BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > RAPID BEEYARD GROWTH

MultiQueen for Rapid Growth - will this work?

<< < (2/10) > >>

texanbelchers:
Drone escape.  They will plug up the QX if there are many trapped in the box.  It can be really small and could even be an escape cone to prevent re-entry.

TheHoneyPump:
OK thanks.

I made the move and change today.  Hope it all works out!  Placed some thin paper between the excluder and the top box, with just a 1" open slot for bees to go up/down along each wall.  The bees in the top box will have to move out to the walls to go down in the super and beyond.  That should slow them for assimilating to all the queen smells, I hope.  I did not provide a top entrance.  I expect to be back in there within a week, at that time while I work the rest of the bee yard I will lift an edge of the cover at the start leaving a good gap for drones to escape.  Will close it when I am done in the yard. They will have at least an hour to get out and fly.

beepro:
In winter mode the bees tend to cluster together.  The strongest scent queen will cluster with most of the worker bees.  They will choose the strongest queen to survive the winter with.  I've experimented with single and multiple queens over the winter here for the last 2 seasons.  Some will drift to the strong scent queen's hive leaving the weaker queen to die.  Workers are very choosy with the arrival of winter.

I can see that if your bees are aggressive then they will kill off 2 queens while leaving the strongest one to survive the winter.  If they are not the aggressive bees then the majority will cluster with the strongest queen on top.  The 2 queens in the bottom nuc may not have enough bees to cluster in because the QE prevent them from going up the top where it is the warmest place during the winter.  Bees prefer the warmer spot to cluster in.

If the honey ran out then all 3 hives will starve.  This arrangement doesn't work for me. I rather group them together in their individual bee box.  Inside the building you still have to lower the temp. so that they will not burn through all their honey before Spring arrives. 

TheHoneyPump:
They will not be wintered in three like this.  The arrangement is intended just to hold them and keep them busy building population for the rest of the summer while there remains a strong flow on.  This will be 2 to 5 weeks, depending when the first frost hits which could be as early as Aug 20 or as late as Oct 10.

The third queen on the top will be pulled off the top as a whole box to replace/combine with a weak main hive in September. Already decided where she may be going as in the same yard inspected today there is one hive there trying to supercede their cripple queen. That one is just. a sad situation.  She is a beautiful queen, her bees are super productive and very gentle, and she is an egg laying machine!  She's been heading that colony for 8 weeks.  Her problem is absolutely my fault as she was injured during her introduction to the colony where she was balled for a bit before I got them off her.  A few days later they accepted her.  As a result her back legs do not work well, if at all and her wings are chipped.  Because of this they want to replace her.  I've delayed the supercedure for a few weeks (by destroying QC's) in anticipation of the pending flow, timing of her brood cycles, and her downright prolific egg laying.  Now I am letting them go ahead and do it, using her offspring.  If her supercedure fails, Q3's box (her twin sister) will be newspaper combined to take over.

The "condos" will be wintered in two like this illustration attached. Before winter they will be completely packed out with feed. The box will weigh 80+lbs.  The indoor wintering building is climate controlled at 4 deg C constant from mid October all way to end of March when they come out in spring.

BeeMaster2:
THP,
Why did you add the paper above the excluder? 
If you do not have a top entrance, how are the bees going to cool and oxygenate the upper box with a piece of paper blocking the flow of air?  Hopefully the bees removed most of it over night before it got too hot.
Jim

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page