Modified Snelgrove ll

Aaaargh!!!!
What's happened to the weather???????
I need to get into two boxes to do step 2 in a couple of days and weather's not getting better.

Use an umbrella and keep going if raining, one of those big ones you can stick into the ground.

Thanks HM....I know.........just having a grumble.
Just back from Step daughter's wedding in Cumbria, thought we'd stop in The Peaks for a little walking. It snowed in Buxton yesterday!

Invest in one of those gazebo/tent looking things. Or ask nicely and someone will hold a big umbrella over proceedings. The joys of living in Wales.

Hope you can get step 2 done and please report back. Still trying to get my head round this method, leaving QCs with Her Majesty to prevent swarming, still struggling to get my head round that concept!

Anybody else use it regularly?

Yes, agreed, I have to do part two on another one of mine today. Brrrr! My main worry has been the rapid depletion of stores. I'd prefer to see more pollen as well as nectar coming in for the original colony (limited foragers) who have wolfed down their stores but will still need to build some decent queen cells once I repatriate the queen! Good job I have plenty of spare store frames in the freezer!
I do see the vertical arrangement (especially with this weather) as having the additional benefit of keeping the 'warmth' under one roof and thus hopefully conserving stores a little more. I currently have 2 being AS'd vertically with a split board and 2 being done with separate hives.

On the upside the first one I did is all going fine so I am happy with the technique so far.

Erichalfbee said:

Aaaargh!!!!
What's happened to the weather???????
I need to get into two boxes to do step 2 in a couple of days and weather's not getting better.

Click to expand...

This is why I don't start queen rearing until the start of May. Some years it is possible to start earlier but our climate is so unpredictable that anything can happen.

Jimmys Mum said:

! My main worry has been the rapid depletion of stores. I'd prefer to see more pollen as well as nectar coming in for the original colony (limited foragers) who have wolfed down their stores but will still need to build some decent queen cells once I repatriate the queen!

.

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Yes. My worry is the Q+ side of the AS I had to do and the box they laid up last week. May have to throw on a feed. The QC can look after itself mating-wise; I don't want increase from my most swarmy strain and will reunite in due course.

Erichalfbee said:

Aaaargh!!!!
What's happened to the weather???????
I need to get into two boxes to do step 2 in a couple of days and weather's not getting better.

Click to expand...

I've got to go through the top box above a Horsley board and sort Q cells tomorrow. As well as rain the forecast temp is 9C. Not a happy prospect.

Fatbee said:

Hope you can get step 2 done and please report back. Still trying to get my head round this method, leaving QCs with Her Majesty to prevent swarming, still struggling to get my head round that concept!

Anybody else use it regularly?

Click to expand...

The concept is a brilliant one. It's the foraging new nest seeking bees that initiate swarming. Remove them and the rest of the bees, not having a clue where to go, settle down. The colony size is much depleted too. There is some wonderful stuff on this in "Honeybee Democracy"

Am I right in thinking that when you repatriate the queen to Q- bottom box you can simply put her back in without any protection (e.g in a cage) because of the mixing of scents through the snelgrove board. So, the Q- section don't turn on their old queen?

Fatbee said:

Am I right in thinking that when you repatriate the queen to Q- bottom box you can simply put her back in without any protection (e.g in a cage) because of the mixing of scents through the snelgrove board. So, the Q- section don't turn on their old queen?

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http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Swarm-Control-Wally-Shaw.pdf

Have a read of Wally shaw's Swarm Control guide

Thanks for that - I had been reading Wally Shaw's many uses of a snelgrove board guide where he talks about this method but in less detail. Puts my mind at ease this more detailed explanation

Fatbee said:

Am I right in thinking that when you repatriate the queen to Q- bottom box you can simply put her back in without any protection (e.g in a cage) because of the mixing of scents through the snelgrove board. So, the Q- section don't turn on their old queen?

Click to expand...

I've done this queen moving twice now, two more to go at the weekend.
The first time, I did cage the queen with a small plug of fondant. All was well. Today, the bees were quite calm so after I broke the emergency queen cells down in the bottom swarm hive, I just popped her on the top bars and she slipped on down unchallenged. I guess I'll find out how that went in a week or so! I also had a bit more confidence in that this was a vertical arrangement above a snelgrove board so as you say, the scents should be mingled.

The stores situation was a lot better in this one today also. Plenty of store to raise a fresh new queen in the parent hive

The logic laid out in Wally's guide would suggest this to be a safer approach than Pagden where the queen is still left with those bees with the swarming urge - so will try it if swarm cells appear before I get to do a preemptive vertical split but very good to hear successful stories from those already implementing it!

Erichalfbee said:

The concept is a brilliant one.

Click to expand...

Well..............
What happened in my two boxes
AS
made lots of emergency queen cells which husband and I removed.
Hooray!!!!
The parent colony
What we found was..........
There was one QC torn down from the side
There was one maybe two emerged QCs, we watched another emerge and helped another two out.
We opened maybe another ten or so in which the queen was dead but the cells didn’t appear interfered with.
There were a few charged but not capped which were destroyed.
Queen was still there,laying and was repatriated to her old hive.

Oh well……………..will look in in three weeks and see what’s what.

I will try this method again.

The fact that your old queen was still there and repatriated safely sounds like you have a result with some virgins hatched.

Well, I hope there's a few....too many to start chucking out cast swarms

There'll be one by now. Good result.

I wonder why they didn't tear down all of the queen cells as they were supposed to? Did your girls not read the WBKA booklet EricA!

How far away was the parent hive moved? Do you think it might have inadvertently maintained a proportion of the foragers and they were therefore still intent on swarming?

The two I've looked at already are all going to plan so far. I need to do stage 2 on two more on Sunday so will see what's going on in those when I open them up. I started a third off yesterday upon finding some charged QCs.