Weclome David Heaf and Matt Reed

Twofer! Thanks to one of our Stewards, tel jetson from pikku farm, we're very pleased to have two all-stars of the sustainable beekeeping community answering questions this week: Matt Reed and David Heaf.



David Heaf is the author of The Bee-friendly Beekeeper and his next book, Natural Beekeeping with the Warré Hive: A Manual, will be available soon. David also maintains a website dedicated to the Warré hive at warre.biobees.com, as well as a very active e-mail list at uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/warrebeekeeping/.



Matt Reed operates Bee Thinking in Portland, Oregon. Portland is more or less the epicenter of top bar beekeeping (both vertical and horizontal) in North America, and Matt is largely responsible for that. Bee Thinking builds and sells horizontal top bar hives, Warré hives, the more common Langstroth hives (encouraging the use of foundationless frames), and all manner of other beekeeping-related supplies, accessories, and books. Bee Thinking also offers beekeeping education and training and swarm collection all while spreading honeybee enthusiasm far and wide both in Portland and around the world.

So, we are giving away four copies of David's book The Bee-friendly Beekeeper.

David and Matt will both be popping into the forum over the next few days answering questions and joining in discussions.

From now through this Friday, any posts in this forum, ie the honey bees forum, could be selected to win.

To win, you must use a name that follows our naming policy and you must have your email set up in Paul's daily-ish email..

The winners will be notified by email and must respond within 24 hours.

Posts in this thread won't count, but please feel free to say hi to David and Matt and make them feel at home!

Hello and welcome to Matt Reed and David Heaf! Thank you for dropping in.

Hello to Matt and David. Looking forward to this forum.

Wow! I just learned about permies.com this last week. I am just starting to read everything I can get my hands on about bees and other topics within the notion of permaculture. I feel fortunate to have happened on this this week. So extra welcome to David Heaf and Matt Reed.

Gerald Benard,
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Shauna Matthews,
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cs mayoto,
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Stuart Philpott,
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Hello, everyone! Glad to be here. I should be able to check in and respond to posts daily when I'm not out catching the MANY swarms of bees we've been having here in the Portland metro area.

Best,
Matt

Hi Dave and Matt Reed, welcome to the honey bees forum!

Welcome to our forum. this is an area I seriously want to know more about. I have been trying to get some bees here for several years, but no beekeepers are interested and I dont know why. theres is 13 acres of biodiverstity with lots of flowers and fruit trees but they will only put a hive on my place if I pay them grrr!

Randy Bachman,
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Laura Jean Wilde wrote:Welcome to our forum. this is an area I seriously want to know more about. I have been trying to get some bees here for several years, but no beekeepers are interested and I dont know why. theres is 13 acres of biodiverstity with lots of flowers and fruit trees but they will only put a hive on my place if I pay them grrr!

Maybe you could catch a wild hive?

Hello everyone from wild, wet, windy, west Wales, where it actually brightened up enough this afternoon for me to nadir three Warrés that were pouring in the pollen.

Laura Jean Wilde wrote:Welcome to our forum. this is an area I seriously want to know more about. I have been trying to get some bees here for several years, but no beekeepers are interested and I dont know why. theres is 13 acres of biodiverstity with lots of flowers and fruit trees but they will only put a hive on my place if I pay them grrr!

You need to make your own hives. I built Warre Hives an bought two packages of bees and installed them. They are easy to make and are a cozy home the bees will love. After installing them I found out I wanted to observe them and made more boxes with windows, using a little plastic. Your friends and family will all want to look at them too. All your plants will thrive. Look in your local Ag Societies for adds and you can get the things you really need. Using natural beekeeping you do not need a lot of the Stuff they sell.

The "professional" beekeepers you contacted are large. They place numerous hives on farms and get their income for pollinating Orchards. They cannot be bothered moving hives around for single individuals. They deliver them for spring, and pick them up to harvest the honey, which they process in bulk. You will be better off with happy naturally raised Bees. I am an old Gal and I can do it, So I know you can too. Just go to the Warre Website and you can find out what you need to know. (Feel free to write me) Have Fun honey!

Hello to Matt and David. My 17 y.o. son is really excited to follow this as he is learning beekeeping and is looking for the best way to raise bees.

Welcome David and Matt. I'm curious what your thoughts are on the USDA recently giving complete and unfettered approval for growing GMO alfalfa wherever anyone wants. Since this is one of our major honey crops here in Oklahoma, I'm now very concerned that the possibility I could ever produce organic honey just vanished completely... and that nectar gathered during the alfalfa bloom will be saturated with glyphosate or glyphosphate.
K E Kitchens
Oologah, OK

Welcome fellas! Just starting the process of moving out of the rat race, and a beehive is one of our (MANY!) first projects. So thankful to permies.com and the both of you for sharing a wealth of knowledge!

Pj Maddox wrote:

Laura Jean Wilde wrote:Welcome to our forum. this is an area I seriously want to know more about. I have been trying to get some bees here for several years, but no beekeepers are interested and I dont know why. theres is 13 acres of biodiverstity with lots of flowers and fruit trees but they will only put a hive on my place if I pay them grrr!

You need to make your own hives. I built Warre Hives an bought two packages of bees and installed them. They are easy to make and are a cozy home the bees will love. After installing them I found out I wanted to observe them and made more boxes with windows, using a little plastic. Your friends and family will all want to look at them too. All your plants will thrive. Look in your local Ag Societies for adds and you can get the things you really need. Using natural beekeeping you do not need a lot of the Stuff they sell.

The "professional" beekeepers you contacted are large. They place numerous hives on farms and get their income for pollinating Orchards. They cannot be bothered moving hives around for single individuals. They deliver them for spring, and pick them up to harvest the honey, which they process in bulk. You will be better off with happy naturally raised Bees. I am an old Gal and I can do it, So I know you can too. Just go to the Warre Website and you can find out what you need to know. (Feel free to write me) Have Fun honey!

I tried once to rescue a wild hive from a tree someone had cut down but failed. I thought of building a hive box but dont have any Idea where I can buy bees. (in Ontario)
I will try to find a source and if I do I will post it here.
thanks all

"I tried once to rescue a wild hive from a tree someone had cut down but failed. I thought of building a hive box but dont have any Idea where I can buy bees. (in Ontario)
I will try to find a source and if I do I will post it here.
thanks all."



Ontario Beekeepers Association www.ontariobee.com/ lists breeders of local Ontario bees. They also list a subset of breeders whose focus is hygenic bees -- local bees that sniff out and remove pathogens and pests particularly in the brood -- and bees with strong grooming behaviour who are more effective in removing mites.

WOW Thanks Fran

Wecome and thank you! I am trying to attract my first colony this year, I'm delighted to learn about your "beekeeping" site!

Thank you David and Matt for taking your time to share your expertise here at permies. I personally would like to send out a great big thank you to Matt for putting on a wonderful beginning bee keeping class at his shop last week. I was so greatful for the opportunity to attend. I learned many things. One being my mistake of putting uncapped honey in the brand new Top Bar hive I purchased from Matt. I learned it would attract bees alright, but the robbing kind, and as long as there was robbing of an empty hive going on ~ no bees would move in! Well, so much for me trying to lure a swarm... Now I am trying his recommendation of simply putting white new comb in with a sprinkle of lemon grass oil at the entrance. Oh, I have such high hopes. I also learned to open only one end of the hive with about 10 bars instead of the middle with only 5 bars. Boy, am I a newbee... ha ha.
My question for either David or Matt :

I purchased a used Langstroth hive and was told to char (with a hand torch) the inside and all frames... I have done that, so now do I wash it somehow or just leave the messy soot?

Also, do you create a smaller opening in the winter only, or all year?

Thank you both for being here.

Toni Brock

So I ran the winner picker app in the forum software and only one of the winners was on the daily-ish email...


Matt Fearnow


Congratulations Matt!

I sent you an email to ask for the email address of the person that first referred you to Permies.com. That person (if qualified) will also get a copy of the book.

Hello David,
Ernie here from the Pacific Northwest, Washington State. I know I pretty much dropped out of sight on the forum, I'm still around and kicking. I seem to have become the "go to guy" in the area for Warre keeping. So between a full time job, a cottage industry building Warres, mentoring and running a 5 acre farm my focus has become a precious commodity.

Good to hear from you,
Ernie Schmidt

Eva Taylor,
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Toni Brock,
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Katrin Kerns,
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