David,
in general Warre hives are only opened about once (sometimes twice) a year,
for a Spring (and Autumn) inspection, and I must admit I don't even open
mine that often, though I know how to if needed.
I intend harvesting honey from one of mine soon, after re-checking it will
have enough stores left. But my colony is several years old. The rule of
thumb is that for any hive type, you don't take honey in its first year:
the colony needs to build lots of comb, propolis the wallsof the hive,
build up numbers etc. You take honey once the colony is established and
resilient, in year 2 or sometimes later if they have a bad year.
(This rule of thumb doesn't apply to commercial bees bought as nucleuses /
nucs. They are sold with several frames of stores, essentially you are
transplanting a complete nest along with brood. The swarm method is
superior in several ways - less disease transmission, the queen gets to
mate with local bees - but some beekeepers don't want to wait over a year
for their first honey.)
To get honey from a Warre, the idea is that you harvest an entire box at a
time, not just a few combs. The downside is that In bad years (poor forage)
the bees may not have enough stores left in the other boxes. A Welsh
beekeeper once said to me: "I get the same amount of honey from my Warres
and Top Bar Hives, but with the TBHs I get a bit every year, and with the
Warres I get a big lot every 3 years."
I have 3 active Warres right now, plus one empty (dead) hive. I would not
dream of harvesting from the colony founded this year. Of the other 2
hives, one seems to have excess honey. I am gauging this by observing
through a window.If you don't have windows, you can get some idea of the
stores by the weight of the hive, by tipping it without opening it - but I
find this tricky.
Paul
On Fri, 13 Sep 2019 at 12:29, Eric Asher <eric.asher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Dear David
I as a fellow novice would be delighted to help.
I live in Long Crendon.
Eric
------------------------------
*From:* oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
on behalf of David Gosling <dgosling49@xxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* 13 September 2019 12:03
*To:* oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [oxnatbees] Novice
Hello, I have recently been given a warr’e hive. They seem to be
happy with in their new environment and very docile , wonder if their is
anyone out there in or around Banbury that could give the hive a ‘once
over’ please. I believe that it is a good idea for a someone who is more
experience than us to be present when we open the hive for the first time,
although I have been told that warr’e hives can be left alone without any
interference? Also, wonder if it is possible to obtain honey from a warr’e
hive, although that is not our first priority.
Thank you for your time,
David
I
