top bar hive

[Newby Rob]

I made a Warre hive two years ago and am in the process of getting a swarm of bees.My first question is (I'm sure there will be many more) I have thought about getting a queen excluder so that I will not have to check through the whole hive to find the queen. Has anyone got any experience of this & what are your views. Many thanks in anticipation.

 

[pargyle]

I made a Warre hive two years ago and am in the process of getting a swarm of bees.My first question is (I'm sure there will be many more) I have thought about getting a queen excluder so that I will not have to check through the whole hive to find the queen. Has anyone got any experience of this & what are your views. Many thanks in anticipation.

Warre hives don't work like that ... and why would you want to find the queen anyway ? Inspections in warre's tend to be just a tip and look for queen cells .. not the easiest hive for a beginner to handle I'm afraid.

Have a google for David Heaf .. and spend some time reading his website.

Then buy a poly national hive perhaps ?

 

[drex]

I agree with PArgyle. I have two horizontal top bar hives and one Warre, ( all of which I enjoy) , but mainly run Nationals. I built my first TBH out of interest after keeping bees for a couple of years. Running top bar hives has taught me a lot about beekeeping, especially comb management, but I would not recommend them to a newcomer. A few years ago I mentored a newcomer who insisted on TBH's, he got in an awful mess, which I had to sort for him. He soon switched to more conventional framed hives. However do not let me put you off this fascinating hobby. Out of interest, how is this swarm going to be presented to you? ( in what type of box)

 

[Newby Rob]

I made frames to fit in a national hive. Gave them to a friend who then put them into my Warre complete with queen.

 

[pargyle]

I made frames to fit in a national hive. Gave them to a friend who then put them into my Warre complete with queen.

But ... the warre boxes are smaller than a national and the principal of warre
Beekeeping is frameless top bars ? What you seem to be describing is a conventional national hive ... more so if you are thinking about a queen excluder ?

Have you read Abbé Warre's book ? It's free on line somewhere- David Heaf translated it from the original French.