Do you get a Mars bar for earliest laying queen Jon?! Or can anyone beat you with an earlier one?
I think the Mars bar should be reinstated for earliest current year laying queen as opposed to the perfect Draw-wing plot of yesteryear! What do you say Gavin?!
I am sure Pete Little has beaten me by weeks but it is cheating to live in Devon.
Not yet, the Lyson frames are just a little deeper (I've been told) but share the same top bar length. Maybe we could ask Jon to post some close up photos of his new Swienty box with some measurements (hint!) when he's not too busy.
Failing that, I am going to bite the bullet and order in some of the Swienty boxes -I like the fact that the individual components can be purchased separately (I've also heard that the floors -only- of the wooden mini-plus hives which are used quite a lot on the continent are interchangeable with the poly version. They cost pretty much the same as the poly floors).
I reckon I'd be happy to make my own insulated roofs which would save about £5 initial outlay on each hive (almost enough to buy a second brood) if done as a spare-time hobby through the winter, in the meantime a slab of kingspan would work equally well.
Last edited by prakel; 27-05-2014 at 07:03 PM.
The swarm I got into a Payne polynuc in the garden 2 weeks ago is now rehoused on 25 apidea frames in a stack.
It had laid up 4 frames and had brood sealed already and this was added to the top box of another colony minus the bees.
Look at this monster which had the audacity to arrive in my garden.
Now marked and clipped and rehomed with her yellow spawn in the stack.
yellow queen1.jpg yellow queen2.jpg yellow queen3.jpg
Thankfully no sign of a single yellow drone.
Nice looking queen....if you lived in the South of England
I'll post her to you later if you want her!
expect she'll be worn out after stocking several hundred apideas!
Looks like she could fill about 3 brood boxes!
Here is the new home:
apidea stack.jpg
Last edited by Jon; 28-05-2014 at 12:26 PM.
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