# Warre Harvest : Not as easy as it sounds?



## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Yes, some mistakes. 

The next time you check the box for brood before you start harvesting. With brood present you will never clear a box of bees, because they stick to the brood like mad. So flip the box upside down and have a look into the combs. If it all is honey, you put on the bee escape. Wait a day, done. 

Bee blower work best on capped honey comb, because bees can't hook on the cells when capped. Unlike uncapped cells. Do not mix up smoke and blower, because too much smoke disorient the bees and then they get blown out, which is deadly. Also with brood present you get young bees that do not fly, so do not blow out boxes with brood present. (Mothers won't leave their babies...)

One thing to do next time is to check the weight of the box regularily that you want to harvest. Use a luggage scale to lift the box. Once the weight gets close to 19 kg or 42 lbs, the box is full of honey. A box of bees and brood weighs much less. 20 pounds or so. 

Once the topmost box reaches the 19 kg/42 pounds, you turn it upside down and look between the combs for brood. If there is no brood present, you install the bee escape. Without brood, the bee escape works like a charm. 

With brood present you would have problems in any other sort of hive, too. Sure you can pull frames in such hives, but you can harvest single combs in a Warré, too. I do this regularily within the season. When working the hives I need a break, and I eat honey for more power for the rest of the day. As a beginner in beekeeping, I'd harvest only by the box until you get experienced enough to handle and cut combs.

Bernhard


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Luggage scale at work - use two ropes to hook under the handles.









This is how brood look like from below:









If you see something like this, you hit a honey jackpot. 








(picture from one of my experimental hives)

To cutout the combs I do the following: I turn the box upside down, cut the combs at the sides. Turn the box back up again and cut the combs right under the topbar with a knife, that I hold at an angle, so a small piece of comb is left behind as a starter strip. This is for comb honey production. (As an option you can extract them by lifting the whole comb out, holding it at the topbar. This is how Émile Warré did it.)









The combs drop into a bucket or pan below the box.


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## mahobee (Apr 24, 2013)

Thank you Bernhard. This was very helpful!


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## thehackleguy (Jul 29, 2014)

Yep, thanks!


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