the quilt can be found at the Milkwood blog, "Quilt box design mod for the Warré hives".

Preparing the top bars

 In a traditional top bar hive, the bees draw their own comb from bars at the top of the hive boxes. Because they have the annoying habit of building their comb at angles rather than straight across the bars, the top bars are painted with a thin strip of melted beeswax as sort of a "start comb here" signal to the bees.

Kind of hard to see since the wax is the same color as the wood.

It is possible to get frames or modified frames for Warré hive, but I just started with the basic hive.

Installing the top bars

3/4 inch brads help hold the top bars in place. The spacer
(right) helps get the bars at the natural bee acceptable spacing.

Some Warré beekeepers prefer to attach the bars to the box, but my top bars came with notched ends. We used evenly spaced brads, setting each top bar over them. Once the first set of brads was measured and in place, the spacer made a quick job of getting the rest in proper placement.

Observation Hive Box

This did not come with my kit nor did I initially think about getting one.


A piece of plexiglass completes the observation window.

However, five boxes are recommended to have on hand, but the kit came with only four. While I contemplated that bit of advice, I got some bad news about my honeybee order.

I originally ordered my bees from BeeWeaver Apiaries in Texas. They raise naturally resistant, chemical free bees and that appealed to me tremendously. I bit the bullet and ordered a package. My delivery date was scheduled for April 20. I had a near panic attack when I received an email from them, advising me that there were problems: UPS had suddenly changed their policies so that shipping bees with syrup was no longer permissible. The bees would have to be shipped with solid food. Unfortunately UPS did not give BeeWeaver enough time to make new shipping boxes, so I had a choice of cancelling my order or risking USPS (known to be slower with such deliveries). I opted to receive a refund, but it left me frantically trying to find bees.

Happily the local beekeeping group still had packages available. Neither resistant nor chemical free, they are considered "hygenic" bees because of their tendency to monitor the brood comb and remove dead, diseased, or infested larvae and pupae.  At any rate, they were considerably cheaper, and would only require my picking up at a designated location rather than worrying about UPS or the mail.  I used the extra money from the refund to purchase the observation box and a top feeder.

I'll show you the feeder in an upcoming post. The nice thing about the observation window is that it's another way to check on the bees without opening the hive, plus it gives me an extra box for years of good honey flow.

Last but not least -

Resources:

If you are interested in Warré beekeeping, I would recommend the following resources for more information.

Books:

Online resources:

Next - Beehive: Painting and Naming

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