Making Honey, Happy Bees - 2 Flow Hives occupied now - Diamond and Crystal are coming

General Bee Chat Mmm Honey
41

I wondered if you were using a type of top bar. I only saw Michael Palmer’s. They looked neat, but hardly a palace:) The short frames reminded me of a Warre hive I supplied bees for. Those frames had top bars, sides but no bottom bars.

During spring your hives will supply you with lots of bees, not to mention the odd swarm you pick up. I can’t see the point of fiddling around with a few hundred bees in little boxes. Why not just use nuc boxes with say, 2 frames of bees with a follower board, if you want to keep them warm.

Currently my observation hive only has one frame of brood, bees & a queen, it’s going great guns, they’re building on the foundationless frames I provided & our winter officially starts in a weeks time.

1 Like
42

I use a 3 and 4 compartment queen castle. The 4 compartment one is 2 frames per compartment and the 3 compartment is 3 frames. They come in deep or medium frame size. They are both nothing more than a 10 frame hive body with separate entrances and dividers; this way there is really no specialized equipment and all frames are interchangeable.

This one is my favorite:
https://www.kelleybees.com/Shop/21/Queens-Bees/Queen-Rearing/4069/Mating-Box

This is another nice one but not as thick on the partitions:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Queen-Castle/productinfo/687/

Medium size:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Medium-Queen-Castle/productinfo/736/

It is wise to purchase a 10 frame outer cover with any of these.

1 Like
43

Hello Jeff.
Apidea or mating nucs are quite commonly used here in the uk to mate grafted queens you are breeding to sell. They are then banked. The drawback with mating six,seven,ten …whatever queens as a hobby beekeeper is that you have to have the capacity (ie enough hives to make all the nucs you are going to need) to nuc those mated queens afterwards otherwise how do you judge performance. Choosing a mated queen out of a mating nuc is relying on luck. I’m never in a position to want more than two or so extra queens so I do what you suggest and make a nuc for each of them. I did try a mating nuc but decided all that faffing about with keeping them in the dark for three days was not worth the bother.

1 Like
44

Hi Dee, I’m inclined to agree with you. What I’ve been doing so far is working great for me. I’m turning out good strong queens.

People have been doing what @Anon was talking about for generations. One box I bought when I first started beekeeping had previously been used for raising queens. It’s an 8 frame box that had slots in it where thin masonite had been used as a divider. Four frames on each side with entrances on opposite ends. I still have that box.

I’ll be entering my 70th year in six months time. I think that keeping things simple & easy, also cost effective for me, is the way to go into the future.

2 Likes
46

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm#matingnucs

“Some queen-breeders use a very small hive with much smaller frames than their common ones for keeping their queens in till mated, but for several reasons I consider it best to have but the one frame in both the queen-rearing and the ordinary hives. In the first place, a nucleus colony can be formed in a few minutes from any hive by simply transferring two or three frames and the adhering bees from it to the nucleus hive. Then again, a nucleus colony can be built up at any time or united with another where the frames are all alike, with very little trouble. And lastly, we have only the one sized frames to make. I have always used a nucleus hive such as I have described, and would not care to use any other.”–Isaac Hopkins, The Australasian Bee Manual

“for the honey-producer there seems no great advantage in baby nuclei. He generally needs to make some increase, and it is more convenient for him to use 2 or 3-frame nuclei for queen-rearing, and then build them up into full colonies…I use a full hive for each nucleus, merely putting 3 or 4 frames in one side of the hive, with a dummy beside them. To be sure, it takes more bees than to have three nuclei in one hive, but it is a good bit more convenient to build up into a full colony a nucleus that has the whole hive to itself.”–C.C. Miller, Fifty Years Among the Bees

“The small Baby Nucleus hive had a run for a while but is now generally considered a mere passing fad. It is so small that the bees are put into an unnatural condition, and they therefore perform in an unnatural manner…I strongly advise a nucleus hive that will take the regular brood-frame that is used in your hives. The one that I use is a twin hive, each compartment large enough to hold two jumbo frames and a division-board.”–Smith, Queen Rearing Simplified

“I was convinced that the best nucleus that I could possibly have, was one or two frames in an ordinary hive. In this way all work done by the nucleus was readily available for the use of any colony, after I was through with the nucleus…take a frame of brood and one of honey, together with all of the adhering bees, being careful not to get the old Queen, and put the frames into a hive where you wish the nucleus to stand…drawing up the division-board so as to adjust the hive to the size of the colony.”–G. M. Doolittle, Scientific Queen-Rearing

“Where queen breeding is the prime object, the tendency is to use as small hives and as few bees as possible, so that the largest possible number of queens may be reared with the bees and equipment available. However, many of the most successful queen breeders find serious objections to baby nuclei and small mating boxes, and advocate nothing but standard frames for mating-hives.”–Frank Pellett, Practical Queen Rearing

1 Like
47

@Michael_Bush I’m not rearing queen particularly it was pre-emotive swarm control and suited time and space available - the only reason for using the mating Nuc was purely as there were 4 viable virgins on one frame so I took off 2 QC and put one in the mating nuc - I only bought the mating nuc as I was going on a queen rearing course and would be given a QC to bring home.

48

Pre-emptive swarm worked and 4 weeks latter - they have built up again and Sapphire is about to swarm so did a shook swarm. Emerald has a wonderful laying pattern @6:08

3 Likes
49

Now 6:08 is a beautiful laying pattern!

1 Like
50

Yes I agree Ed, that frame does have a beautiful laying pattern. I see some sunken brood caps at 11:48, 1 cell in particular, it becomes clearer at 11:49-50, I’d be investigating those. Those bees are more forgiving than mine:)

51

That is where the comb was damaged when some brace comb stuck, slightly indented and a mixture of drone and brood

52

Now I know why I’d never heard of a ‘Baby Nucleus’. The ‘mere passing fad’ passed us by down here.

53

Well they certainly look thriving and they seem to have kept you on your toes. Well done, a real challenge as a new beekeeper.
Next year as you will have five colonies it might be an idea instead of splitting them as pre-emptive control to Demaree them. Then you will have stonking strong colonies to fill those Flow frames.

1 Like
54

Thanks Dee

I only did the pre-emptive as I was away 4 weeks and was hoping it would buy me some time which it did

I have checker-boarded the Flow, they are now on double brood and the 10 frame lang had another split/shook swarm as they built up so quick but there was a Queen cell so shifted that frame and 4 others as well as all the Flow frames to a new hive - there are eggs in there - gave another frame of brood to Crystal - her QC was a dud. Now Sapphire has 4 frames of food and a normal super on top - if the Nuc virgin doesn’t return then I will combine them with Sapphire and put her on brood and 1/2.

I want to go into winter with 3 or 4 hives.

I’m supposed to cover for 2 weeks in every 8 but my co worker is also keeping me on my toes. Last year she broke her wrist and I ended up working pretty much 2 months over April/May last year.

Now I have a new client who’s parents are off for 2 week’s respite so I’m off on Thursday for another 2 weeks. Otherwise I would have gone to Stoneleigh and worked on the swarm line.

55

Well you know the answer is to get husband hooked too :grin:

56

Never gonna Happen Dee

57

For any new beekeepers watching this video, I have a couple of things to point out, particularly if you keep bees in an area where SHB is a problem. #1 You would need a lot more bees on those frames of brood in the first hive to prevent the beetles from laying eggs on the brood. #2 In relation to SHB, there is way too much drone comb in the rest of the hives.

General handling of the bees: It’s advisable to use a little bit of smoke before removing bur comb to avoid killing or squashing any bees. Be careful when resting frames covered in bees that you don’t squash or kill any bees.

Happy beekeeping.

60

I always use smoke but don’t always put it on the videos.

Keeping Bees in Cooler Climates is different than Tropical Australian Queensland.

UK and Europe Do NOT have SHB 99.99% of Europe (only Sicily)

If you want to help Bees don’t kill off all the Drone cells as you are killing off the bee diversity for other bees keepers.

Killing drones is only needed for IPM (Integrated Pest Management) where Varroa and SHB are a problem - there is no point killing off bees and lessening diversity for no good reason. Doing so puts a strain on Bee genetic distribution and means Bee keepers near to you have lees genes to add the the pool. Ultimately this will have a knock one effect to all bee keepers and the gene pool has a point on no return where the populations become static and then in-bred.

“Fundamental to all breeding programs in agricultural animal and plant systems is the requirement that the population of interest contains adequate genetic diversity from which to make progress toward the “selection” of various desired traits. Simply put, “genetic diversity” is the raw material for breeding.”

When you break down Drone cells the Queen will lay more - each time you do this the queen will lay more - in effect you are creating more work for the Queen and takes her away from laying workers.

61

Sicily has only one reported outbreak
The situation is vastly more serious in Calabria where beekeepers are losing hives and the whole area is subject to movement restrictions. No doubt cases are going unreported which will aid spread. It all seems so pointless. When other countries learn to manage the pest and live with it the EU has a scorch and burn policy.

I have no personal experience of SHB but if keeping the drone population down helps control it then it must be worthy of consideration and the impact on drone diversity is not likely to be significant unless the beekeeper is keeping their bees in some isolated spot. In the UK beekeepers are ten a penny and there are hives and drones and swarms all over the place.

That is a very interesting quote.
I have a couple of queens from Sussex University laying up new brood. These are the UK’s first commercial “hygienic” queens. I am quite sure they must be largely very inbred for the one characteristic that Sussex are interested in. When you are breeding for a particular trait inbreeding is actually what is desired.

Just my two cents worth

62

In due course, I would be very interested to hear how these queens perform for you, @Dee. Please keep us updated!

63

There were more than 1 and there was talk on a couple on the mainland
From Coloss

[quote]On 11th September 2014 the small hive beetle was discovered by beekeepers in Gioia Tauro, in south west Italy. The source of the outbreak is currently unknown. Attempts were made to eradicate the beetles, by killing colonies and treating soil with insecticide, setting up a 20 km protection zone and 100 km surveillance zone around the infested colonies.

Subsequent investigation has found that it is present in 48 apiaries of 13 bordering municipalities, all of them concentrated in an area of 10 km radius. Italian beekeepers have asked that the policy of compulsory destruction be halted, and other measures to avoid spread be implemented.

Dr Franco Mutinelli of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie 2 says: ”Our inspections have shown us that the beetle is found in strong bee colonies as well as weak ones, in freshly made combs as well as old ones, and in nucleus colonies as well as full colonies. However, until now the infestation appears limited to this area of Calabria region”.[/quote]