# Impressions on beekeeping with a Warré or Gatineau hive



## BernhardHeuvel

Just a collection on beekeeping with Warré or Gatineau hive (basicly a Warré hive with frames).

Brood extends into the upper brood box. 









Capped brood, open brood, pollen, open honey in the corners. Just like it has to be.









Open brood with eggs, and larvae swimming in their liquid food.









There is more food left in the outer combs of the broodnest.









Pictures without and with bees.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Honey already is abundant, the honeycomb of the first honey supers are full.


















Wonderful to look at this location is a carpet of ground ivy. The carpet is almost an acre in size. (Is an industrial wasteland.)


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## BernhardHeuvel

Timed to the nectar flow that starts right now, the ideal setup of a Gatineau hive is reached: the upper brood box is filled with capped brood, the lower brood box is filled with young larvae and eggs. There are one comb of pollen and one comb of nectar per box, too. Makes 12 Gatineau frames worth of brood. Equals 6 Jumbo Dadant frames full of brood.









The division of capped and open brood between the boxes is pretty much typical for a Gatineau hive. (Warré hive, too.) In one to two weeks, you find the brood distributed the other way round. Open brood in the upper box, capped brood in the lower box. That rotates now during the season (as long as you keep supering! So the broodnest doesn't fill with nectar.)

Some fresh pollen and nectar on each of the broodcombs is alright. 


















You feel the heat of the hive, when you put your hands onto the inner cover, the bees are in a nectar fever. And there is a lot of nectar out there right now!

Bernhard


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## thehackleguy

Bernhard,

Thanks for taking the time to post, you always provide valuable information and awesome pics! :thumbsup:


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## Worldwide Bee

Thinking about trying them in Uganda instead of KTB - how do you lift them


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## Stephenpbird

Worldwide Bee said:


> Thinking about trying them in Uganda instead of KTB - how do you lift them


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC6zFBezEv4

google warre hive lift, there are many different lifts out there, I just use my back.


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## jadebees

Re: lifting Warre boxes. Get a small box stand, or use a flat roof. The roof is more convenient. Remove the roof placing top down or set stand down by hive and put quilt on it kitty corner. Place boxes the same, 1 at a time. Add your box on the floor. Reverse the dis-assembly. No lifts are needed. Be sure to place the boxes the same way they were on the hive. It seems to offend the bees to turn boxes 180 degrees. They are easy to lift 1 at a time. Use a wire hook tool to separate corner comb from box. Warre hives are easy to work, if done properly.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Hives are full of bees, top to bottom.









Working till dusk. It is 15 degrees Celsius. A very nice temperature to work. I love those warm Spring nights.









Honey flow has set in and it is a strong flow. :thumbsup:


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## BernhardHeuvel




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## jadebees

@ Bernhard, Very nice hives! They show the excellent brood laying pattern common with a properly set up Warre hive. My hives do the same. More thought went into them than most folks realise.
I do not know what a Gatineau hive is. Would you care to explain the differences?
I make standard Warre hives, to the original dimensions. With a few helpful improvements. If this mobile would attach a photo I'd put one in. Just to look at, they are pretty basic. But really this post is curiosity as to what is a Gatineau hive. I appreciate your posts.


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## BernhardHeuvel

It is a Warré hive with frames and a different lid. That's it. Needed a different roof when I started migrating. Also frames were necessary to work more hives in less time. Strictly spoken it is not a Warré hive, but that's only for the nitpickers. For me the dimensions are the key element.

Marc Gatineau was a French professional beekeeper who modified the original Warré hive to his needs. He had only this hive type and made a living from it for thirtyfive years.


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## jadebees

Thank you Bernhard. That is interesting. My modifications that I mentioned in the hives I make are; A flat roof and a feeder deck built into the quilt. It's simply a jar feeder. I use folding frames if i do a cut-out. But otherwise I use topbars. The roof is a great stand for the boxes, placed top down. And in a windy area( like here ) a weight is easily added to the top.
I think I'm halfway to a Gatineau hive with these things now. Thank you for your great posts! And for the good info. It seems people using Warre hives see the worth of those simple modification after a time.


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## BernhardHeuvel

You don't need any weight on top of the lid. If you are using a telescoping cover, use one that reaches down 4 inches/10 cm over the topbox. A lid with that height doesn't come off even in storms. I don't have any weight on any of my hives. And we have high winds here, too. (No tornados, but that would require a 4 gallon bucket of water anyway. :shhhh


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## jadebees

Whole hives can be blown over here. It's not just the cover. I live in a high altitude prarie area. 40 - 50 mph wind is not uncommon on a sunny day here in spring. Most places are not so bad. But... you cope with what you have. Empty sets especially need to be weighted down. It was a constant 35 mph today. The bees fly anyway. I realise that is not common in most places. It's good to have the" big brick" option. Its a custom hive part.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Bees in Warré hives work the canola. In a slow motion video:




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1DCWy_JU3Y


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## BernhardHeuvel

My bees work the black locust. 





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKY3scPIMd8


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## BernhardHeuvel

This is the fixed comb version of the Warré hive plus it is treatment free for about seven years. 





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_qdElx-D8Q

It is worked from below, twisting the combs to look inside the combs and inspect it. If you have the handles on the front and back, you can set the hive sections on it's side.


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## cerezha

Very interesting and educational. Thank you!


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## BernhardHeuvel

Next stop: a forest full of sweet chestnuts. This year extra-long blossom sprouts = means a lot of honey. The other hives go into the lime tree flow.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Also found a field of Triticale (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triticale) that the farmer didn't spray and see what is the outcome: tons of cornflowers!
































































Already throw some hives at it and the bees took on the cornflowers immediately. Cornflowers make a real nice and tasty honey, and has lots of nectar, blossoming for a very long time. That was good luck, but the beekeeper who keeps on searching for some nectar sources will find some. As a beekeeper you're a scoutbee for sure.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Good thing about holistic beekeeping, you don't rely on one product only, but you do make use of a many bee products. Example: pollen. I trap pollen and it is the second valuable bee product that you can make - plus it is much more reliable than nectar. There always is pollen, but nectar is different.

Anyway, right now the blackberries are in full bloom and thus the pollen in the traps turn grey:




























In the same apiary some hives do not forage on the blackberries. Instead there is a more colourful picture in the traps.


















Interesting enough, that there are always some hives in the aipiary, who forage on different sources of nectar and pollen.


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## BernhardHeuvel

The bees enjoy the cornflowers. The farmer grows his own fodder for his pig farm instead of feeding soy. 





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWVH8Uoe66o


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## pppswing

Great video, they are also on centaurea jacea a similar plant.

Did you do your gatineau pollen trap by yourself ?
If so, can you tell us what is your supplier for mesh and what kind of mesh models do you use ?

Thanks Bernhard, it's always a pleasure to read your posts full of pictures and video.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Bought them from Icko and modified them. I reckon you can buy the "pollen rake" from Icko loosely.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Trapping pollen:


















You can feed back the pollen in times of scarcity (summer, autumn, early spring) and when there is a lot of spraying going on outside the hives. And you can sell it for profit. One kilogramm sells for 25 €. (1 lbs for 14 US$)


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## pppswing

I recommend to buy from apimiel.fr, they are far cheaper, delivery is free for 150 euros w/o vat in France, I don't know about Germany, they may speak german also,
and Bijenhof from Belgium near Lille is also cheaper from icko.

Which machine do you use to clean pollen and which one to make this plastic blister ?


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## BernhardHeuvel

Harvesting honey with a bee escape and a leaf/bee blower.

Early in the morning, right after sunrise, set the lid on the ground, set the supers on the lid, ...









... install the bee escape and put back on the honey supers. 









At noon you remove the supers, blow out the few bees that are left in the supers with a leaf blower. Carefully.









Most of the bees that were in the honey super cluster right below the bee escape.









Pull home the honey supers.


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## Kidbeeyoz

Bernhard, another great post and the photos are awesome.

Do you only use that type of hive? I remember seeing curved frames but the ones now are all straight. The Warre method puts new boxes on the bottom. Do you do that and also do you use excluders; I thought you did?

How many kilos did each hive average from the Black Locust flow?


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## BernhardHeuvel

Kidbeeyoz said:


> Do you only use that type of hive?


Yes. (The curved frames came from a fish-eye camera/widescreen.)



Kidbeeyoz said:


> How many kilos did each hive average from the Black Locust flow?


Enough. 










Preparation:


















Some hives are bearding because they've got lots of bees.









Set the bee escape to the side, on a lid or so, put the honey supers on, and put back the bee escape. This way the bees, which cling to the underside of the bee escape, are drawn down to the honey and thus leave the bee escape on it's own. One could shake them down, if you are in a hurry, but it is more gentle if you let them go down by themself.









Next day...









... you find this: 









Or this:



























Worst case is, all bees are still there. In this case you give the bee escape a sharp knock or shake, until all bees dropped down on the topbars and with a bit of a smoke they go down quickly.


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## jim lyon

Thanks Bernhard. I found the starkly different pollen gathered by hives in the same yard (I presume) to be quite interesting. Did these hives share similarities in lineage, size and honey gathering capabilities?


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## BernhardHeuvel

jim lyon said:


> Did these hives share similarities in lineage, size and honey gathering capabilities?


Same size and honey gathering in that yard. Have three different lineages and although it remains a wild guess, I reckon it is due to lineage. Some friends of mine do find the same to be true when it comes to dew honey, some lines use that forage while others won't.


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## BernhardHeuvel

The one-size-fits-it-all box (Warré) and queen rearing. Making a starter hive. 





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tIjiXvJb50


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## BernhardHeuvel

Bees in the sweet chestnut. Hopefully this gonna be a good chestnut year 2015.

Female blossoms.


















Male blossoms.









Good old handtruck saving me back pain.









Just need some sun next days and it can begin.


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## Arnie

Wow Bernhard, spectacular photos and gorgeous bees! Well done.

My grandparents came from Germany. Sadly, I can barely remember more than 2 words 'aus Deutsch". But, dang!, the food was great. Homemade beer, sauerkraut, sauerbraten, and those little cookies my aunts made! 

Anyway, those are beautiful bees.


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## Kidbeeyoz

I have thought about converting my Langstroth hives to Warre with a Gatineau approach but I do not think the frames would fit my Italian made radial arm extractor without some serious modification.


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## pppswing

There is no need of mod for your extractor if it is a basket type of extractor, 
size of warre is about 20cm by 30, langstroth is 22cm by 38
You have more manipulation work but the frames are OK with a frame basket.

For Dadant, if you have a basket extractor that can extract body frame then you can put 2 warre frame for 1 dadant body frame in the same basket.


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## BernhardHeuvel

The sweet chestnuts are about to blossoming. Some slow motion, too.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da7eOsLxvJI


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## BernhardHeuvel

I like the corn flowers.

Bees like it, too, and do profit from the rich food provision.









Tons of brood.









And a lot of delicious cornflower honey.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Lots of varroa this year.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Catching a swarm with the help of my "bee tractor"









Pluck the swarm bit by bit and dump it into a hive with some drawn comb.


















Having fun while working bees. That's the way.


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## BernhardHeuvel

This is how the brood combs look like in the lower brood box right now. 





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QSpfk9Mq1k


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## BernhardHeuvel

Interesting enough, the cornflower nectar flow is still going on, although most blossoms faded out. The bees fly at the brown blossoms, which do excrete nectar at the sides of the calyx. You can see the nectar droplets with your bare eyes.

On this picture in the middle, a shiny spot - that is the droplet of nectar.









On the video you see the bees flying at brown withered blossoms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoAaK3ez9i4


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## BernhardHeuvel

Black berries blossomed at June the 10th, 2015. For two days there was lots of black berry pollen and that was it. Today the big surprise: supers were filled up to the rim with black berry honey! The taste is plain fantastic. Fruity taste, very fruity.



















The stronger hives have filled three supers (approx. 36 - 45 kg) and urgently needed a fourth honey super which I gave today.










We ate the wild combs with the fruity black berry honey all day, straight from the hive, which was very freshening in the heat of this sunny day.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Things are doing well in the sweet chestnut, too.



























Bees work the sweet chestnut blossoms and are flying like mad. Honey supers are flushing with nectar.


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## BernhardHeuvel

Some queen impressions. Freshly hatched one, and another one mated recently. 





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRgBpLgeeq8


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## BernhardHeuvel

Checking a swarmed fixed comb hive for new brood.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBLGIVQJirE


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## BernhardHeuvel

Some more TBH impressions. Hive swarmed, not much honey has build up yet, new queen is laying a firm egg pattern though.


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## BernhardHeuvel

We care ourselves for the summer forage, because noone else does. 









A mixture from Borage, white and red clover, phacelia, marigold, corn flowers, malva, sainfois and: sun flowers. 


















We ate honey all day. From black berries, lime trees, sweet chestnuts and some more.



























First time without veil for my friend Bircan. 









A nice day out at the bees.


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## BernhardHeuvel

High life in the bee bee tree:





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Domsywdn8YI


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## Kidbeeyoz

Great work, Bernhard.


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## BernhardHeuvel

This is how the hives look like just before I start preparing the bees for winter.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA_BjTQDoww

I feed 3-4 kg sirup at a time, three times a week apart. I am pausing feeding after that for a week or two. Than I feed heavily until the winter weight is reached. By feeding like this, bees make a lot of brood.

Care for pollen. If the bees lack pollen, they don't become fat enough to be good winter bees. I feed back pollen that I collected over the year, if I notice a shortage of pollen in an apiary. 

I use OAV, at least four times, three days apart. At this time of year, the varroa do not stay for long on the bee outside the cells. While within the season the mites can be found for about 10 days or even longer until she decided to do anotherr brood cycle, now in summer it is different. Mites enter the next cell right on the fourth day after she emerged with a young bee. So there is a really short time window to get them with OAV. I also use thymol as a longterm treatment.

Mites are hiding in the cells now, don't let them fool you. ("Can't see any mites...")

Among the most important actions is: move out all hives with a high varroa population, move them to a separate, distant location and pool all the varroa infested hives there. Those get a heavy treatment plus a new queen. I requeen all hives that do not cope well with varroa.


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## BernhardHeuvel

If the landscape doesn't provide it, make your own bee food:

That is September.


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## BernhardHeuvel

That is in October.





http://youtu.be/s1g5EbDDMGI


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## JConnolly

Just bumping an old but really informative thread so new beeks will see it.


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## damdaman

JConnolly said:


> Just bumping an old but really informative thread so new beeks will see it.


Thank you! Very informative and fun thread. This new beek appreciates the bump!


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## BernhardHeuvel

Warré hives still going strong. I am going to sort out all frames and return to frameless Warré hives. Since frames are a pain in a butt in Warré hives.  









Checking hives with my daughter in winter.


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