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With the lid closed, another hole was drilled to lock the lid closed. This pin would a slip pin that could be removed as required. An old frame was used to see how well the cage could be located. Some of the comb was cutout with a sharp knife and then the top wire was snipped to allow the cage to be inserted. If this system works effectively, the top wire won?t be inserted into future brood frames. As we won?t be allowed to move brood frames into honey supers when varroa hits, this won?t be an issue.
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1mm attachment holes were then drilled through the cage sides and tacks were used to attach the cage sides to the base. The top bar of the frame was held in place and a 1mm hole was drilled through both the frame sides and the top. This would form a hinge for the top of the cage. A chamfer was then sanded on the top to allow it to pivot open.
A couple of 1mm diameter pins were then made from galvanised wire. The hinged lid was then attached with one of the wires. This allowed the lid to pivot open for the insertion or removal of the queen.

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After a bit of trial and error, I finally came up with a simple design for a queen cage to help battle varroa. A commercial cage that looked interesting was not readily available in my location so I decided to make my own. I started with an old plastic queen excluder for the sides of the cage. A queen excluder should allow nurse bees to enter but prevent the queen from escaping. Dimensions were made to suit the frames that I was using. Two sides were marked out and cut with tinsnips. The top lips of the cage will slip over the frame top bar and will basically keep the frame in place. A pin could be used to support the cage if needed. 25x6mm timber was then cut for the 4 sides of the cage. Two sides of the cage were then quickly stapled to the base.
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I started experimenting yesterday by cutting up a plastic queen excluder as mentioned by Occam. I was able to get one made up but had a few issues with the construction technique and design. I will make a few subtle changes and then post it in the ?Today I Made? tread if I get the design organised. I want to keep the construction as simple as possible. I saw the deep frame isolation frame when I did a bit of research. It also has some merit and would be simple to use. It would mean no handling of the queen and would be a quick solution to isolating her. Unfortunately they are not readily available in Australia and the cost is pretty high. Things may change as varroa ramps up and suppliers get into the swing of selling all sorts of gear related to the control of the pest. The main design constraints that I have for the queen cage are:

1) It must be able to be positioned on a brood frame in the middle of the brood box
2) Nurse bees must have access to the queen from both sides of the frame
3) The queen must be able to be placed or removed from the frame with minimal handling
4) I would like to make the whole brood box broodless to make varroa treatment more effective
5) Catching the queen, putting her into a cage and positioning it on a frame should be a simple task that takes very little effort.

That?s my thinking anyway. Not sure if I?m on the right path but I?m sure that you guys will put me straight if I?m heading off course.

Phillip, I will have a look at that thread a little later. Thanks for that. From the training course that I attended, it looks as though brood breaks are going to be another important control measure for tackling varroa.
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I checked all my little colonies today.  None of them needed more space, which on the one hand was a little discouraging because I figured they'd have grown more by now, but on the other hand was convenient because I'm basically out of equipment.  I'm going to be driving down to the Blue Ridge Honey Co. sometime next week to get more boxes.  I also had one final colony I was waiting to see a newly mated queen in, and today I saw BIAS, so the entire apiary is now officially queenright.  :smile: 
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Yes, Occam, that's correct.  And if you leave that frame until it's capped and then remove it, you'll trap a lot of the varroa in that frame, since there is no other brood in the hive.  I've done this several times, although I've had some problems with my setup.  A few years ago when I first tried this, they didn't make frame isolation cages for mediums (I use all 8-frame mediums), so I took a plastic queen excluder, cut it into pieces, and used them to isolate 2 frames up against the wall of a brood box.  So I had a 2 frame wide QX piece on the top of the brood box, an identical piece on the bottom of the brood box, and then a piece that I would slide in vertically between frames 6 and 7, surrounding frames 7 and 8 in QX material.  The problem was that I had queens escape this makeshift isolation frequently, since my vertical piece didn't fit the box perfectly.  Also, some of my bees display hygienic traits, where they pull brood that is very infested with varroa, and with those colonies, I could never get them to fully cap the frames, because they'd pull the bad brood and the queen would re-lay, so the brood wasn't all the same age.  I haven't done a "trapping treatment" (that's what I call it) in the past year or so because of these problems.  But I'm thinking about getting an isolation cage at some point and then trying it again.     
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So you put her in the frame cage and keep her there until there isn't any brood elsewhere in the hive, then release her and remove the frame with brood that was in the cage to create the brood break? Am I understanding that correctly?
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Sacrificing a queen excluder to make several queen cages with wouldn't be a bad investment, I imagine an excluder could be used for several cages therefore several hives. Could even be permanently attached to the frame with a hole drilled through the top for putting her in/letting her out.
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Les you might find the following topic interesting. We had a three page discussion on brood break a few years ago, with some points made by TheHoneyPump and other heavy hitters.

https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=53778.msg489512#msg489512
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