Horsley v Snelgrove

[Kate Atchley]

Was there a thread on this already ... or did I see that on another forum?

Thought I'd share Horsley/Snelgrove experience with you.

Made and used 2 Horsley boards for first time this year. They enabled successful queen replacement and the harvesting of some good queen cells for nucs. I found them very easy to use and appreciated the bees' capacity to even out their numbers and share stores most of the time, when the slide was open sufficiently for them to move between boxes.

Used 1 bought Snelgrove with less success. Got a new queen all right, but she absconded when they ran low on stores because I'd bled off too many flying bees into the lower box. Seems a big guessing game knowing when and how much of that to do. Don't want to be checking them too often either. Any advice on that?

During the swarming fever of July, when we had lovely weather, some bees were swarming before Q cells were capped and it was almost impossible to get ahead of of them all. So I'll make more Horsley boards and next year try using them on all the stronger colonies.

Would love to hear more on this.

Kate

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Kate

I've only ever used Snelgrove boards
Can't say about the absconding thing because I would only be using them during the oil seed rape.
I think it depends how much food they had to begin with
You can give them some I think it doesn't end up in the supers
It's an easy way to stop swarming,get a new queen, get a decent workforce/honey crop, and separate the old and young bees which helps with health.
I have never used a Horsley board but I might give that a go next year.

[The Drone Ranger]

I made up cards to keep track of the hives

Hope that its readable

I will get making the Horsley boards this winter I hope

[Adam]

the Drone Ranger: A real thumb-nail picture!

I've not used either boards. I have an old copy of Snelgrove's book and once I read it I decided not to bother! With regard to feeding, Brother Adam used to use diluted honey rather than syrup; at least this would not dilute any stores if it got into any supers.

[The Drone Ranger]

the Drone Ranger: A real thumb-nail picture!

I've not used either boards. I have an old copy of Snelgrove's book and once I read it I decided not to bother! With regard to feeding, Brother Adam used to use diluted honey rather than syrup; at least this would not dilute any stores if it got into any supers.

Thing is Adam for people with one or two hives they can raise the best quality queen without any equipment other than the board and a spare broodbox.
The big plus over any other method is you have all the flying bees still working hard at the same time.
If your supers have drawn wax and the bottom broodbox is foundation all the honey goes in the supers
The bees make all new wax in the lower box which keeps them on better comb
The older bees and the young brood are separated which acts as disease control for acarine and nosema plus some help with varroa if the mesh is fine enough.
Swarming is controlled during the main honey flow even if thats oil seed rape.
Later when the queen in the top hatches you are operating a double queen hive which is very strong.
After the main flow you can split the hive into two or just put the top box with the young queen on the hive stand and remove the old queen.
No matter what happens you won't be left with a queenless hive unlike a normal split.
And you never get left with a drone layer.

I have 3 copies of Snelgroves swarming book all very old
2 copies of queen rearing
1 of the introduction of queen bees

You get the bug and start collecting them

[neilr]

Is there a decent plan for making a horsley board other than the cushman site? Some materials are ambiguous.

[neilr]

Looking for louvre materials, the type of metal used for a slide and dimensions would be really handy. That way I can decide if it's cheaper to make or buy made, though I'm led to believe Stamfordham have none heft for 2012.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Is there a decent plan for making a horsley board other than the cushman site? Some materials are ambiguous.

Bee-Craft sells a booklet 'How to use a Horsley Board for swarm control'. I don't know if it includes information on making one. They also published an article about it in the May 2009 issue with a good drawing and dimensions which, I think, is easier to make than the Cushman one. I've downloaded it from their website at some stage, but I can't see it there anymore. Send me a message if you want me to forward the pdf to you.

Kitta

[Phil's Bees]

The Demaree swarm control method can also be used for queen rearing, and only needs an extra queen excluder. See here:

http://www.twickenham-bees.org.uk/tedstip-demaree.html

However, the reason for the slide to cover the queen excluder in the Horsely board is so the newly hatched queen, who is still very slim, cannot go down and kill the old queen, which is OK if you are wanting to replace her, but not if you want to raise a new queen for an increase. I would recommend making a Horsely board, but I know people who have used an excluder successfully.

Whatever method you use, it is essential to look in the top box three days later and remove any sealed queen cells, as these queens will have been raised from older eggs and will not be good queens.

[Kate Atchley]

I would encourage anyone who wants a Horsley board to make their own. If I can make them anyone can!! I used cut-to-size acrylic ordered online for the slide, instead of metal sheeting, as it was easier to buy and inexpensive.

The BeeCraft booklet How to use a Horsley Board for swarm control has simple instructions on constructing a Horsley board and useful advice on its use so worth buying if you want to try them.

There are also clear photos on the BBKA site at http://www.bbka.org.uk/members/forum.php?t=5089.

SBA have a paper on various queen rearing/swarm control methods including a Horsley board (with a rather complex slide): http://scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/Por...er5%202011.pdf.

Have fun with it all and do keep us posted.

Kate