Towards

Natural Beekeeping
with Warr Hives

And a treatment free apiary

 What Style of Beekeeping?

Solange and our Mamaki Farm drench free/treatment free cows. Can we do this with Bees?
 Appropriate Methodology
for our Farm

IndustrialisaGon of Beekeeping is bad for Bees

Type of hive may have an impact on Bee
health
Type of Bee can make a dierence.
The Locality and the immediate environment
impacts
And Bee Husbandry / management systems
can be a make or break for Bee survival

 Types of Hives Considered

Langstroth (mainstream)
Horizontal Top Bar hives (illegal?/tolerated)
Skeps, clay pots & tree-trunk hives - xed
comb or top bars (old school/illegal?)

Warr Hives - Top bars, comb carriers or

Frames (illegal or legal)
 Why the Warr?
Less work
Cheap / easy to
build
Healthier
Easier liTing
Modular system
Easily mobile
Legal in NZ (when
framed)
 Honey ProducGon Costs
of Langstroth vs. Warr
Langstroth
2.20 per kilo
12 hours per hive
per annum
Warr
1.50 per kilo
5 hours per hive
per annum
(5 hives for 10 years for each
type)

LApiculture Ecologique de A a Z - Jean Marie Freres & Jean Claude Guillaume
What is dierent
about Warrs?
Bo_om Bee space
Uses a quilt
Nadiring not Supering
Natural comb
Square Warmway
Coldway
Managed with
Minimal intervenGon

Quilt / Bo_om Bee Space

waldeneect.org
 Nadiring
Brood
Naturally
descends

New
boxes
added
below
Beekeeping for all - Abb Warr GaGneau LiT - ypiedrahita.com

 Natural Comb
Starter Strips
rather than
foundaGon.
In Frames
In open frames
(comb carrier)
On Top Bars /
xed comb
(illegal in nz)
La Ruche Warre - Gilles Denis
 No Frames (illegal in NZ)
LAbb Warr regarded frames as one of the
main causes of disease. (weakening hive)
Frames stress bees, making it more dicult for
them to maintain the hive climate (harder for heat
retenGon, humidity control, pheromones)
Warr relates that many in France believed that
Foulbrood (A, E?) came in with the introducGon
Italian Bees. But he blames framed beekeeping
where the bee wears itself out to no purpose.
 A few Warr Beekeepers

Tim Malfroy- Australia

David Heaf, Wales
Gilles Denis
France
Gilles Denis - 100 x 2 element hives
 Natural Beekeeping
Michael Bushs 4 simple steps to
healthier Bees
1. Use Natural Comb
2. Breed from Local Survivors
3. Dont Treat
4. Use Natural Food

The PracGcal Beekeeper - Michael Bush - bushfarms.com/bees.htm

 Step 1. Natural Comb
Healthier Bees
Comb is made to order of what the bees need,
smaller cells for brood, larger for honey
Be_er climate control
Clean, no long term build up of pathogens /
insecGcides
Great supply of quality wax
Purer Honey

Is Drawing Comb a waste of
Resources?
Michael Bush relates:
It doesnt take longer for Bees to draw their
own comb Bees draw plasGc with the most
hesitaGon, wax with a li_le less and their own
comb with the most enthusiasm.
In my observaGon, and others including Jay
Smith, (Be_er Queens) the queen also prefers
to lay in newly drawn natural comb.
The PracGcal Beekeeper - Michael Bush - bushfarms.com/bees.htm
So what about Cell Size?
Dee Lusbys Research

Resistantbees.com
 large cells, large Bees, long tongues
lots of honey but more Varroa!
Professor Baudoux about 100 years ago
experimented with extreme cell sizes, large and
small, since then cell size on all foundaGons has
remained at about 5.4 mm to this day.
It looks like the bee gets to its natural balance on
a cell size from 4.9 mm downwards. At 4.9 mm,
and the distance between the combs reduced to
32 mm, the temperature in the nest rises,
reducing one day of the incubaGon period. At 20
instead of 21 days, the bees outrun the Varroa.
Iris & Stephan (La Palma) resistantbees.com
 Michael Bush does the Math's
I've observed on commercial Carniolan bees and
commercial Italian bees a 24 hour shorter pre
capping and 24 hour shorter post capping Gme
on 4.95 mm cells in an observaGon hive.
My observaGons on 4.95 mm cell size
Capped 8 days aTer layed
Emerged 19 days aTer layed
8 hours shorter capping Gme halves the number
of Varroa infesGng a brood cell.
8 hours shorter post capping Gme halves the
number of ospring of a Varroa in the brood cell.
The PracGcal Beekeeper - Michael Bush - bushfarms.com/bees.htm
 Does Small Cell really help Varroa
Resistance? On the YES side
Dee and Ed Lusby who did much of the
pioneering work on small cell size operate
treatment free.
In 1990, Erickson et al, On the size of cells.
Published in Bee Culture conrms.
Studies from Brazil also conrmed
And in many posts in Online forums, Beekeepers
say that they were doing it.
Erik sterlund - Analysis of Small cell test designs - Linnaeus
University Sweden - resistantbees.com

 On the NO side
Later tests couldnt verify the rst research papers
from USA and Brazil. It was common among
researchers to dismiss the rst posiGve results as
associated with Africanized bees.
The eect of honey bee worker brood cell size on
Varroa destructor infestaGon and reproducGon,
Michelle A. Taylor, R. Mark Goodwin, Heather M.
McBrydie and Harlan M. Cox (2001 & 2008)
Trial of HoneySuperCell Small Cell Combs, Randy
Oliver
Among many others
Erik sterlund - Analysis of small cell test Queen breeder Elgon Bees

 So the Case is Closed?

The recent serious studies say Yes, CC.

Small cells are no advantage
Erik sterlund and others suggest the
complexity of the hive is not understood and
the test designs are awed.
Many beekeepers just doing it report success
with small cells
 Step 2. Breed from Local Survivors

Returning to Warr, he insists breed your own
queens, commercial queen rearing weakens the
species
If all queens are commercialized there is no selecGve
breading, (oTen the case)
If there is selecGve breading it is oTen cancelled out
by the abnormal feeding of sugar which inevitably
weakens the stock and sets up favourable condiGons
for illnesses, for foulbrood among others
Work with nature, bread from the strong hives and
cull the weaker.
Beekeeping for all - Abb Warr
 Work with Nature
And sterlund relates: Animals and Plants adapt
to new environments in a powerful way through
EpigeneGcs !
there is no other way to explain the formaGon of
resistant Apis mellifera bees in South America in the
1980s and in South Africa in the 2000s
In both cases it took about 5 years to develop
resistance, and without masses of bees dying from
Varroa.
What was seen was a decrease of a 50 % mite
infestaGon (one mite on every 2nd bee) to about 5%
mite infestaGon (one mite on every 20th bee).
Breeding resistant bees. Linnaeus University elgon.se/index-eng.htm

If you're not part of the geneGc
soluGon of
breeding mite-tolerant bees,
then you're part of the problem
-Randy Oliver

scienGcbeekeeping.com
 Step 3. No Treatments

Hive Ecology
Over 8,000 Micro organisms
30 Kinds of insects
Over 170 Mites

Treatments
Acaracides kill all mites and most insects
Organic acids kill many microorganisms
beside mites and some insects
EssenGal oils kill many microorganisms

The PracGcal Beekeeper - Michael Bush - bushfarms.com/bees.htm

 Our common Knowledge
about treaGng
There is already evidence of resistance to
treatments through-out the world and now in
NZ
MulGple studies show wax gets contaminated
as a result of both in-hive Acaracide
treatments and, to a lesser extent,
environmental polluGon.
And Natural beekeepers argue that treatment
creates stronger Varroa and weaker bees.
 Step 4. Natural Food

Michael Bush relates:
Honey and real pollen are the proper food of
bees. Sugar syrup has a much higher pH (6.0)
than Honey (3.2 to 4.5) (Sugar is more
alkaline).
Feeding sugar aects the reproducGve
capability of virtually every brood disease in
bees plus Nosema The brood diseases all
reproduce more at the pH of sugar.
The PracGcal Beekeeper - Michael Bush - bushfarms.com/bees.htm
 Feed Honey not Sugar
Dierences in pH aect other benecial and
benign organisms in the hive.
The other 8,000 microorganisms that are also
in the hive are aected by changes in ph.
Using sugar syrup also disrupts the ecological
balance of the hive by disrupGng the pH of the
food in the hive and the food in the bees gut.
Honey and real pollen are more nutriGous than
pollen subsGtute and sugar syrup
The PracGcal Beekeeper - Michael Bush - bushfarms.com/bees.htm
American Queen breeder Jay Smith suggests
that the prevalence of American foulbrood in
the North of the USA is related to sugar feeding.
Southern Bees have longer seasons and are feed
less sugar resulGng in less foulbrood

Be_er Queens (from Michael Bush bushfarms.com)

 Small Cell/Natural Comb Beekeepers
already doing the impossible,
Keeping Bees Treatment Free
Dee Lusby in USA (Langstroth Narrower frames)
Gilles Denis in France (Warr, porte rayon& TB)
JeanMarie Frrs & Jean Claude Guillaume in
Belgium (Warr Top Bars)
David Heaf in Wales ( Warr & Langstroth)
Sam Comfort in USA (all sorts and Whatever)
Thore Hrnkloo in Sweden (Langstroth style)
Tim Malfroy in Australia Warr (No Varroa)
David Heaf

h_ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gCY6EZkgxE
Sam Comfort

h_ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjtc7lf-axM
Our Apiary?

Bryan & Solanges Mamaki Farm Apiary

 Well? We are trying it on

Build our own hives, just wood no paint or
preservaGve (except lids)
We dont feed
From essenGal oils to no treatment
Breeding our own Queens from our strongest
hives
Using minimal intervenGon
4 hives to 10, to 6 to ?
 Online Resources used for
Towards Natural Beekeeping with Warr Hives
and a treatment free apiary

Warrs
David Heaf h_p://warre.biobees.com/index.html
Gilles Denis h_p://ruche-warre.com/
Tim Malfroy
h_p://www.naturalbeekeeping.com.au/warrebeehives.html

Small Cell and Natural Beekeeping

Natural Beekeeping / Michael Bush
h_p://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
Dee Lusby h_p://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/ed-dee-lusby/
Iris and Stephan at Resistant Bees
h_p://www.resistantbees.com/index_e.html

For Bio Dynamic Conference 2015, Kerikeri.

[email protected]