Mixed bag with achieving mated queens across the board, plenty of bees though, this one has a cell in the top box which is still pretty full and had to add another brood box to the bottom as it's now full of brood and the 2 supers are full, stand is creaking
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I made it hard for myself some of them were behind and those I held off till mid May
Problem half the upper box queens not laying when Oil seed rape ended
The bottom box then starts queen cells so I have to lift down a heavy top box and supers to do inspections
I cant rearrange the hive till they are laying in case there are still mating flights to be done
Lesson learned I knew I had a reason for getting them on at the start of May but old age fogs the brain
Same story with my first attempt, on the up side the spare cells from the snelgrove hives I used in the nucs and apideas, some of these are laying quite good patterns. Against the odds I've had 3 of them accepted in the bottom box with eggs and larvae in the top snelgrove style to try for another few cells
On the plus side plenty new wax drawn and filled supers
The folk I know that do artificial swarms have been complaining about virgin queens taking off with swarms this year
I,m not complaining, lost VQ's are not a snelgrove issue, the loses have all been in the valley bottom where the swifts and swallows are thick in the air. The only successful queens have been from the higher ground in the back garden. If I can convince them to accept the new queens there's still lots of bees around.
Note to self, double skin mesh on the boards seems to keep them too far apart and fighting kicks off when they are re-united
That's a useful piece of info, thanks nemphlar. I've just built a couple of 'split boards' and only put a single piece of mesh in and wondered if it would be enough.Originally Posted by nemphlar
My first year using snelgrove boards, thanks to DR for advice along the way. A few bumps on the road but have come out the end with only 1 swarm down and a virgin swarm captured. While the system didn't always work in the classic way with the top box providing a mated queen it did provide lots of cells to drop into apideas and nucs. Boxes brimming with bees and new frames drawn to mess around with,good system for the amateur.
It has been a tricky season but next year it will be brilliant
That's what I tell myself anyway 🍻
Thought I'd resurrect this one as I may go back into the shed for a little DIY-therapy this weekend ...
Comments above on mesh size and double or single screened boards. The split boards I used last year had a single mesh screen but I used newspaper to unite, so no issues. I'm now going to assemble a Snelgrove board or two for this season. My questions are:
1. Any advantages from a large rather than small opening in the board? Warmth, better at keeping the colony odour together? Any disadvantages? Less chance of drawing QC's above?
2. Any updated views on single or double screened? I probably will still unite with newspaper - call me old-fashioned - as I reckon it's as much trouble to unpin the mesh ...
I've sourced some super-fine Varroa impervious mesh from eBay ... even using 6" square mesh I reckon it works out at about £1/board posted.
PS ... thanks in advance DR ... you seem to be the resident Snelgrove board expert.
Where is the picture ???
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