David Heaf's Warré hive experiment

April 2011

10 out of the 12 colonies present in October 2010 were wintered. Of these 10, only 4 survived, making a loss rate of 60%. The loss rate for my Nationals was 89% -- the worst winter losses since I started beekeeping.

Very high losses were experienced by other beekeepers locally. One lost 10 out of 10 and another 40 out of 94, both beekeepers using frame hives. The high loss was put down to the unusual conditions in late autumn of 2010 in this district. It had been a mild autumn with brood rearing continuing at a high level late into November. Then on 23 November there was a sudden drop in temperature to -7C at night, with midday temperatures staying as low as 2C for about ten days. After a warmer spell of about the same length, temperatures fell to around zero for a fortnight. It turned out to be one of Britain's worst winters in living memory.

It was surmised that those beekeepers who experienced such high losses had colonies that were unprepared for winter. A survey of local beekeepers at the time showed that those with very few colonies had the highest survival rate.

An additional background factor could be the Varroa burden. All my colonies are untreated. The beekeeper who lost 40 out of 94 was also not treating for Varroa, or treated at a very low frequency. 

Spring & summer 2011

Two new apiaries were added, failed stocks replaced and the total number of stocks increased from 5 to 16 by late summer.

Sep-Oct 2011 -- Summary of Warré hive records

The following table summarises the status of the project. No Varroa treatment has been applied at any time since the project started.

Apiary PG is at 183 m (600 ft).

Of the 16 colonies in Warrés in the summer, only 15 were wintered. As it had been a poor summer after a very good spring that allowed restoration of stock numbers, the amounts of stores on most colonies were very low. The decision was taken to make up the shortfall with sugar.

One hive was harvested, and that was an old box from the previous winter's deadout. It yielded 9.3 kg of honey at a moisture content of 20%.

It was another very mild November with temperatures about 5C above average for the time of year. Foraging on ivy continued well into November. On 2 December 2011 the UK Meteorological Office reported that the autumn of 2011 was the warmest on record.

April 2013

April 2014

July 2015

Summary of Warré hive winter loss rates since 2007

* Very severe winter. Some in the locality reported 100% losses.

Winter loss rate averaged over last 10 years = 7.8%

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