New keeper in France starting Warre hives

[charentejohn]

Just realised I have posted here but not introduced myself, and my bee related past.
About 6 yrs ago A load of bees turned up in a bird roosting box on the end of my garage, naturally I panicked, then calmed down and thought about it.
They were there for a few years and eventually the box started to rot as never intended for bees. So I bought a bee suit and did some repairs. Eventually I moved the box to a new location (not that difficult as it turned out) and they were there for 2 years. End of last year, 2018, they had problems with asian hornets and I think the hornets carried pesticide into the hive when someone came to remove them.

So I decided to replace them but this time I would make sure I could intervene if there was a problem. The old box was sealed and impossible to open easily.
I went on a basic keeping course earlier this year and started replacing the hive / birdbox.

Future plans are to set up a Warre hive (now may be two) so I can have bees again because I miss them. I won’t be taking honey, just keeping them right and letting nature take it’s course.

I am too late to install a nuc here (central France) as although it could be done better to wait I think. My time will be better spent getting things in place for swarms in the spring.
I have one Warre and will install another. Very difficult to get nucs of bees for Warre so I have made an adapter to take Dadant frames (easy come by) so I can let them move down into the Warre naturally.

I was going for one hive but read two (or more but two will have to do) is better, true enough here for Warre as limited warre nucs. If I have two I can do splits if one has problems, I am happy for them to swarm if they want.

I will be asking advice on the above in the coming months, you have been warned John

 

[Apiarisnt]

Recently published: "The Idle Beekeeper" https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/idle-beekeeper_9781468317060/ might be interesting for you to read. He uses Warre hives, albeit in North West London, but a lot of interesting stuff in there.

To state the obvious, if you have not yet contacted your local syndicat / beekeeping association (via https://www.unaf-apiculture.info/) it might be worth enquiring.

 

[charentejohn]

Thanks for the info. I am lucky enough to have three people locally that I can call on for advice. One who does training as well as production (where I did my basic course), one local french keeper and one local english one who does produce honey but leaves the brood hives alone.
Good to have people I can call to visit and say 'does this look ok to you' should I need to.
For general stuff forums are better as there are more opinions. Even if I disagree with a comment it often highlights something I can use.
On my course they said, ask 10 keepers a question and you will get 11 answers