todays news

[Calluna4u]

Out of interest, if you don't mind, do you have a preference for the size of nuc your queens mate from? Maybe to be clearer, I should say size of comb. If your breeder is who I think he might be I understand that he's now of the oppinion that larger nucs (standard frames) are better. This is something I'm fast coming to agree with myself for quite a few practical reasons as well as a few observational comparrisons which I've made -but don't have any firm data for... yet. Just a 'gut feeling' at present. Of course a trade off may be the numbers which can be kept, healthily, in one location.

Firstly...its not the breeder you are thinking of, and the one it is works a bit closer to home albeit still 1000 miles from me. Not a famous breeder like the one you are thinking of and really only produces for me and one other client. If you saw the 'Penguins on a plane' programme.... Its NOT a yellow bee area btw.

Bigger nucs are more stable for sure.......but we got the fastest turnround in Apideas or Swi-bines, and once they were introduced into the nuclei to develop there was no discernible difference between the little boxes or the medium sized ones like Kielers. It would seem though that the Kielers require less intensive upkeep.

Mini plus, which was recommended to us, are too expensive and too many bits and pieces to damage or get lost to my taste. I can set up a full frames nuc for less. If we are going to overwinter nucs/queens I would actually prefer to do it on full sized combs so spring use or promotion to full hives is simple, not time consuming, and does not require gadgets or convertors.

[Calluna4u]

They will probably get through if their stores hold out

Jolanta last fed them only a couple of weeks back and they took it readily and are showing sealed stores beside the topbars. Although we bought a stack of extra frames for them they are actually still all on the four frame format rather than the 6.

She will give them another jug of invert into the feeder before she goes home for the winter in about three weeks time. We are only attempting it with a couple of dozen or so (I don't know the precise number, thats her job) so to feed them all will not even take an hour.

[Jon]

Mini nucs of whatever hue should never starve over winter as all you have to do is add fondant in an empty box above the cluster if stores are low. What kills them is lack of bees or a really prolonged cold spell. Having enough bees in there at the start of the winter is probably the most critical factor.
I have been overwintering a dozen or so apideas for a few years now as a bit of an experiment.
Last year I started with a dozen and all were still alive in mid March but a couple were queenless.
At the hobby level having a few overwintered queens in March/April is a great idea to replace any drone layers found in spring.

I am not convinced yet by the mini plus although Gavin and Prakel and MBC seem to love them!
Apideas cost less than £15 from Swienty and that includes the vat which could be claimed back.
The mini plus is a double unit but you can get 2 apideas for that price.
A mini plus used as a single unit is more or less the size of a nuc so for overwintering you could just use a Paynes nuc with standard frames.
I don't think there is any problem with queens which mate from small units as I have had loads of queens which live for 3 years which mated from apideas.

[The Drone Ranger]

Jolanta last fed them only a couple of weeks back and they took it readily and are showing sealed stores beside the topbars. Although we bought a stack of extra frames for them they are actually still all on the four frame format rather than the 6.

.

Hi C4u
They are easy to pick up one at a time and gauge the weight (in any weather)
You probably only need only look at the lightest one or two to see what is going on
I only have 10 keilers going in but even if half that come through it's a bonus
Spare laying queens are always handy even just a handful of them in Spring

[The Drone Ranger]

What kills them is lack of bees or a really prolonged cold spell. Having enough bees in there at the start of the winter is probably the most critical factor.

Hi Jon
A lot of SBAi folk must have raised a few spare queens for themselves this season
There is normally a flurry of " eeeek! my queen has gone posts" and "don't panic Captain Mainwaring " replies all at the tail end
This year it hasn't happened (probably due to your input)

We should have a poll

[prakel]

I am not convinced yet by the mini plus although Gavin and Prakel and MBC seem to love them!
Apideas cost less than £15 from Swienty and that includes the vat which could be claimed back.
The mini plus is a double unit but you can get 2 apideas for that price.
A mini plus used as a single unit is more or less the size of a nuc so for overwintering you could just use a Paynes nuc with standard frames.
I don't think there is any problem with queens which mate from small units as I have had loads of queens which live for 3 years which mated from apideas.

Love them I do, although my habit of tinkering has shown some possible improvements. The first and maybe most important to me is the use of them as single box units (off the top of my head I reckon that they're probably equivalent to two and a bit bs brood combs -but in a much better configuration). Don't get me wrong, I like twin units (when the doors are in the right place) but I've always found the comb fit in the Lyson mps to be a little tight for my liking when used with the division board. But that's just me and I know that others get on OK with them as twin stocks.

Another is the use of deeper frames but of course that then requires an extension to make the box deeper; full depth frames was the main strong point of the little poly twin mating nuc that Maisemore (and now Park) used to sell.

For quick mating and moving the queens on to their permanent homes none of this reallly matters but I try to keep the new queens in their mating boxes a little longer if I can. I also expect the boxes to winter as it saves the work of restocking them the following year. The slightly deeper frames seem to make a more comfortable unit as the bees create a band of stores at the top more readily than in the smaller frames where our new queens invariably lay to the top bars. This urge of newly mated queens to lay a lot of eggs in a short period of time is one of the things I've been mulling over with regard to queens mated from units with larger combs. Something is telling me that I'm wasting a lot of potential bee-power when I see queens filling bs combs as quickly as their sisters are filling miniplus combs.

...Just when I thought that I was getting the hang of this stuff .

[Calluna4u]

There is normally a flurry of " eeeek! my queen has gone posts" and "don't panic Captain Mainwaring " replies all at the tail end

Oh there was plenty................sold over 50 queens to people in a panic about their bees being queenless in Sept especially. I cautioned against it, that there might actually be a queen and in any case the prognosis would be doubtful, but they went ahead anyway. Will no doubt hear in spring if they are still alive.

[Jon]

Oh there was plenty................sold over 50 queens to people in a panic about their bees being queenless in Sept especially.

I was still getting lots of enquiries for queens right through October.

[Jon]

Don't get me wrong, I like twin units (when the doors are in the right place)

I use a system of coloured pins in my apideas to let me know what is going on without having to open them every time. yellow pin means it has a queen cell, green pin, has a virgin, white pin, has a mated queen, red pin, has a problem of some sort, blue pin means wrong number of bees. This saves a lot of time when you have checking to do or queens to remove for posting. With a twin stock they will often be out of sync.

[prakel]

With a twin stock they will often be out of sync.

I find that they work well but there are a lot of little tricks which make them work even better!