Abbé Émile Warré and his vertical top bar hive

Abbé Émile Warré experimented with over 350 hives of various types over a period of 50 years. During that time he developed a bee-friendly, fixed-comb hive designed for minimal intervention, easy harvesting and enlargement as well as for producing honey at minimal cost of labour and capital. He called his hive la Ruche Populaire, which could be translated as 'the People's Hive'. The vertical top bar hive designed by Abbé Warré and described in his book, "Beekeeping For All' is an alternative to the Kenyan or Tanzanian styles of horizontal hive with which readers of this forum will be familiar. It is designed for minimum intervention through the season. Although some box lifting is required at times (so it is less suitable for people with disabilities) the boxes are smaller than those of framed hives. An English translation by Pat Cheney and David Heaf has recently been published and is available for free download here http://www.biobees.com/warre/ We have added a section to the forum for discussion of Abbé Warré's vertical top bar hive; see http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=140 _________________ The Barefoot Beekeeper