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biobee Site Admin

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 4170 Location: UK, England, S. Devon
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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Hello Gunther,
Are you the Gunther who has bees near Start Point? If so, I would like to visit you sometime, if that's possible.
The reason for not having a top entrance is that you would create a 'chimney' effect and the hive atmosphere would escape. This makes a lot of extra work for the bees, as they are unable to plug the 'leak' easily, but in my experience they will try to propolize any entrance that is more than about halfway up the total height of the hive.
Welcome here anyway, whichever Gunther you are! _________________ Friends of the Bees www.friendsofthebees.org
The Barefoot Beekeeper www.biobees.com |
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gunther flying bee
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 120 Location: devon
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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cheers for your reply.
i did'nt mean atop and bottom entrance, but only a top one. the bees could'nt propolize their only entrance, suppose feral bees found a hollow tree, which entrance would they prefer, given the choice.
i think for the hive, they prefer vertical to horizontal, i am just fascinated with frere warre's system, but since i have now only this one swarm, and they are lovely gentle bees, iwant to do everything i can, not to loose them over winter. i wonder what to do about varroa, and what to feed them if i have to. every i sit in front of the hive and watch them, they are still cleaning out bits of that mouse nest. they drop dry leaves and stuff outside the hive, but other bits they take far away. i dont know what it is and where they go. all i 've done is changed the floor, and closed half the entrance, since i saw a wasp trying to sneak in.
my bees are near gunnislake just across the tamar river. i have field, where i keep some chickens, try grow some veg. etc.
you are welcome to visit, i understand you are somewhere in devon also |
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biobee Site Admin

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 4170 Location: UK, England, S. Devon
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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| gunther wrote: | cheers for your reply.
i did'nt mean atop and bottom entrance, but only a top one. the bees could'nt propolize their only entrance, suppose feral bees found a hollow tree, which entrance would they prefer, given the choice.
i think for the hive, they prefer vertical to horizontal, i am just fascinated with frere warre's system, but since i have now only this one swarm, and they are lovely gentle bees, iwant to do everything i can, not to loose them over winter. i wonder what to do about varroa, and what to feed them if i have to. every i sit in front of the hive and watch them, they are still cleaning out bits of that mouse nest. they drop dry leaves and stuff outside the hive, but other bits they take far away. i dont know what it is and where they go. all i 've done is changed the floor, and closed half the entrance, since i saw a wasp trying to sneak in.
my bees are near gunnislake just across the tamar river. i have field, where i keep some chickens, try grow some veg. etc.
you are welcome to visit, i understand you are somewhere in devon also |
I will give you a shout next time I head down that way Gunther.
What I like about the Warré is that it takes advantage of the bees' inclination to build downwards, as against the Lang- type hive that forces them to build upwards. The horizontal hive allows them to build downwards as well, but in a wider space.
It may turn out that the vTBH is better in colder climates than the hTBH - and if so, I shall be happy that the bees are happy. I will use both types of hive until I have satisfied myself that one shows a distinct advantage - to the bees - over the other.
And I am still working on my hybrid design, which just might combine the advantages of both... _________________ Friends of the Bees www.friendsofthebees.org
The Barefoot Beekeeper www.biobees.com |
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gunther flying bee
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 120 Location: devon
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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i have just stumbled across ian rumsey's "hollow tree experiment" and other stuff of his about horizontal and vertical cell construction etc. all in line with warre's thinking of hive dimensions. looks like bees can handle the mites and probably brood diseases by themselves, given the right circumstances. modern beekeeping seems to be responsible for the sad state of our bees. maybe some conspiracy from those guys selling the expensive equipment and all the cemicals, just out of sheer greed. ha ha!
my swarm today very busy flying, and carrying lots of pollen, hope the weather lasts a bit, must be getting towards the end of flow now. not worried about honey now, just get this swarm into next season. cherio |
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biobee Site Admin

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 4170 Location: UK, England, S. Devon
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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| gunther wrote: | | i have just stumbled across ian rumsey's "hollow tree experiment" and other stuff of his about horizontal and vertical cell construction etc. all in line with warre's thinking of hive dimensions. |
Ian Rumsey was a pioneer, for sure. His stuff is always worth reading.
| Quote: | | looks like bees can handle the mites and probably brood diseases by themselves, given the right circumstances. |
That is where we hang our hat.
| Quote: | | modern beekeeping seems to be responsible for the sad state of our bees. maybe some conspiracy from those guys selling the expensive equipment and all the chemicals, just out of sheer greed. ha ha! |
I think rather that it is ignorance, added to long habit, added to a mistaken attitude. _________________ Friends of the Bees www.friendsofthebees.org
The Barefoot Beekeeper www.biobees.com |
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zaunreiter modbee

Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 645 Location: Germany, NorthWest
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tmackic house bee

Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 5 Location: Bosnia & Herzegovina
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:08 am Post subject: Re: Abbé Christ hive, forerunner to the Abbé Warré hive |
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| zaunreiter wrote: |
The box dimensions of the Warre hive is very important. Because of the dimensions the bees don't interconnect the sections / boxes. No need to pull a wire through! This is very convenient when harvesting. The 30 cm are the size of a bee cluster in winter. So all the edges are filled with bees. You probably can build bigger hives with wider dimensions, but you surely have to consider the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number. To Warre beekeeper it seems, that this so called "Golden-Cut", or ratio is something that the bees use. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_cut
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It is important to distinguish, is it internal or external dimensions of box?
210 x 1.618 = 340mm , it is not 300mm !? |
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zaunreiter modbee

Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 645 Location: Germany, NorthWest
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 10:07 am Post subject: |
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I stumbled over the same. I'm unsure about this, but 21 cm to 34 cm is exactly the Fibonacci Golden Ratio thing. Maybe the bees include the hive body into their sense of the bee colony's organism?
In my super-vertical Warre' I swapped the measurements, so the box became 21cm in width and 34 in height. Well, although the hive was packed with comb only little connection between the boxes occured.
Without further experiments we know only nothing.
Bernhard _________________ ~ back to the bees ~ |
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tmackic house bee

Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 5 Location: Bosnia & Herzegovina
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:03 am Post subject: |
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| zaunreiter wrote: |
In my super-vertical Warre' I swapped the measurements, so the box became 21cm in width and 34 in height.
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And 21cm in width is external dimension?
I am planning to make similar hive, but I will put plexiglass or plastic plate on top of the hive, so I could measure the distance between the comb. |
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zaunreiter modbee

Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 645 Location: Germany, NorthWest
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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External dimension.
I additionally point you to:
http://warre.biobees.com
Bernhard _________________ ~ back to the bees ~ |
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