I kept several Warré hives for several years. Warré hives are traditionally managed by nadiring (the addition of boxes underneath) and harvesting honey from the removed uppermost box.

A Warré colony usually builds downward from box to box. However, sometimes a Warré colony may stop the downward expansion of the nest before entering a nadired box. This is often referred to as the "false floor" effect. In fact a colony may swarm with nadired boxes still unoccupied. The "false floor" effect has been widely discussed among Warré users.

From my observations the bees in a Warré hive will often build drone comb at the bottom of the combs in the lower box. Once drone comb is built at the bottom of the combs the bees seem reluctant to draw additional comb downward into the nadired box. If the lower drone comb is cutout in the spring the bees usually continue to build downward.

The strength of the nectar flow, local weather, age of the bees and breed of bee may each contribute to the Warré "false floor" effect.

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