Last night I completed the roof to the first Bee Thinking Warre hive, and I'm quite pleased with the results. They use approximately 30 board feet versus approximately 20 for the top bar hives, but I think the reduced maintenance and increased free time gained with the Warres will be invaluable. All that remains is to complete the quilt and top bars and then I will move on to the 9 other Warres necessary for the far reaches of our apiary.

From Warre

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The past couple evenings I've been building the first Warré hive of 10+ to be deployed this Spring. I plan to place all Warré hives at the most remote outyards. The wineries in Dundee are the logical locations for these hives, and I think the reduced management (less than 5 times per year) will make them a more feasible option than top bar hives, which would require almost weekly maintenance during the height of the season. Close to Oak Grove (Milwaukie) I will be using a combination of top bar hives and Warrés, depending on the site.

From Warre

It should be relatively easy to mass produce the Warrés, as the plans are simple and the components are largely rectangles of various sizes cut out of cedar. You can see in the photo below the beginnings of the Bee Thinking Warré hive assembly line.

From Warre

In addition to hives, I will be building a lift to hoist the top boxes up to allow room to place additional boxes below. The genius of this method of beekeeping is that the colony is rarely disturbed, and the roof is only taken off once a year to harvest honey from the top boxes. In addition, it creates a perfect cycle of new comb, as new boxes are added below and full boxes are removed from the top, the brood continues to move downward into new boxes, thus reducing the opportunity for disease-laden comb. 

Lift: 

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By the beginning of April I expect to have a combination of Warré and top bar hives totaling 20 placed throughout the city of Portland and wine country (Dundee). Building hives, of course, isn't the only task I have to complete before spring. Two nights ago I completed two raised flower beds that will be placed almost directly in front of the hives along what will soon be a fence at the North side of our yard. This will provide maximum sun exposure given the massive willow tree to the south and the fence to the east.

Raised beds:

From Shop 2-7-09

From Shop 2-7-09

Yesterday, while Jill was at work, I finished the foundation of three top bar hives, bringing our total (if the pine hives are included) to 8. One or two more top bar hives and then I plan to focus almost entirely upon Warrés that will be placed at the distant locations such as Dundee. I suppose I need to make another run to Treecycle Northwest for cedar before construction is over!

Wood cut to size:

From Shop 2-7-09

Fruit of labor:

From Shop 2-7-09

In addition to building in the wonderful shop, I have spent many hours this past week working on Bee Thinking. Some notable additions have been the first multi-language support and a photo/video gallery. I must translate every article written for Bee Thinking at least to German, French and Italian. If you would like content translated to your own language, please contact me and I'll do my best to accommodate you.

I apologize for the delay in the monthly focus topic and new give away item. You should expect to see both early this week.

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