r/Beekeeping • u/Either_Fisherman2307 • 1d ago
Anyone know what this is? I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question
12
u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, zone 7A 1d ago edited 1d ago
Here are some photos of me setting up with a timing frame and releasing the queen onto the isolated frame. It’s like a vertical queen excluder. It is removed 24-48 hours later and the queen goes on her way. 96 hours later just hatched larvae are grafted into queen cups.
* OP's photo shows a system where two frames are used. Some two cage systems have an escape route for the queen when another box is above the brood box, albeit it is laybrinthian and unlikely. Other forums have beat this horse dead, I won't go there. My preference is to use just one frame as a graft timing frame so I use just one of the vertical queen excluders with a full horizontal queen excluder on top and confine her frame against the side wall. The photos I linked show how I set that up. I suppose one could use the other vertical excluder and set up another timing frame in another hive but I don't engage in queen rearing on that large of a scale.
•
u/apis_insulatus79 22h ago
Do you sell Queens?
•
u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, zone 7A 20h ago
I do. Most springs I have a small number of nucs for sale but will not in the spring of 2025. I requeened all of my own hives at the end of the 2024 summer and used all my spares. I offer local in the Wasatch mountain area of the Rockies. I don’t ship, not big enough. It is one of the ways that I keep the hobby self sustaining.
•
u/apis_insulatus79 20h ago
Just curious. This sub is full of some amazing people without a doubt. I hope to one day be half as knowledgeable and experienced as you are. For it being a hobby it seems you have dedicated quite the effort to mastering this craft. Thank you!
•
u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, zone 7A 20h ago
I had the fortune of being mentored by a grandfather who was a commercial beekeeper. That said, I keep leaning new things and finding great new ideas on various forums. Stay curious and keep discovering.
4
u/fishywiki 12 years, 20 hives of A.m.m., Ireland 1d ago
This is also used as a biotechnical mechanism of controlling Varroa. You put the queen in with a frame and replace it with another after 9 days. When the first frame is sealed, remove it from the hive. Repeat three times with 9 days in between. You'll get to the point where there's only one frame with larvae that the mites move into and you can trap most of them in it. It's very effective. If you start this about 3 weeks before the flow, there will be minimal brood in the hive at the start if the flow so all the workers will turn into foragers, so there's a side effect of increasing the honey crop.
The first time I heard about this was a lecture by Ralph Büchler. It's described here as "comb-trapping".
2
u/OhHeSteal 1d ago
What do you do with the frame of capped brood you remove? If you do this to the point that there is minimal brood won’t you have a period where there are no nurse bees in the hive?
•
u/fishywiki 12 years, 20 hives of A.m.m., Ireland 5h ago
Give it to chickens or freeze it to kill the mites. Yes, the goal is to have no brood other than the comb traps. All the other bees get you extra honey and they are happy to revert to nurses once the queen starts laying normally.
2
u/MrHungryface 1d ago
Well that one I have not seen before just a cut up qe
1
u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, zone 7A 1d ago edited 1d ago
For a long time queen breeders would make their own queen isolators by cutting, bending, and combining queen excluders. I used to use a tight fitting follower board with a big hole in the middle and a QE stapled to it. It was a kludge but it worked. However for a few years now systems manufactured for the purpose have been available. The photo is one made for the purpose.
44
u/talanall North Central LA, USA, 8B 1d ago
That's a queen confinement cage. People use them to control which frames the queen has access to lay eggs into, either to force brood breaks or as part of their preparations for queen grafting.