Warré Hive Natural Comb Beekeeping

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"Smallholders and farmers capable of keeping bees should be enabled to keep bees successfully with this simple hive that they can easily make themselves, without significant outlay on materials, without specialist knowledge, money or labour, without machines or gadgets, without using sugar or foundation, and in a purely natural manner." - Johann Thür1

GUIDING PRINCIPLES


Simple hives constructed of natural materials.

Natural comb supported by top-bars without the use of foundation. Both comb and brood area able to grow as the colony develops.

Separation barriers not used as integral elements.

Overpopulation avoided by limiting hives to a sustainable number for the locality.

The swarm process not suppressed.

No manipulation of the drone population.

Nest scent and heat retained within the hive. Manipulations avoided to preserve the unity of the colony. Hive activities observed at the entrance and by listening to the bees.

No foreign substances, medications or chemicals used within the hive.

Natural selection encouraged through the survival of the healthiest colonies capable of productivity without intervention.

Conservative honey harvesting practiced to allow bees to winter on their honey stores.

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"In the bee’s natural way of constructing comb, retained over millions of years, in which comb and container form an enclosed unit, in which the law of retention of nest scent and heat rules and protects all, is where there are healthy colonies capable of productivity without intervention - even without human management or sugar. It is there that the solution can be found!" - Johann Thür1

MOST RECENT VIDEO
30 May 2010





1Translated by David Heaf from Bienenzucht. Naturgerecht einfach und erfolgsicher by Johann Thür, Imker