APIDEA MATING HIVE
£25.50 £30.00
Comes complete with 3 brown plastic frames, queen excluder, ventilation grid and transparent inner lid.
Once queen cells have been raised, the virgins have to be mated. This has traditionally been done by making up a nucleus, with full size frames, for each queen, effectively taking a lot of bees out of honey production, just to support one queen. Modern plastics, and a different approach to creating a mini colony, have given us the mini-nuc, which uses only a cupful of bees at a time. Not only that, but each mini-nuc can look after a number of queens in succession. This is the technique: Assemble the mini-nuc with a strip of foundation only, no comb, in each frame. Fill the feeder compartment with candy. Shake young bees into a box and spray them with sugar syrup. Drop one large cupful of sticky, wet bees into the mini-nuc, and close-up, making sure that ventilation is clear. Leave for about an hour, until the bees roar in panic, then run a virgin queen in. Leave in a cool dark place for two or three days. Release the bees at the chosen site. Check in two weeks for signs of laying.
- Made from hard styrofoam, the walls are approx. 20mm thick for optimal insulation.
- 3-frame brood box, which can accommodate 5 frames with feeder section removed.
- Roof with roller cage recesses
- Removable sliding floor
- Removable feeder - capacity for up to 500g fondant
- Transparent inner lid with an opening for the insertion of a queen's cage with a cover flap
Once queen cells have been raised, the virgins have to be mated. This has traditionally been done by making up a nucleus, with full size frames, for each queen, effectively taking a lot of bees out of honey production, just to support one queen. Modern plastics, and a different approach to creating a mini colony, have given us the mini-nuc, which uses only a cupful of bees at a time. Not only that, but each mini-nuc can look after a number of queens in succession. This is the technique: Assemble the mini-nuc with a strip of foundation only, no comb, in each frame. Fill the feeder compartment with candy. Shake young bees into a box and spray them with sugar syrup. Drop one large cupful of sticky, wet bees into the mini-nuc, and close-up, making sure that ventilation is clear. Leave for about an hour, until the bees roar in panic, then run a virgin queen in. Leave in a cool dark place for two or three days. Release the bees at the chosen site. Check in two weeks for signs of laying.
