Warré experience in Africa

From Elacons Bee Farm, Nigeria Asade Elijah writes:

We set up a demonstration apiary consisting of 15 Langstroth frame hives in 2010. We had no access to foundation but after being put in contact with Idrisbee Beekeeping Extension Society in Zaria, Nigeria, we obtained foundation sheets.

However all our efforts to colonise the frame hives proved unsuccessful. In 2011, I joined the online Warré beekeeping discussion forum 1 and eventually installed 40 Warré hives in our Bee Biodiversity and Conservation Project. This is jointly owned by Nissi and Elacons Beefarms and is located in the derived savanna belt between Yewa North and the Imeko/Afon border area.

To our surprise, the same procedures used to bait the frame hives resulted in nearly 100% of the Warré hives becoming colonised. To date we have supered 50% of the hives and will super the remainder once the bee colonies are strong enough.

We are interested to understand our experience.

BfD replies

Thank you for sharing this interesting experience with us. We cannot fully explain this but can discuss it:

It is common to hear of colonisation failures with frame hives in tropical Africa. One reason is that the hives are placed on the ground and tropical honey bees, and indeed most races of Apis mellifera, prefer hives and nest sites to be some metres above the ground. However, we assume that your Warré hives are also on the ground therefore this does not account for the difference. Another common problem with frame hives in tropical Africa is that bees colonise the hives but then abscond after inspection. If you were inspecting your frame hive colonies but not inspecting your Warré hive colonies, this might explain absconding, but does not explain the problem if the frame hives were not colonised in the first place. Another possible explanation is that the frame hives were made badly and if, for example, there were gaps where ants could invade, this could deter bees from occupying the hives.

Other explanations

We assume that there was no foundation in the Warré hives – is that right? In which case perhaps there was something about the foundation which the bees did not like. The wax may have been contaminated by mistake with chemicals or with paraffin wax. Generally bees prefer to build their own nests with their own comb so they may have been more attracted to a hollow space than to a box full of foundation (in nature bees nest in hollow spaces).

In a recent article in BBKA News 2 a researcher gave reasons why bees might not like foundation which is a mixture of wax from many different sources. If a beekeeper puts a swarm in a brood box half-full of frames and foundation – and the other half is left empty - you will often find that the bees start building fresh comb in the space and ignore the foundation until they have no choice but to use it.

Hive design

Some people have written about the benefits of the Warré hive and explain that they are superior to frame hives (of any type) because the design of the frame hive makes it hard for bees to make a sealed and contained nest from the top down. At the top of the frame hive there is a bee space and enforced gaps between the frames. These spaces make it difficult for bees to build a sealed internal environment. Possibly bees find it easier to build a nest in a simpler cavity where they can attach the combs to a sealed ceiling and create an internal environment of their own making.

What about the size of the boxes – did they vary? Warré hives are designed to be ‘supered’ from below. This means when the brood box is full you place an empty box underneath and not on top. The bees then gradually build their brood nest in the bottom box and store honey in the vacated brood comb in the upper box.

One of the big problems with frame hives is that when occupied by bees, the bees are required to raise their brood in the same comb over and over again. Unless the beekeeper provides fresh foundation there is no chance for them to renew the brood comb, and this causes possible build up of pathogens. However in a Warré hive, when you put an empty box underneath the bees will build new comb. The queen will lay in this comb while honey is stored above, and harvested from the top - this sets up a cycle of constant comb renewal.

In a Warré hive the empty box 2 is placed underneath, where the bees will make new comb and the queen lays eggs. Honey is stored above (in box 1) and harvested by the beekeeper from the top of the hive.

PHOTO © DAVID HEAF

References

1. www.warrebiobees.com

2. SLADE,J. (2012) The development of a foundationless frame. BBKA News 207: 22-25.

Ed: Contact us if you have similar experiences to share or would like to comment on these observations.