This is a comb from a mating nuc which we ran without frames as a trial; it may represent a change of approach for us in future years as it presents a lovely option for growing the colony on into a larger hive....
Yet again we have a scratch-built comb with the cell walls orientated opposite to the 'text book' position. This is a comb from a mating nuc which we ran without frames as a trial; it may represent a change of approach for us in future years as it presents a lovely option for growing the colony on into a larger hive.... By using top-bars we're able to transfer the mating nuc combs into empty frames, the bees then follow the existing comb and fill out the frame. At a later point these unwired combs can be replaced but initially they present an opportunity to create new colonies very cheaply
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It may seem that all of our queens are of an orange variety, giving rise to the usual mixed appearance of the workers that we become so used to seeing but occasionally we find a throwback to a more uniform appearance, in this case the entire colony has a dark look about it, very 'carnica' like.
Below is a photo of the frames that they're on at present; a very basic construction put together out of cheap timber using our frame assembly jig which we blogged about last year. We over wintered them on five of these half size frames (approx area equal to two and a half langstroth combs) in an OSB box. At present they're being used to build more mating nuc combs for use in July. Back in the spring we did a short post about some small mating nucs which we'd built entirely from scrap wood; small off-cuts which were far too small for anything else we could think of at the time. We're now seeing the first of them finally put into use... Always lovely to see a new queen laying.
Total cost in financial terms? A few pence for the nails and a tiny amount of syrup just to give them a foothold when they were initially made up. We made a twitter post a while back about the cell orientation in a natural comb in one of our hives; we don't as a rule use foundation anymore, in fact it must be the best part of eight years since we last bought any. There is a cost of course, in the energy and resources that need to be tied up to produce a box full of scratch built comb but the learning curve is quite absorbing. The tricks which are employed to get good, straight combs where WE want them certainly add another facet to our beekeeping. Back to the cell orientation, our twitter post was about the comb shown at the bottom of this page, with it's cells built with the flat sides at top and bottom. Today we noticed another such comb (our header photo) in another, unrelated, colony. This has started us thinking, how often do bees build comb in this manner and why do they do it? We'll be keeping a closer eye on the cell positioning from now on. Do you overwinter 'spare' queens? Each year we try to leave a queen in each of our larger mating nucs as an insurance policy against winter losses; a spare queen at this time of year can save an otherwise good stock that has a drone-laying queen. Of course, we usually have plenty left over which we can then use to head increase nucs in May. Another advantage is that this method keeps the mating nuc frames stocked so when the time comes to place the first batch of queen cells we don't have the hassle of restocking empty mating boxes. Considering the winter which these small wooden nucs have been subjected to (relentless easterly winds for over two months) they seem to be doing really well for themselves. The frames are approximately the same size as a half length dadant shallow (langstroth medium) frame. The box in this photo holds eight frames during the winter months but is large enough to receive a central division board later in the season so that we have two four frame mating nucs in each box. When making up frames we use a simple jig which can be built out of scrap wood but will give excellent service for many years if looked after. The one shown in these photos is designed for our own special mating nuc frames but you can build your own version to accommodate whichever frame you use. The keys to the construction are that 1. It should be a top bee space configuration. 2. The sidewalls should touch the sidebars when they are placed in position (we don't want a beespace at the sides). You can make the jig to any length that you find convenient as there's absolutely no need for it to take exactly the same number of frames as the hive box does. |
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