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Natural Beekeeping in West Wales
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hedgerow.crafts



Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 22

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 11 8:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I was inspired by reading the Bee-friendly Beekeeper by David Heaf, which I think is the beekeeper in N wales you were refering to. I have since read the translation of Warre's The People Hive, as well as several books on beekeeping with framed hives. The Warre ideas seem to fit in with our general philosophy and the way we run other aspects of our small holding.

So I would like to give it a try, but as I said, so far I have only spoken to beekeepers using National hives, some of whom are very skeptical about Warres to say the least! I would like to have a chat with someone succesfully using Warre hives to get a bit of confidence, especially with setting up. I will try some of the other forums. By the way, I can't see the link to your forum - maybe because I am using a Blackberry?

Thanks for your help!

gil
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 11 11:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Doesn;t Tavascarow have Warres ? He's in Cornwall, though.

ETA : have you had a look at the Sticky at the top of the Apiary forum, 'videos on top-bar beekeeping' ?

Or are you really wanting a real-life bee-keeping 'mentor' in your area ?

Tavascarow



Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 11 4:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

gil wrote:
Doesn;t Tavascarow have Warres ? He's in Cornwall, though.

ETA : have you had a look at the Sticky at the top of the Apiary forum, 'videos on top-bar beekeeping' ?

Or are you really wanting a real-life bee-keeping 'mentor' in your area ?

No.
I'm in the process of converting to horizontal top bar hives & experimenting with running conventional national & commercial hives with top bars instead of frames (in a Warre style/method) but no Warres.
There is a dedicated Warre beekeeping
Yahoo group besides the Natural Beekeeping forum.
Finding a mentor is the hardest part, but will hopefully get easier, as these alternative beekeeping methods become more popular.

My advice would be to go it alone or recruit others to the cause & learn together, & not be afraid to ask questions online.

hedgerow.crafts



Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 22

PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 11 6:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I was ideally looking for a real-life mentor. Given the amount of low impact happenings in this bit of Wales, I thought there was a chance there might be someone using Warre or similar around here!

I have joined the yahoo group and will look at the other forum - then probably just go for it!

mochasidamo



Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 615
Location: Montgomery
PostPosted: Sat Mar 26, 11 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

https://beekeeper.webs.com is our small-but-growing forum. You don't see sigs if you view as a guest.

I'm not sure about philosophy when it comes to beekeeping...eg. Steiner's beekeeping theories are so off from the reality of how a colony naturally works as to be embarrassing. If you get low-swarming non-aggressive locally-adapted bees to start with and your local drones are similar then you are off to a very lucky start.

The issue that seems to worry many about leave-alone Warre systems is the monitoring for brood diseases, varroa and no doubt small hive beetle soon. And who knows what after that

htbh can be operated similarly "hands off" and with an inspection window you could monitor quite well without even lifting the lid. There are also quite a lot of beekeepers who can offer some help on these hives (including Tavarascow and me). There are also loads of videos around and when you do look inside a tbh especially if you use inspection cloths the bees need hardly know you are there. Any system that uses vertical boxes is less manageable in that respect and squashing bees does upset them.

The bees like the htbh system. We have commercials too which we are moving to foundationless (yes, bees do take time to learn this), the bees are the same but those in the tbh more laid back in general and a puff of sugar or peppermint water depending on the time of year is all that's usually needed.

Mary-Jane



Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales
PostPosted: Sat Mar 26, 11 12:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

There is a group locally to you/me/us h.c but I can't find the details of it at the mo. If you can give me a few days I'll try and dig them out. I don't think they *do* on-line stuff. I went on one of their basic day-long courses ages ago - it wasn't that far away.

Now our scaffolding has finally been taken down, I'm hoping to get bees myself this year. Perhaps we could start our own group?

Cathryn



Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion
PostPosted: Sat Mar 26, 11 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I'd be up for this. Trouble is you are not that local though.

earthsoul



Joined: 10 Feb 2011
Posts: 320
Location: Ceredigion West Wales
PostPosted: Sat Mar 26, 11 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I am also interested and I am very local.......will pm you

georginasj



Joined: 09 Oct 2017
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 17 2:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I know this is a very old post but its the closest to what I am looking for. I have just done a warre bee keeping course and am hoping to start keeping bees in this way next year. And I would love to have a local mentor. I am on the west coast of Wales, between Aberaeron and Aberystwyth. Is there anyone nearby who can help me? Thank you!

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45321
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 17 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

hi and welcome , i cant help with the bee stuff but i think we still have beeks out west.

sean
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon
PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 17 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I've got jamanda to prod Cathryn who lives round there. Apparently she'll drop in on Friday and enlighten you.

Welcome aboard.

georginasj



Joined: 09 Oct 2017
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 17 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

sean wrote:
I've got jamanda to prod Cathryn who lives round there. Apparently she'll drop in on Friday and enlighten you.

Welcome aboard.


Thank you! That is great

Cathryn



Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion
PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 17 4:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Sorry, I was poked about this when I was away so it slipped my mind. There is a local Beekeeping Association that meets regularly in Aberystwyth. A very friendly and informed group of people who are always happy to mentor and help people get going. I haven't been for a year (Bees died this Spring. ) but there was someone with Warre's and some with topbars including me.

https://aberbees.co.uk/cms/

I will probably rejoin soon, see you there!

Tavascarow



Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall
PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 17 11:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

mochasidamo wrote:


The issue that seems to worry many about leave-alone Warre systems is the monitoring for brood diseases, varroa and no doubt small hive beetle soon. And who knows what after that

I've no experience with Warre hives yet, but one of the Warre beeks on the natural beekeeping forum has been inspected by his local bee inspector, he had no trouble inspecting.
I seem to recall he gave a glowing testament to the bees & the bee keeper.
One of the first signs of brood disease is smell (foul) which will indicate as well in a Warre if not better than in a more open commercial frame hive.
Also taking a box (or skep) of fixed comb & turning it over to inspect is less disturbing than removing frames.
If the bees are less disturbed & less defensive it's easier to inspect IMHO.
It's easy to see between upturned combs & spot abnormalities for an experienced inspector.
The problem with natural beekeeping is generally other peoples biases & ignorance of the facts IMHO.
The more I learn, the more I'm convinced I'm making the right choices for me & my bees.
If you look at the history of foul brood outbreak it's quite telling IMHO that major outbreaks happened just after frame hives became popular here & in the USA.
Swapping frames between hives & the ability to propagate through the creation of nuclei also made it a lot easier to transfer brood disease from hive to hive, apiary to apiary & farther.
The methods of traditional skep beekeeping insured infected colonies where destroyed as part of the normal management process.
Culling of weak (possibly infected) colonies was the norm.
Brood disease spread was very minimal.



georginasj



Joined: 09 Oct 2017
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 17 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thank you! That is really helpful and great to know. Hopefully see you there Georgina

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