gavin

Doing the splits

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I'll not go into all the details again, as they were described last year. But, one means of creating some nucs is to stick them in a tower above the mother box (and indeed the mother).

What are the advantages? Less space. Doesn't use additional floors and roofs or nuc boxes. Some warmth to the nucs on top (can enhance this by fitting mesh over holes in the board separating the boxes). Failed ones are simply fused by removing a divider. When you disassemble the stack the bees will (eventually!) find their way to the normal entrance down below. Can use the approach to encourage queen cell production in a colony that hasn't got there yet by separating the two brood boxes with a super and Q excluders before slipping in the modified floor.

Disadvantages? Need to make a special floor, vertical dividers, and a crown board with no rim to keep the partitions bee-tight. That top box can be heavy and needs lifted together with the floor. Need to lift it off to check for Q cells in the bottom box.

So yesterday, as the rain was coming on, I did this to the first colony. Another got a more basic split to remove the laying queen from sealed queen cells (waiting for a sunny spell to finish the job). And a third with unsealed cells is awaiting some more equipment which is about to be put together.



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Comments

  1. Trog's Avatar
    Love the title