Queen rearing pics

**gavin** · 24-01-2014, 06:35 PM

Lol - he certainly owes you a percentage.

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**Rosie** · 01-02-2014, 06:29 PM

I was impressed with the look of these mini plus gizmos so ordered one last week. When it arrived I was delighted with the quality and the principle seems very sound so I am looking forward to trying it out.

However, I have been thinking through how I might use it and a problem has come to light regarding the bee space. It's neither top nor bottom with 4mm space above the frames and 5mm below. The feeder is flat bottomed so I would expect the bees to thoroughly glue the frames to the feeder and as it's spigotted like most European hives I can't see how the the feeder can be removed without lifting all the frames. On the other hand the roof has a shallow space under it so when the feeder is not in use the 2 half bee spaces (half under the roof and half over the frames) will make one and should work - except that bees might struggle over the internal divider and into the neigbouring colony.

I have been thinking about making a pair of crown boards so that I can lift the lid and manipulate each half without disturbing the other. Unfortunalely the spigot design, coupled with the peculiar bee space arrangement makes the crown board difficult to design. I considered adding 5 mm to the top of the brood box to give me a proper top bee space but then I would not be able to fit a second brood box without chopping 5mm off the bottom of it.

Can anyone who has used these kindly help with any ideas or explain how they have managed to overcome these perceived problems?

Thanks

**mbc** · 01-02-2014, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by Rosie

I was impressed with the look of these mini plus gizmos so ordered one last week. When it arrived I was delighted with the quality and the principle seems very sound so I am looking forward to trying it out.

However, I have been thinking through how I might use it and a problem has come to light regarding the bee space. It's neither top nor bottom with 4mm space above the frames and 5mm below. The feeder is flat bottomed so I would expect the bees to thoroughly glue the frames to the feeder and as it's spigotted like most European hives I can't see how the the feeder can be removed without lifting all the frames. On the other hand the roof has a shallow space under it so when the feeder is not in use the 2 half bee spaces (half under the roof and half over the frames) will make one and should work - except that bees might struggle over the internal divider and into the neigbouring colony.

I have been thinking about making a pair of crown boards so that I can lift the lid and manipulate each half without disturbing the other. Unfortunalely the spigot design, coupled with the peculiar bee space arrangement makes the crown board difficult to design. I considered adding 5 mm to the top of the brood box to give me a proper top bee space but then I would not be able to fit a second brood box without chopping 5mm off the bottom of it.

Can anyone who has used these kindly help with any ideas or explain how they have managed to overcome these perceived problems?

Thanks

I use a bit of plastic sheet with a couple of holes cut out to allow access into the feeder, works fine.

**Rosie** · 01-02-2014, 08:36 PM

Thanks mbc. That was my first thought but I then feared the sheet would get stuck to both frames and feeder. I wonder why the designer chose such a wierd arrangement for bee spaces abd then fail to be consistent with feeder and roof.

**mbc** · 01-02-2014, 08:56 PM

There's no reason not to keep the feeder on, the box is certainly not designed to be used with just the roof, because as you noticed, this would allow bees from each side to mingle.

**prakel** · 09-02-2014, 03:55 PM

Earlier in this thread I mentioned the Swienty version of the mini-plus and queried the frame size. I was recently told by a continental user of those boxes that the top bars are the same length as the Lyson version but the frame depth is six and a quarter inches, so a shade shallower than Lyson's.

**prakel** · 10-02-2014, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by Rosie

However, I have been thinking through how I might use it and a problem has come to light regarding the bee space. It's neither top nor bottom with 4mm space above the frames and 5mm below. The feeder is flat bottomed so I would expect the bees to thoroughly glue the frames to the feeder and as it's spigotted like most European hives I can't see how the the feeder can be removed without lifting all the frames. On the other hand the roof has a shallow space under it so when the feeder is not in use the 2 half bee spaces (half under the roof and half over the frames) will make one and should work - except that bees might struggle over the internal divider and into the neigbouring colony.

I have been thinking about making a pair of crown boards so that I can lift the lid and manipulate each half without disturbing the other. Unfortunalely the spigot design, coupled with the peculiar bee space arrangement makes the crown board difficult to design. I considered adding 5 mm to the top of the brood box to give me a proper top bee space but then I would not be able to fit a second brood box without chopping 5mm off the bottom of it.

Can anyone who has used these kindly help with any ideas or explain how they have managed to overcome these perceived problems?

Thanks

mbc's solution of a polythene cover is just about as neat and beautifully simplistic as you'll get.

Personally I tend to use these boxes as single colony units. This suits my approach/time limits well and (coincidentally) is, I believe, the way that the Swienty version is designed to be used.

So, with single colonies in each box I don't bother with a cover. This does occasionally lead to the frames being stuck to the feeder or underside of the roof as you so rightly speculate. Because of the small size of the boxes it's very easy to get the edge of the hive tool in to push the topbars down, free. I've never experienced any fatalities due to this -it's no worse than breaking open a full size colony where one box has shrunk a little; the interlocking lip on the mini-plus is really quite insignificant in practice.

I have written here before about my dislike of that rim with regards to putting the hives back together -there's always a few bees intent on getting themselves caught and crushed but that's another issue -one that won't happen too often if you have calm, steady on the comb bees; the issues come when you try to use those 'boil over' types.

There are for sure a few niggles with these boxes but I really don't think that you can beat them for pure £ value.

**fatshark** · 22-05-2014, 12:42 PM

Thought I'd resurrect this thread so when we re-read it next January we are reminded how good the late Spring/early Summer is …

20140521-0005.jpg

… and because I've never had 100% take before