In the Spring of this year I became aware of the existence of a beehive that might be managed in a more bee friendly way. It was the warre hive, or people’s hive, developed in France by Abbe Warre . He discovered that, contrary to what I had previously assumed , a colony uses less honey to survive the Winter in a single walled hive than in my well insulated WBC simply because the bees are colder and more torpid.
Despite the fact that the frames I already had would be interchangeable with a single walled national hive ,the national wouldn’t overcome my main problem with all conventional hives- the need to frequently open the brood box, stressing the bees and chilling the brood. A warre only needs to be opened once or twice a year, certainly a low intervention system. So, in early May I bought a warre hive.
The Unkept Hive 