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Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:11 Jul 2019, 14:08
by Japey Edge
Hi everyone,

It has almost been 3 weeks since I set up my mini mating hive. Hopefully soon I will be seeing signs of the queen laying.

I know there's some time left before I need to take the next step, but I'd like to get a plan together early. I'm wondering, do you just transfer them straight into a nuc box with a couple of drawn frames and dummy out the rest?

Of course they can't keep their frames, so what would happen to the mini mating hive frames of brood?

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:11 Jul 2019, 15:09
by AdamD
Depends on what you want to do with the queen of course. A mini-nuc is not going to be able to populate a nuc as it is, however a nuc with bees and brood and no queencells will accept a queen with little risk of rejection. It's generally considered best to allow the queen to be in lay for a couple of weeks or more so she matures a little.
For the bees in the mini-nuc, once all the brood has emerged, you can shake out in front of a hive.

I have done a newspaper unite with a mini-nuc by sliding the bottom out and using newspaper. If you then feed the mini-nuc, the queen will move down and the mini-nuc frames will be filled with stores. Once they are sealed you have some frames for next year if you keep the wax moth out.

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:11 Jul 2019, 16:33
by Japey Edge
Ah that's very interesting! Starting the year with drawn comb would be awesome, better still with stores.

At the moment all my hives have queens. Two are mated, one is virgin, then this mini mating hive has a virgin too.
This isn't a situation I expected. So really this one is spare.

I have an angry-ish small colony but there's no telling if they'll get more angry, or if this queen in the mini mating hive will produce similar-tempered offspring. So replacing another queen in my apiary would be purely guesswork.

To be fair, most of my actions so far have been guesswork.

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:11 Jul 2019, 17:22
by AdamD
Japey Edge wrote:
11 Jul 2019, 16:33

To be fair, most of my actions so far have been guesswork.
Welcome to the world of beekeeping! :lol:

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:12 Jul 2019, 13:35
by Alfred
Japey Edge wrote:
11 Jul 2019, 16:33
Ah that's very interesting! Starting the year with drawn comb would be awesome, better still with stores.

Just looking at instructions on bespoke info- it's saying not to use previously drawn comb??

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:12 Jul 2019, 13:42
by Japey Edge
Really? That sucks...

Anyway, it's down to us to reinvent the rules :o

:lol:

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:12 Jul 2019, 19:31
by Alfred
Or bend them-you could put one or two drawn at the ends and the starter strip in the centre
That would leave room for a good clump to fit in but also let them have a head start.
Did you get yours from the super or a shake from brood frame?
I got mine from upstairs I'm not sure I got enough .
I'm thinking I could have filtered them somehow with a Qx....

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:12 Jul 2019, 20:45
by Japey Edge
I shook a few super frames into a builder's bucket. I had a QE in place beforehand so I'm satisfied I got a decent bunch of bees. I do think I put too many in though...

What's the status on yours?

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:13 Jul 2019, 06:08
by Alfred
I only assembled on weds evening
I've given them a puff of water spray through the vent as advised.
The boxes have been moved slightly so I'm fearing the grandchildren have been in the forbidden shed ....
I harvested four cells and put two in each box
I'd like to have seen a second hole in the crown board for this-but Appidea clearly know best.
The difference between the brand name amd the cheap one is big but they do the same job so it's down to nature and me in the end. :shock:

Re: Apidea/Mating Hive Next Steps

PostPosted:13 Jul 2019, 08:25
by AdamD
A frame of stores in a mini-nuc plus some drawn comb or foundation is fine. If you have some drawn comb and then you have a queencell from a good queen, the queencell can be removed from a hive with a decent 'tag' of wax at the top end and then it squashed against the drawn comb to secure it. It seems to stick better than to foundation. I have read that you should use foundation to "give the bees something to do" but they don't seem to mind what they have!

I mostly use Swi-bines which don't have holes in the plastic crown board, rather than Apideas. Swi-bines have a plastic bottom with ventillation which slides out rather than a solid polystyrene one which is better in my view. The 'cheap Chinese copy' mini-nucs seem to be a cross between the two types - with plastic frames of the Apideas which catch bees as you put them down and the plastic bottom board of the Swi-Bines. The frames of the cheapie mini-nucs fit genuine Apideas.

I have (made) two 8 frame mini-nucs which take the Swi-bines frames, so I can expand colonies if the bees need space or I can combine them if I wish into one bigger box.