Warré hive floor change using a Gatineau lift
Hive lifted with Gatineau lift with forks under the handles of the lower hive-body box. No smoke was used for this operation which takes 2-3 minutes.
An open mesh floor with a tray underneath, greased to catch Varroa, is inserted in place of the old floor in order to monitor Varroa drop for about a week.
New floor inserted, old removed.
Hive lowered on to new floor. Bee traffic continues as if nothing happened.
Floor debris from two hives. On the right is the beginnings of a propolis screen. On two hives, the bees found the 22 mm (7/8 inch) high entrance too wide and began to restrict it with propolis. These floors will be modified to restrict the entrance height to 15 mm.
Towards Sustainable Beekeeping