Queen Banking over winter?

Hi all,

can someone explain to me how the system of Banking Queens can work over winter, I'll explain my confusion.

A short while ago a discussion began on the Forum about a Horizontal Hive that was thought to have maybe three colonies in it (with Vertical Queen Excluders) I showed my ignorance and said this would be a good idea as each colony's heat would help the other, I was corrected by it being pointed out to me that the three colonies would likely cluster together, resulting in at least one Queen dying of cold, as she'd be on the wrong side of the Excluder.

So, you can see my confusion whenever this experienced beekeeper in the below YouTube video mentions that he has successfully overwintered Queens in his Queen Banks (at 35 seconds), surely I thought the Queens at the corners would get neglected and die, or does the system work because they are all in the centre of an insulated small hive box?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oz6J8u6dJw

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, no I am not advocating this, nor was I planning on doing it; the phrase "Queen Banking" caught my attention, so my question / post is for purely academic reasons, but I'm sure the answers / explanations may be practical for some other members.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...e_climate_and_its_effect_on_queen_performance
This is in more detail, it was in the beekeepers quarterly a number of years ago with varying degrees of success.

Thanks for that Link,
so according to the Article, the "Mike's Beekeeping" should expect about 16.7% of those Queens to overwinter for a prolonged time (the Article states 5 months, but I understood Mike to be suggesting a shorter time period, hence the reason he may obtain a much higher success rate), but it must be in a Queenless hive, which is what he is doing, I had not understood that significance.

One question, the Article makes reference to "queenless reservoir (QLR) colonies on frame with partitioned honeycomb" what is "partitioned honeycomb", I have done a web Search for it but cannot find any images?
(Later on in the Article it seems to use the phrase "honeycomb cages" instead).

TooBee... said:

Hi all,

can someone explain to me how the system of Banking Queens can work over winter, I'll explain my confusion.

A short while ago a discussion began on the Forum about a Horizontal Hive that was thought to have maybe three colonies in it (with Vertical Queen Excluders) ...

Click to expand...

TooBee, perhaps you're confused between 'queen banking' and 'queen castles'.

Queen banking is as described in the video to which you referred where several queens are banked on one frame in one hive.

Queen castles are basically one brood box (either a standard National or Langstroth brood box, or a horizontal hive) with solid divisions (not queen excluders) creating several small mating nucs under one roof. Neither the queens nor the bees can move from one unit to the other.

So, if the horizontal hive to which you referred had queen excluders then, yes, the queens on the sides might become stranded with the bees gathering in the centre - but if they were separated by solid divisions, then each little unit remains a self-contained little colony with queen and brood.

This sort of stuff is done for the fun of doing it if it is done at all.

To my mind it is not worth the effort and if I were to keep queens over winter then I would and do use mini nucs or five frame nucs.

As ever the KISS principle applies.

PH

Poly Hive said:

This sort of stuff is done for the fun of doing it if it is done at all.

To my mind it is not worth the effort and if I were to keep queens over winter then I would and do use mini nucs or five frame nucs.

As ever the KISS principle applies.

PH

Click to expand...

One benefit of the OSB Rose system is 2 nucs will sit happily beside each other under one roof ( insulated of course)... Have 4 pairs( 8 queens) and seemed to be going ok when I last walked past it!!

In Spring can be stacked with qx between each over one standard OSB BB on one floor and one roof... and fed..... saves a bit on roofs and floors.. and space.

Yeghes da

Hi Madge, thanks for that extra info. and clarification, I think I was confused in the definitions.

Hi Poly Hive, using your system showed the highest success rate in the article that Anduril gave.

But out of curiosity does anyone know what the Article is referring to when it mentions "...partitioned honeycomb" and I think later calls them "...honeycomb cages"? Surely if it's actual wax comb there is the risk of the Queen Bees escaping from it and the problems that would cause? And I can't see how making cages out of wax comb could almost treble the survivability rate of the Queens?