# Moving from a Warre to a Lang or top bar.



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

*Re: Moving from a Waare to a Lang or top bar.*

I know youd on't wnt to do a cutout, but it's a sure thing and not that hard when you have access as you do with the Warre'.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

*Re: Moving from a Waare to a Lang or top bar.*

There are several ways to do it. If you attempt a cutout, do it at the end of winter, so there is little brood and more important: little honey in that boxes. Honey comb cutouts turn into a mess. 

Move the hive further away from where it stands right now, replace with new hive, so flying bees move off the cutout site and to the new home. 

You drive them down to the lowest box with some smoke, where you can cut them out on empty combs and brush them off into a new hive. If you find the queen, cage her and hang the cage into the new hive. 

It is basicly an artificial swarm. Just early in the season. You can put those Warré boxes inside of empty supers above a queen excluder. You can wait for a natural swarm and use a bee blower to get the rest of the hive out of it after the swarming. As said, there is a multitude of possibilities to do the job. 

Another way would be to use Warré frames. Simple super a box with Warré frames and foundations and once they have brood in it, you can take out all frames with the queen more easily.

Maybe you will find the Warré hive with frames to be just a 8 frame hive just like any other hive. It has boxes, it has a floor and a lid, so what's the difference? Put frames into it and you're done. This is maybe the simpliest solution, you don't need to buy new equipment, neither.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

*Re: Moving from a Waare to a Lang or top bar.*

>Well, after 2 years they haven't moved.
To get Warre bees to move down into a Langstroth hive you have to "regress" them. Warre bees are programmed to move down into a Warre box, but when they sense a Langstroth box they refuse to move down since they are Warre bees and they get confused. The solution is to buy all plastic Langstroth hives with Honey Super Cell frames and regress them using those. Place these on TOP of the Warre hive. Once you have them regressed and working in the plastic Langstroth boxes, you can move them into wooden Langstroth boxes. See Chapter 4 in The Practical Beekeeper book.


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## AugustC (Aug 7, 2013)

*Re: Moving from a Waare to a Lang or top bar.*

Lots of ideas already and Bernhard is definitely the Warre dude. BUT I was wondering whether or not you have foundation in the Lang box? Even you want to be foundationless long term having a thin strip down the middle of the lang frame acts as a useful ladder for the bees to enter into the lang box. It is a simple thing to try before performing any of the more mechanical options provided.


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## jadebees (May 9, 2013)

I have simply removed the topbar and hung them into an empty Lang frame. It fits. Try to place them in the same order. This won't spin well, but the bees adapt to the new size readily. ( I was giving a friend a new hive starter/split, In case you wonder why I would do such a thing.) No reason you can't put a whole hive in like that.


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

OK...why did the Warre system not work for you?

I have started with langs and like them but am interested in trying something different as well for comparison...should it be Warre or Top bar.

Can't decide and am looking for input from those who have been there and done that expect I will start with 2 hives of which ever seems best for me plus a couple of nucs for that system.

Then I will need to get step by step advice how to start up those from bees that are now in Langs


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

When I was in the Caribbean all the beekeepers I met were doing top bars only in Langstroth equipment. It would be a way to experiment with the concept without investing a lot in it as you could put frames in later if you prefer them... an eight frame medium is about the width of a Warre'.


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