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Thread: The Rose method of queen rearing

  1. #11
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    That's exactly right Adam. However, one of the 2 hives I am using for this has no supers on and the results are about the same. In this case the bees get into the grafting half by climbing over the dividing wall from next door, travelling along the bee space under the crown board. In both hives the half with the grafts end up with many more bees than the side without. I suspect though, that in the supered one some of the bees in the grafting half had come out of the super and had been intending to go to the bottom box but had been held in the grafting half box by the plastic sheet.

    The grafting box is not only a long way from the queen but convection currents from the bottom box are diverted straight past it which must reduce the queen pheromone even more.

    Steve (I'll give up on Rosie as my cover was blown long ago)

  2. #12
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    The beauty of the system is that it's so simple, so for that reason alone it's to commended!
    It's worth making a couple of 1/2 boxes to try it next year.

  3. #13
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    I have tried it now on 3 different hives. One had supers, one had no supers and the other was 2-queen system. It seemed to work equally well on all of them and on top of that none of them swarmed during the whole season (so far - (how do you do a fingers crossed smiley))

    Steve

  4. #14
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Does sound like a neat option.
    I presume the colony needs to be fairly strong to ensure larvae are getting a good amount of jelly in the cells.
    It is certainly a better option than that contraption with a double stack connected by tubes which appeared in the bibba magazine a while back.
    Beekeeping should be kept as simple as possible.

  5. #15
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    I butchered some kit to try "that contraption" a couple of years ago and concluded that it wasn't worth the hassle.

    As for the colony strength for my method, the 2 colonies I used this year were pretty average to small. I suppose strong colonies produce more royal jelly but I think the real advantage of large colonies is that, in most systems, they generally draw more cells. Perhaps my small colonies have produced poor queens but I have not tried them yet apart from noticing that they are filling their nucs pretty quickly. I remember reading somewhere though that you only need 200 nurses to raise a queen in any case. That means I would only need 3000 to care for the 15 or so queen cells that I have been producing.

    Steve

  6. #16
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    I remember seeing the 'contraption' written about on the old BBKA site. I'm pleased that you tried it rather than me if it was too much of a faff!

    With the Rose method, do you move started queencells to a finisher colony or leave them in until the 15th day and then distribute?

  7. #17
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    Adam

    On the day after grafting I simply remove the plastic sheet from under the half brood box to make them fully queenright again. I then put them into the nucs 10 days after grafting. I currently have 2 systems on the go so I graft into one or the other every Wednesday and distribute on Saturdays. On one ocasion I tried grafting into the second box a week after grafting into the first (in the same hive) but none took but it was done during the early June gap when nobody else's grafts were being accepted in any case so I think it's worth another try.

    Steve

  8. #18

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    Steve
    Would a piece of ply splitting a standard brood box in half suffice or does it have to be 2 separate boxes?

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Black Comb View Post
    Steve
    Would a piece of ply splitting a standard brood box in half suffice or does it have to be 2 separate boxes?
    It has occured to me that a divided box should work just as well but I haven't tried it. If you give it a go I would take care to make sure the dividing ply extends down to the queen excluder and also seals the bee space at the bottom of the top brood box.

    The only disadvantage I can see is that you can't lift one half to place or remove the plastic sheet but an advantage would be that you will not have the problems of removing bees from between the two boxes when they are replaced.

    The only reasons for me starting with 2 separate boxes were

    (a) that I initially used them in my 2-queen system where a divided box would not work and
    (b) separate half boxes can be used for making up nucs by simply lifting them off the hives after ensuring that brood, bees and stores are present. I haven't tried this yet as I have not managed to make half sized floors and roofs but I might find time this winter for that.


    Steve

  10. #20

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    Thanks Steve.
    I use LS so as long as I ensure ply is flush with bottom and leave a top bee space should be OK.

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