To wire or not to wire? that is the question

[Kate Atchley]

Those of you using Lyson MiniPlus nucs, or similar ones with frames larger than Apideas, do you wire them? I haven't bothered with the first few I've set up but am wondering if this was a mistaken short-cut.

However, having drilled cell-holder holes in the frame bars I have now made covers ... two sizes for running the MPs as single or double units. I might even make those little flaps over the holes as in Apideas.

Must have more time than sense you may say!

Kate
2306

[prakel]

I think that they're much better wired but having said that not all of mine have been done. They're small enough not to demand wiring but it does make for a nicer job if they are. All I'd add is that I'd only ever wire them (or any frame for that matter) with stainless wire. Anything else is a false economy.

[Kate Atchley]

I think that they're much better wired but having said that not all of mine have been done. They're small enough not to demand wiring but it does make for a nicer job if they are. All I'd add is that I'd only ever wire them (or any frame for that matter) with stainless wire. Anything else is a false economy.

Thanks Prakel. Will wire the rest ... with stainless!

[mbc]

I wire mine, much better.
I must say thanks to you Kate for the cut out in the frame suggestion, I have now routed out a conical depression on each side of the middle of the frames on all them that weren't occupied and have found it so convenient and secure for placing cells that I'm hoping to convert all of my mp frames when they become bee less and come back again in. I highly recommend this for anyone who uses the mp format.

[Kate Atchley]

Thanks mpc.
BTW I found this neat drill attachment online and it makes light work of drilling cell-holder holes in the frame bars: XTools 3pc Large Cone High Speed Steel Step Hole Cutting Drill Bit Set. Has to have a big reputation to boast so long a name! You'll find in on the usual online megamarket sites.
Kate

[Kate Atchley]

Lest Gavin kick me off the forum for starting yet another thread, let me ask another question here, of you wizards.

It's been bothering me that newly emerged virgin queens are known to have voracious appetites, so presumably need a balanced mix of food to grow to maturity and develop their ovaries, but here I am setting up mating nucs with young bees, adding about-to-hatch Q cells or newly emerged queens, and all they will have to be fed on is fondant.

How's that for unbalanced food for our precious colony mothers?

Maybe I'll start adding some chunks of comb with pollen to the feeders to bridge the gap until the young bees start to forage (and here in the NW that's an unpredictably luxury these days, with our appalling cold, wet weather)?

Kate

[mbc]

Nurse bees produce all sorts of nutrients from their fat bodies which they'll feed an queen, not sure she needs it though, they're fine in a cage for a while with just a blob of fondant.

[Kate Atchley]

Nurse bees produce all sorts of nutrients from their fat bodies which they'll feed an queen, not sure she needs it though, they're fine in a cage for a while with just a blob of fondant.

Interesting. What amazing creatures these are! Given the weather here, I'm not sure the 'fat bodies' of our nurse bees will be in great shape ... but hey ho, let's see how the queens do.

[Kate Atchley]

Cautionary tale re MPs The temperature finally rose yesterday above the typical June day of 10-12 degrees, and dry! But news from the mating apiary is dismal.

I'd set up the mini-plus nucs as singles to get them going, with fondant. Have you guessed! The bees (and hatched queens I hope) were all clustered in the top boxes above the fondant, creating havoc in the confined space. Will see if I can shift them back down today but it seems starting them is best done with syrup and that metal guard which prevents bees going up into the top box.

As for several unhatched queen cells in Apideas ... it seems they must have become chilled as the queens looked well developed and ready to go otherwise.

Last week I found some of the unhatched queens in the cell-raiser colony had become chilled and died (or so I think). They were in a single brood box above a mesh floor with cold nights and cool days and very little open brood around them. Now I regret brushing all those bees off to put on the cages for the last three days. Mea culpa.

So I live and learn :confused:

Anyone have a reliable minimum temperature they reckon is needed for queen raising?

[Jon]

I have had no problems with my apideas. If they are set up right in the shade with the right amount of bees they should be ok.
At what point do you add your queen cells? I like to add them less than 24 hours from emergence and would consider 48 hours to be the limit. When I add them earlier than that I start to lose queens to chilling.
At 24 hours emergence is near 100%.
I had 45 cells in the incubator a couple of weeks back and every one produced a queen.

[Kate Atchley]

Thanks Jon

The Apideas themselves are generally fine but the cells which failed to deliver queens were strong-looking swarm cells and I was not certain of their age. They were cut out carefully without damage but I guess they went into the mini-nucs too early.

Usually I wait till day 14 or 15, having caged the queens beforehand but using an incubator seems an attractive option after my recent experiences. Yesterday I checked a set of 8 good queen cells in the cell-raiser last seen as they were being sealed. A solitary 3 remained in the centre of the bar, the rest all neatly tidied up as though they had never been there!

Leaves me wondering when's the ideal time to cage cells if you don't use an incubator? The bees have torn down quite a lot of fully-developed ones, and the cold has taken a few more which were caged but might otherwise have been kept warm with a wrapping of bees? Hobson's choice?

We have warm weather now but it is hard to imagine how dreadfully cold and wet it has been, for May and June, with seldom a day temperature above 11 degrees. I see that the colonies I have been working most have succumbed to chalk brood and are clearly stressed. They need to be left to recover.

I sorted out the mini-plus nucs yesterday and found the bees remarkably tolerant of my interference. Pollen going into some of those so maybe they will be okay after all.

[Hamiish]

Hi Just following your threads with interest min temp around 78 F have hatched out q cells in my honey warming cabinet Hamish