Cloake Board Technique

[Bush_84]

Hello all. I?ll try to post some pics tomorrow as I have a cell to harvest. I am merging two methods. The Ben harden method, the cloake board method, and some stuff of my own invention. For those who have never heard of the Ben harden method is involves dummy boards to concentrate bees onto your grafts. I?m using frame feeders. I should also mention that I?m using five frame deep Nucs for this.

As of right now I have three Nucs stacked (as well as a super which I think I put on premature and am to lazy to remove...might do so tomorrow). Each nuc has an entrance hole and an entrance disc. One thing I should have done upon installation is face the bottom nuc to the back and the top entrance to the front. That?s my setup as of now. I turned the bottom nuc so it?s rear facing tonight. I?ve used the bottom nuc as an entrance up until now. So the second from the bottom nuc now has its entrance open. The top box has two frame feeders and two frames. I try to get a mix of plenty of pollen, some nectar, and some open brood to draw up nurse bees. Right now the entrance on that top box is empty. Below this box is a queen excluder and a cloake board. My cloake board is different than most as it doesn?t have an entrance. It has a slot that I put the board in. It has a block I put in when not in use.

So what i plan on doing is opening the top entrance and closing the middle. Then opening rear entrance. Also slide in board. Then later in the day putting in grafts. After 24 hours remove the board. I put my grafts between the top bars. I don?t want to make many at one time. Just a couple as I don?t have the resources to mate a ton at a time. I can handle one or two every couple of weeks. This method would also allow this hive to continue to grow with minimal interruption. I would simply cycle combs up to the top box now and again so the queen can lay them up again.

Thoughts/constructive criticism?  One thing I was thinking as I was typing is to leave the top entrance as the main entrance. This would avoid confusion.

[Bush_84]

Pic from behind.



Pic from the front. Should have had all my discs same color.



From the inside. I made more than intended but didn?t want to get shorted by grafts that didn?t take.



Close up of the top box with the grafts. You can see my slide in board.

[beepro]

It is interesting to see that they made the cap cells in a queen right hive.   I cannot make them to
make these QCs when the hive is still queen right in the bottom.   Maybe the cloak board tek has a magic of its own.

[Bush_84]

When you slide in the board it essentially makes the top box queenless. All the tinkering with the entrances forces more bees into the top box. I made up my grafts yesterday and will remove the board today. Once the cells have been started, a Queen right hive won?t tear them down.

[little john]

Hi Dan - I recently stumbled across a superb write-up on the Cloake Board which, as well as covering the standard stuff extremely well, also describes further uses for the board:
http://threeriversbeekeepers.com/documents/CloakeBoardMethod.pdf

Best of luck with your system.  I see you've chosen the same principle as myself by employing a nuc box for the queen-rearing itself rather than a conventional full-sized brood box - which makes so much sense when producing smaller quantities of queens.
I have a spare 5 over 5 nuc stack not doing anything right now, so yesterday I set about converting that stack into a setup exactly the same as you've done - the only difference being I plan to introduce larvae in the form of a Hopkins frame - which should prove interesting ...

"Merging methods", sure - why not ?
LJ

[Bush_84]

A lot of beekeeping is learning from multiple sources and adopt what suits you and your region. Mash them all together to form a beekeeping practice. I have found the process of the cloak board intimidating until I put it together that I could just use Nucs and entrance holes in each box paired with discs. This way all I have to do is turn a few discs and install the board. I may not always use the frame feeders. I?m still tinkering with the system.

[Bush_84]

First queen of the year.