Q rearing by numbers

[Jon]

Those Paynes boxes got a bit of sun but that area where you saw them along the railway fence has bracken which grows up to about 6 foot in the summer so there is a bit of shade. The damson trees also provides a bit of light shade.

No kidding, shade is critical with Apideas or they will abscond on a hot day.
I remember Micheál Mac saying that he would always push them as far into the hedge as he could get them to keep the sun off them.
I haven't used the mini-plus so that might be a bit more resilient to overheating.
I do like the design of those posts which allow for a greater number of apideas per post.
The problem with pushing them into a hedge or tight to a wall is all the stooping you have to do which takes its toll on your back eventually.
I have a vague recollection of Neil S posting about setting out a load of Apideas in the sun and most of them absconded.

[mbc]

Beware moving lock stock to nucs on posts up high as they lose more bees to drifting(or attrition from losing wind blown bees) than those on the ground in my experience, I have mostly stopped putting them on posts.

[Jon]

I found it helpful to cut out brood so that the bees build new comb for the queen to lay in. It can be a matter of fine judgement as you obviously need to leave some to keep the nuc at the right strength.

I remove brood from full apideas and give it to any broodless apideas which have a virgin or a queen cell or have gone queenless.

[gavin]

Thanks guys, I can see that we need to think again to some extent.

[Mellifera Crofter]

...
I am pretty sure Andrew Abrahams has his Apideas pushed in against the stone walls but that is as much to do with wind as with shade.

The ones I saw were perched on a fence (out of the rats' reach) - but there might have been some big trees throwing long afternoon shadows. I can't remember about that.
Kitta

[Kate Atchley]

Beware moving lock stock to nucs on posts up high as they lose more bees to drifting(or attrition from losing wind blown bees) than those on the ground in my experience, I have mostly stopped putting them on posts.

On Colonsay, with its rats, Mr Back Bee has nucs up on benches about 3.5' off the ground with metal posts and wooden planks, and also soon fence posts. Some are in full sun ... most have shade part of the day. Breezy there most of the time!
IMG_3040.jpg

[Kate Atchley]

When I first tried Pasaga Ramic's cell starter last season ...

Thanks Prakel , I found your Pasaga Ramic/Elgon links from last Summer (see Queen Raising 2014 thread 4.7.14). Keen to try this. Any tips on contents of lower (to start with) brood box assuming I use full sized Nationals. Maybe some stores with or without emerging brood either side of the grafts? Do you fully filled that box with frames of would say, 5 frames and some broad dummies, do the trick? Our Amm colonies will be modest in size.

[prakel]

Thanks for the Pasaga Ramic/Elgon links Prakel. Keen to try this. Any tips on contents of lower (to start with) brood box. Maybe just some stores with or without emerging brood either side of the grafts? Do you fully filled that box with frames of would say, 5 frames and some broad dummies, do the trick? Our Amm colonies will be modest in size.

The key with the lower box is that the available sapace, whether it's full of comb or dummied down, is jam packed with bees so I see no reason why dummy boards can't be used if they help to exaggerate the crowding (I understand that J Kefuss uses a 5 frame box on top of an adapted Cloake board, so not a widely different principle).

Regarding brood, I feel that may actually be detrimental. The primary driver of this method is that once they're separated from the queen and the brood the field bees become very quick to start new cells -and they do it very well. Obviously the boxes need to be reversed pretty sharpish once the cells are struck so that the nurse bees can finish them. Slowness to reverse the boxes will take a toll on the quality of the resultant queens, of that I have no doubt.

[Kate Atchley]

Thanks Prakel. I love the simplicity of this method. Will let you know how it goes.

[prakel]

I should add that my preference is to add a frame of brood either side of the started cells once the boxes are rotated. easily achieved by switching combs between the two boxes or if you're using dummies I suppose that you could actually add extra combs from other hives.