I use the Apideas shown in your last photo.Originally Posted by Alvearium
I have had about a dozen queens mated in them so far, mostly taking 12-16 days from queen cell hatching.
My sidekick Tim uses the white ones shown in the first photo. He has 15 of them and has had quite a few queens mated this year as well.
They are cheaper but take a lot of bees to fill, more than double the amount of the Apideas.
The white ones are probably big enough to overwinter queens, although I haven't tried that.
They are also a lot cheaper than the Apideas (£11 as opposed to £18) although the Apideas are far better quality.
There is a vent under the white ones and bees cluster under them like they do with an open mesh floor.
You have to check them carefully before putting them in the car as there can be quite a few bees under them.
I also use nucs with 2-3 standard deep frames for mating queens and have about 10 mated this way as well.
The weather has turned bad here as well but I had 5 more queens start laying since last weekend I have 9 Apideas still to check at another Apiary so might have a few more over there.
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