Construction of a Snelgrove Board

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

charlievictorbravo

Drone Bee
Joined
Jul 31, 2012
Messages
1,802
Reaction score
77
Location
Torpoint, Cornwall
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
2 - 14x12
I want to make one of these but it's turned out to be not as straightforward as I had hoped:
  • the drawing on Dave Cushman's site shows different thicknesses for the rims - I think it was 9mm on one side and 12mm on the other. Why is this and how would the board be set up on a top beespace hive - thick rim on top or bottom?
  • DC site also indicates mesh on both sides of the central opening. Is this just belt and braces or is there another reason for this design overkill?
Any explanations would be appreciated.

CVB
 
I want to make one of these but it's turned out to be not as straightforward as I had hoped:
  • the drawing on Dave Cushman's site shows different thicknesses for the rims - I think it was 9mm on one side and 12mm on the other. Why is this and how would the board be set up on a top beespace hive - thick rim on top or bottom?
  • DC site also indicates mesh on both sides of the central opening. Is this just belt and braces or is there another reason for this design overkill?
Any explanations would be appreciated.

CVB

I think the double mesh is so the lower bees do not come into direct contact with the upper bees.
Mine has 9mm laths all round on both sides.
 
Last edited:
I want to make one of these but it's turned out to be not as straightforward as I had hoped:
  • the drawing on Dave Cushman's site shows different thicknesses for the rims - I think it was 9mm on one side and 12mm on the other. Why is this and how would the board be set up on a top beespace hive - thick rim on top or bottom?
  • DC site also indicates mesh on both sides of the central opening. Is this just belt and braces or is there another reason for this design overkill?
Any explanations would be appreciated.

CVB

On a top beespace hive, you'd be wanting an extra-deep rim on the upper side that acts as a 'floor'. And on the other side , errr ... you've just discovered what type of hive Snelgrove was thinking of ... and it wasn't top beespace!
 
Quickest suggestion I read about is to cut slots on a crownboard which has raised trims on the edges on both sides. It can then be dual purpose.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys, but I think I have an answer, of sorts. Having spent a few hours searching the internet I went old-school and looked in Snelgrove's book - Swarming, Its Control and Prevention.

He says to use 1¼" x ⅜" (30mm x 10mm) battens - so both the same size - and he says the hole "is covered by a piece of wire cloth or perforated zinc fastened to the board by drawing pins" - a piece not two pieces!

The big question is why would he go for a 30mm wide batten when that was 12mm wider than the box side it was resting on?

CVB
 
...The big question is why would he go for a 30mm wide batten when that was 12mm wider than the box side it was resting on?...
My guess is that the battens were what he could get cheaply, could be laths for plaster? With a wider batten, that may be economising on board thickness, does he say what he used?
 
...
He says to use 1¼" x ⅜" (30mm x 10mm) battens - so both the same size - and he says the hole "is covered by a piece of wire cloth or perforated zinc fastened to the board by drawing pins" - a piece not two pieces!
...

Ask yourself what difference TBS/BBS wouldmake.
And what the man himself was using.

Then ask yourself what benefit a second mesh sheet (stood off from the first) might give. (Hint - read back a few posts)
Then ask yourself what possible harm it could do.
 
My guess is that the battens were what he could get cheaply, could be laths for plaster? With a wider batten, that may be economising on board thickness, does he say what he used?

Snelgrove refers to "three-ply wood" but I guess the overall thickness depends on the thickness of each ply but its probably not much above 5mm.

CVB
 
Ask yourself what difference TBS/BBS wouldmake.
Not much as far as I can see.

And what the man himself was using.
probably BBS

Then ask yourself what benefit a second mesh sheet (stood off from the first) might give. (Hint - read back a few posts)
The second mesh sheet might diminish physical contact but that is not what its function is. It's there to allow heat to pass to the upper box and to allow the scents in the two boxes to be pretty much identical so that flying bees "bled off" the top box are accepted in the bottom box straight away.

Then ask yourself what possible harm it could do.
The 12mm rim suggested by Wally Shaw would give quite a wide bee space under the brood box above, so it could lead to brace comb.

Now that I've given my view, perhaps I could have the benefit of your lights.

CVB
 
Not much as far as I can see.
What is the size of the beespace between Snelgrove's board and the his frame topbars?

Using a TBS hive, what would that beespace become?

Is that "not much difference"?



The 12mm rim suggested by Wally Shaw would give quite a wide bee space under the brood box above, so it could lead to brace comb.
Similarly, consider the space between the bottom of your brood frames and the floor - for that is what the board is to the top box.
How much for Snelgrove's BBS hive with his board, and your TBS hive with your board?
Not much difference?
That's fine then!
 
The double mesh is honestly, I am not making this up, to provide a little more separation between the bees in the lower box and the bees in the upper box. When you say this is not its function, that depends on what you are using the board for! There are many uses for the snelgrove board. The pieces of mesh are fixed on with drawing pins so you can take one or both off if and when you need to.

Don't agonise over it too much! Make one that will do what you want. When you want it to do something else, modify it or make another one.
 
Finished at Last

Here are two photos of the finished article. I've gone with 7mm on the underside, which combined with the top bee space of 8mm gives a rather large gap of 15mm above the frames and below the board. The rim on the top of the board is 12mm and this would be the space between the board and the bottom of the frames in the box above.

As you see from the photos, I've gone with only on piece of wire mesh, fitted on the top of the board with some drawing pins. The board has been coated with Pargyles patent Propolis/Metholated Spirits mixture to give it a 'bee smell' but I might varnish the exposed edges to give some weather protection.

It will be interesting to see how I get on with the Snelgrove Board when the season gets underway.

CVB
 

Attachments

  • P1050197 (1024x768).jpg
    P1050197 (1024x768).jpg
    119.7 KB · Views: 52
  • P1050198 (1024x768).jpg
    P1050198 (1024x768).jpg
    96.3 KB · Views: 46
Here are two photos of the finished article. I've gone with 7mm on the underside, which combined with the top bee space of 8mm gives a rather large gap of 15mm above the frames and below the board. The rim on the top of the board is 12mm and this would be the space between the board and the bottom of the frames in the box above.

As you see from the photos, I've gone with only on piece of wire mesh, fitted on the top of the board with some drawing pins. The board has been coated with Pargyles patent Propolis/Metholated Spirits mixture to give it a 'bee smell' but I might varnish the exposed edges to give some weather protection.

It will be interesting to see how I get on with the Snelgrove Board when the season gets underway.

CVB

Nice job ... that will do it ... what's the worst that can happen ? - They will propolise it where it's too tight for them and build comb where it's slack - nothing that a bit of work with a hive tool won't put right and it's not going to be on there for long. It's a useful bit of kit in some circumstances although Demaree is probably the more common method these days.

Barnsley beekeepers have a nice page on using a Snelgrove board:

http://barnsleybeekeepers.org.uk/snelgrove.html

There's also a good thread on here:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=23085
 
Back
Top