Hi Folks this used to be a Warré Hive blog but I've changed it to beeboxandframe.  It represents my primary beekeeping style better.  While I may still dabble with Warré Hives my primary focus will be on 8 frame beekeeping.

Thanks,
Jon

First Year to Second Year, Lessons Learned.

Well my first year of beekeeping is drawing to a close and I've learned a great deal.  I managed to compress a lot of beekeeping into this first one.  Here is what I did this year.

1. Transported living Hives three times from one location to another.  (Langstroth 10 frame)
2.  Built a Warré Hive
3.  Caught a swarm from one of my own hives and housed in backup Langs
4.  Did a cutout and populated the Warré Hive with cutout.
5.  Managed a pretty decent honey harvest this year 10 pounds from the two Langs.
6.  Helped a friend install a nuc and we brought a fresh new beekeeper into the world.

Heading into year two I've learned that I really want to standardize all my equipment.  I'll keep my Warré hive just for hobby purposes and stick with the Lang style for honey harvesting.

I decided to switch all my Langs to 8 frame medium.  I purchased four new 8 frame medium boxes which I'll assemble along with the frames when they arrive.

Till now I've had the textbook beehives which is a combination of deep and shallow supers in the Lang style.

I find Warré Style keeping to be fascinating but I am still learning my way around it.  Conversely framed keeping is more familiar to me and I enjoy it.

While the list above is honest it is rather clinical and doesn't really describe the simple joy of a year of beekeeping.  It has brought much happiness to my days.  Some really exciting moments like the swarm!

In all I find that beekeeping is perhaps one of the best pastimes I've ever tried.  There is something about working with the gentle little bee's and collecting sweet liquid sunshine that I find joy in.