Warré hive

01 · WHAT A WARRÉ IS

A hollow tree, tidied up

It is a vertical top-bar hive, designed by the French monk Émile Warré to come close to how a swarm lives in a hollow tree. Instead of wired frames it carries bars with a guide, from which the bees draw comb to their own measure.

The format works with square boxes of 300 × 300 mm and eight bars per box — small and light on purpose, so the nest holds its heat with little effort.

02 · IT GROWS DOWNWARD

Nadiring, and not on a whim

On a Langstroth the super goes on top. Here it is the other way round: the empty box goes underneath the one already occupied. The colony builds downward and leaves the older honey above, which is exactly what it does in a tree.

There is a practical consequence worth knowing before you buy: every expansion means lifting the whole stack to slide the box in below. With three full boxes that is weight, and it is done with two people or a hive lifter.

03 · THE HONEY IS PRESSED

There is no extracting

Because the comb carries no wire, it cannot go in an extractor: it is cut and pressed, or sold as comb. It is honey that comes with the whole year's wax, and that new wax is part of the harvest.

So it is a hive for hobby or direct sale, not for commercial production. Anyone who has to take off hundreds of kilos a day needs frames.

04 · WHAT COMES, AND WHERE IT DIFFERS

Read this before ordering

The set is three boxes, a standard floor, 24 bars, an inner cover and a 105 mm roof, in pine, 18 kg all in. It carries no frames, and no mesh floor for counting varroa — the floor included is solid.

And one point people ask about often: Warré's historic design finishes the hive with a filled box that insulates and takes up moisture. This set comes with its inner cover and its 105 mm roof; if what you want is an exact reproduction of the original, write to us before ordering.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

A hive with different management, not a small Langstroth: