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Thread: SBA Queen raising workshop

  1. #21
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alvearium View Post
    Anyone out there with experience of the very small mininucs?
    Alvearium
    I use the Apideas shown in your last photo.
    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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    The white mini nuc in the photo looks like a Warnholz which is slightly bigger than the Swi-Bine and Apidea. I was took you need 300ml of bees instead of 250ml of bees for the others. There is a smaller mini nuc called the Warnholz mini Bivo small mating nuc which I have no experience with but there is information on Dave Cushmans web site and I think the last BIBBA magazine.

    Jimbo

  3. #23
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    I don't know about ml but the Apideas need around 300 bees which is about a cupful, and the Warnholz need a minimum of two cupfuls and would probably be better with more. They are easily twice the internal volume of the Apideas. I have spent the last month filling both types for other beekeepers getting involved in queen rearing.
    Each has its pros and cons. The sliding parts are really hard to move on the Warnholz.
    All in all I would recommend the Apideas as they should last a lifetime.
    Either type does the job.

  4. #24
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    Hi Jon,
    You are right a mug holds about 250ml. I measured 250ml into my plastic mug and marked the level (spot the scientist) I never actually counted the bees. For the sliding part and lids etc I smear on vasaline. It works a treat. I don't put vasaline near the sliding door as I don't want it to close acidentially. I also stick a map pin in to keep the door up on the Swi-Bine.

    Jimbo

  5. #25

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    Jimbo
    I am off to check the mininucs today; hopefully the better forecast for the weekend will sort things out. Best of luck to your efforts.
    Alvearium

  6. #26
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Chaps

    I'm reading all this with interest. Definitely will be a mini-nuc user next year, and we'll try to do something around the local association apiary to spread the word and maybe spread some good genetics too.

    G.

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    Hi Gavin,

    I would recommend an association to invest in the cupkit system at around £50.00. This eliminates the need to do grafting but gives the same result i.e. up to 100 one day old larvae. The rest is raising the queen cells and mating in mini nucs. The members could purchase their own mini-nucs and you could have a day when they just turn up to pick up their queen cell. I am going to suggest this to our association next year as I see this as good group excercise. The members who want to get into breeding further could also help in the production of the queen cells for the other members.

    Jimbo

  8. #28
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Gavin, that could work well.
    This year I have roped in beekeepers with about 50 mating nucs between them and I am raising the queen cells to put in them. (see blog entry)
    People are really keen on this if they are helped out at the start and you can see the enthusiasm grow when they get their first queen mated in an Apidea
    It also helps if you have a couple of sites where queens can be mated with reliable drones.
    Be prepared to spend a lot of time showing people how to fill Apideas with bees if you go down this route.
    It's good to pool resources as the cheapest I have seen an Apidea is £18. The Warnholz cost £11.

  9. #29
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Thanks for the tips guys. Yes, definitely need a drone mating site and I'll have some time to go looking for one during the first week in August (hint, hint, Alvearium). I wouldn't have thought about using the Cupkit system Jim, but I do see the advantage for a quick mass-production of Q cells which would be ideal for association events.

    Jon - who supplies Apideas at £18? I have some Awards for All funds to spend ....

    G.

  10. #30
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post

    Jon - who supplies Apideas at £18? I have some Awards for All funds to spend ....

    G.
    Buzzy Bee shop

    I bought 1 swi bine to try it out but they are cheap tat, imho.

    You don't need to buy spare frames either if you can use a Stanley Knife to cut a piece of correx to the right length and width.
    Last edited by Jon; 23-07-2010 at 09:10 AM.

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