Beekeeping Resources for Natural Beekeepers

Welcome to all of you who have clicked on over from Farmer Liz’s! For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I did an interview with Liz about Warré beekeeping on her Eight Acres blog. If you aren’t familiar with Liz’s blog, please visit and you will undoubtedly become a regular reader. Click here for my Warré post.

What you’ll find here are links to more details on my own Warré experience, plus a list of resources for Warré, top bar, and natural beekeeping.

My Warré Blog Posts:

• My First Beehive – includes photos of the various parts of the Warré hive.
• Getting Ready For My Bees – preparing the top bars, quilt, and more
• Beehive: Painting and Naming – I don’t usually name things
• Essential Oils and Feeding Bees – EOs for Varroa mite control
• Hiving Success! (But I Wish I’d Gotten Those Bee Gloves)
• First Hive Check – checking on the queen cage
• Second Hive Check – a peek at how things were going
• Honeysuckle Hive Varroa Mite Count – a how-to
• Nadiring Honeysuckle – adding hive boxes to the bottom
• Getting Ready for Winter - general homestead checklist plus the beehive

Warré Hives and Beekeeping

• Warré Beekeeping 
• Index to David Heaf’s Warré Beekeeping Pages – scroll to the bottom of the page for extensive link lists. David is what you might call the father of the modern Warré beekeeping movement. 
• The Warré Store - Articles on Warré beekeeping
• Video tutorials at The Warré Store website

Horizontal Top Bar Hives

• Less Invasive Beekeeping by Sam Comfort. Why top bar hived bees are healthier for the bees and the environment.

Plans to build Top Bar Hives

• Plans for Constructing a Warré Hive at Warré Beekeeping.
• Top Bar Beekeeping by Michael Bush. Plans for both Kenyan and Tanzanian hives, plus an excellent FAQs section.
• How To Build A Top Bar Hive. Free eBook with plans for a horzontal top bar hive by The Barefoot Beekeeper.
• Warré Hive Construction Guide step-by-step photos and instructions at The Bee Space.

Books (All but the last link will take you to Amazon US, so you may need to do a search of your favorite regional online bookseller to find them closer to home.)

• Beekeeping for All by Abbé Warré. The original source book for Warré beekeeping. Paperback copies can be purchased at Amazon, or it can be read online for free here.
• Natural Beekeeping with the Warre Hive: A Manual by David Heaf. Includes hive plans.
• At the Hive Entrance by H. Storch. If natural beekeeping is less invasive, then how does the beekeeper know what’s going on without opening the hive? The author maintains that the condition of the colony can be ascertained by observing activity at the hive entrance. The book contains about 60 pages of seasonal observations and their explanations. Besides the paperback, it is available as a free PDF download here.
• The Bee-friendly Beekeeper by David Heaf. I confess I haven’t read this because it is a bit expensive to buy, but I would love to. David knows what he’s talking about.
• Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell. This is another book I have not read but certainly plan to. 
• Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture by Ross Conrad. This is not specifically about Warré or top bar hives, but it is an excellent read for anyone interested in natural beekeeping methods.
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Beekeeping by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. Promotes treatment-free beekeeping.
• Keeping Bees with a Smile: A Vision and Practice of Natural Apiculture by Fedor Lazutin. This book was recently recommended to me by a fellow beekeeper and blog reader (thanks Ron!) In addition to natural beekeeping techniques, it discusses the Lazutin horizontal hive which uses frames. Follow the link for more information on the book (including excerpts) and other great information.

Websites Promoting Natural Beekeeping

• The Best Beehive? at beethinking. A comparison of Top Bar, Warré, and Langstroth hives.
• The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally Bush Farms
• ResistentBees.com promotes hygienic behavior of bees, small cells, and no chemicals. Numerous technical articles on these subjects can be found here.

Groups and Forums

• warrebeekeeping at Yahoo Groups. Moderated by David Heaf. While this group focuses on Warré hives and methods, there are frequent technical discussions about bees and beekeeping in general. 
• Natural Beekeeping Forum

Natural Beekeeping Treatments

• Organic Treatments at Wolf Creek Apiaries
• Results of Research: Using Essential Oils for Honey Bee Mite Control
• Honey Bee Healthy Recipe for those essential oils at The Wasatch Beekeepers Association website.

Miscellaneous

• I LOVE SWARMS: The Complete Guide to Attracting Honeybees by Dr. Leo Sharashkin. How to get free bees! Dr. Sharashkin is the editor of Keeping Bees with a Smile. His website is worth a look around and includes free plans for various horizontal hives and swarm traps.
• Warré Type Bait Hive for trapping swarms, by David Heaf.
• Plants That Bees Love at Honey Bee Suite. Downloadable region specific lists of nectary plants for honeybees. Offers US, Canadian, and International lists.
• Identifying pollen by color at Wikipedia. Nice color charts by season.
• Solar Honey Extractor by David Heaf
• How to make a hornet/wasp trap. Another of my blog posts. Fortunately, we didn’t have a problem.
• Hive lift plans for the Warré hive. Another of David Heaf’s links for those of us who can use some help hoisting those hive boxes!

If you have any questions I’ll be happy to answer them if I can. If I can’t, I’ll try to point you in the direction of finding more information.