Warré hive Archives | Primal Woods

Beekeeping: A Short, Cautionary Tale, From a Beginner

apiary, beekeeper, beekeeping, homestead, homesteading, honey bees, provider, self-reliance, self-reliant, self-sufficiency, self-sufficient, Warré hive

In recent weeks I have thought of the need to add a 5th box to the bee hive; I have been seeing many bees congregating at the hive entrance, and was worrying that they might have expanded to fill the available volume, and bee looking to swarm. Since Nathan was around as an able assistant, having helped me to add the 3rd and 4th boxes back in June, the time to add the 5th box had come. After adding the 3rd and 4th boxes, I summarized the event in a blog post by stating, “The process of adding the boxes went more smoothly than I probably had any right to expect; it was executed without incident.” As it turns out, I indeed did not have any right to expect that it would go so smoothly.
Read more

/0 Comments/by John Newell

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part III, Beekeeping

apiary, beekeeper, beekeeping, homestead, homesteading, honey bees, provider, self-reliance, self-reliant, self-sufficiency, self-sufficient, Warré hive

The initial bee install took place the weekend of 5 April 2014, and I added a box to the hive the weekend of 12 April, as documented in the post, “Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I,” dated 23 May 2014. I checked on the bees regularly, and there was plenty of activity, with bees coming and going, and the bees were carrying in loads of pollen from their foraging activities. The hive appeared to be very healthy. I knew that I should be adding more boxes to the hive, and as the weeks went by I became more and more anxious that the colony might swarm because there was insufficient space in the hive for the growing colony. Finally, adding the boxes rose to the top of my work list, and coincidentally Nathan was available to help me in the process.

Nathan (L) and I suiting up, inactive hive box after step 1 just to my right in the background

Warré Bee Hive Construction – Part I

beekeeper, beekeeping, homestead, homesteading, honey bees, prepping, self-reliance, self-reliant, self-sufficiency, self-sufficient, Warré hive

From relatively early in the process of planning for greater self-sufficiency, it became clear that honey bees would be would be an important part of the design, and implemented early. Of course the honey harvest is eagerly anticipated, but their service as pollinators cannot be overrated; according to EcoNews,[1], “Honey bees—wild and domestic—perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. A single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. Grains are primarily pollinated by the wind, but the best and healthiest food—fruits, nuts and vegetables—are pollinated by bees. Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops, which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition, are pollinated by bees.” The EcoNews article claims an estimate higher than most I have read; nevertheless it seems inarguable that the impact is significant. Another key reason for early implementation, even before we might be permanently on-site, is that bees are relatively low maintenance. Depending on the type of hive employed, and whether or not the beekeeper chooses to feed and medicate the bees, only a few visits to the hives may be necessary each year. As a general rule, we intend to let our bees fend for themselves, save for a feeding upon initial installation of the colonies this spring; a sole harvest would be made in late August or early September each year.

This is a photo of our first Warré
hive almost ready for exterior finish