Apiamondia

[The Apprentices]

i bet the apprentices could turn their hand to making frames with drawn wooden foundation judging by quality of the wood working/joinery.

Heh

I'm gonna have a go at making a foundation mould from instruction on an African beekeepers blog.
They made theirs using silicone rubber and a frame around it.
The pour the liquid mix over an existing sheet so get the patterns in the mold.

The guys there say they can make 50 sheets an hour.

Search for, Bush Mechanic-beeswax foundation mold.

I am also trying out another idea of mine for making starter strip/ possibly full length, its a warm pour cold water dip tank process similar to the bush mechanic costing very little to make, only time which costs me little these days.

If things work well I will share the findings.

 

[Phil280]

Hi there.

Those boxes look the stuff. Well done!

My queen excluders have gaps of 4 mm. (4,1 mm officially)

The Apidea Styrofoam is rather soft, the bees have a gnaw at it, the wax moth has a go and every now and then one gets dropped

But they are in use from April to about August (or over winter).
As these small boxes have been known to wander off never to be seen again, I paint mine with a biological paint and brand them with my initials as a deterrent.
Not sure if pics are about in the forum but I will just attach some.

Greets Phil

 

[The Apprentices]

Hi there.

Those boxes look the stuff. Well done!

My queen excluders have gaps of 4 mm. (4,1 mm officially)

The Apidea Styrofoam is rather soft, the bees have a gnaw at it, the wax moth has a go and every now and then one gets dropped

But they are in use from April to about August (or over winter).
As these small boxes have been known to wander off never to be seen again, I paint mine with a biological paint and brand them with my initials as a deterrent.
Not sure if pics are about in the forum but I will just attach some.

Greets Phil

Cheers Phil

The break down pictures of the nuke have helped a lot.

I see the Apidae has a top vent so this is where I might place a vent on mine.

4.00mm it is then, thats the same as the disc, on the Cushman basis.

One slot has a 5.00mm gap, one a 4.00mm gap and a 16.00mm full flight hole and a grill with a collection area of 2.5mm holes for extra ventillation when the bees are shut inside.

Thanks again.

 

[Tom Bick]

Also can anyone advise to what size hole queenie cannot sneak through or get stuck in, before I drill the holes, the floor of the feeder is 9.00mm thick plywood.

You may be advised to cut a larger hole and then cover with a queen excluder if you want to stop the queen getting into the feeder.

Its one thing to ask a worker bee to push past to thin pieces of a queen excluder and quite another to expect her to squeeze through a tunnel although even if that is only 9mm long.

Miller feeders are ok but in my opinion Ashforth feeders are better, I have limited experience with small hives like this but I think the feeder arrangement may act as a heat sink to the bees when they are first getting established.

 

[Phil280]

Hi there.

Note that the top vent is only open when the flight hole is shut!!!

The front of the Apidea (which i painted blue/red) slides up and down. When the bees are free to fly the only ventilation they have is via the flight hole.
When you shut the flight hole for transportation you push the "shutter" down which uncovers the ventilation.

Greets
Phil

 

[The Apprentices]

Hi there.

Note that the top vent is only open when the flight hole is shut!!!

The front of the Apidea (which i painted blue/red) slides up and down. When the bees are free to fly the only ventilation they have is via the flight hole.
When you shut the flight hole for transportation you push the "shutter" down which uncovers the ventilation.

Greets
Phil

To answer both yourself and Tom

When the ball is first dumped into the nuke they are obviously going to be a tad peed off, I have also been told that it is sometimes advisable to slide the feeder back out of line leaving a small gap between the two boxes on the front so you dont forget, but not large enough for them to leave so they get extra air.

Another thought is I can drill above the flight hole and adjacent to the series of 2.5mm cluster of holes for extra ventilation.

As my box is at the moment is as if the poly hive is open at the bottom and the top vent shut off, so what I will do is test it out and take detailed temprature recordings with all the information gathered before and after the calming down period has taken place and simply watch the bees.

For the holes in the feeder I will drill stepped holes that eliminates the tunnel effect and acts as an excluder, if its still not right I can open the holes and fit an excluder.

The thickness of the timber in this case 20.00mm will act in both ways as insulator and barrier, so I could place an extra heat sheild above or place the box somewhere shaded for the time of mating.

Lots of thanks again to all

The Apprentice.

 

[The Apprentices]

Just finished the third box and I could make two of these systems in a normal working day, including frames, feeder and roof complete.

 

[Phil280]

Hi there.

Not quite sure how you guys in the UK get your bees into the nucs, but I have only once managed to have the bees die of overheating in one Apidea. That was because I stacked 9 boxes 3x3 and strapped them together for transport. The box in the centre got to warm.
For transport I usually spray the ventilation with water so the bees can cool themselves down.

20mm should be sufficient. We have very cold winters and our hives have 25mm and I have open mesh floors that I do not close. The problem in small boxes is keeping them cool. Warming a confined space is no problem for bees.

Greets Phil

 

[Phil280]

Ooops - somehow managed to double post that.

 

[drstitson]

Look Mummy! It's a Warre mating nuc!!!!

 

[The Apprentices]

Look Mummy! It's a Warre mating nuc!!!!

You know that's not a bad idea, they are square, they are small, baby Warre nukes it is.

The trio is now complete and after much deliberation and advice from the whole I have indeed, opened the feeder entrance as the bees on testing found it a chore to crawl through the series of tapered holes.

I have overcome the venting problems by making a roof section, although on the large side, that covers over the feeder and comes part way over the main hive so nothing blows away unaided.

The venting is in the form of two fixed wooden spacers that run inside the uppermost two inside edges of the top cover, that hold the roof open along two sides giving adequate ventillation, venting through the feeder cage and out over the two raised side vents.

I will in due course maker a bespoke queen excluder, glass quilt with queen cell insertion orifice, and pictures when they are done.

Thank's again for all your help and ideas folks

 

[drstitson]

they look wonderful - almost a shame to use them!!!!

 

[The Apprentices]

they look wonderful - almost a shame to use them!!!!

Cheers Doc

The bees will appreciate them and hopefully reciprocate with a few nice queens next year all going well.

They are going to be used in a project for rearing local strains from our immediate area, to try and breed more suitable strains of bees fitting for the localised climate.

 

[The Apprentices]

Latest Apidea sizes

I have been asked by a reader to give the sizes of my latest apidea, I will run through them for everyone else who might want to make something similar to their needs.

First the revolving entrance, this is an exact copy of the Cushman varient, the holes in the wood are made by first drilling the two 10.00mm holes then the larger 15.00mm hole last, see drawing below, the larger entrance hole is 50.00mm dia and 3.00mm deep.

When you make the entrance make to holes in it to match the holes in the timber as closely as possible to aquire a cleaner passage way and faster exit.

I have placed the two lower smaller holes fairly close to the bottom of the front pannel as possible so the bees can vacate along the bottom bee space and in between the middle frames through the main flight hole when open.

It might be advisable to draw everything to scale to be sure of everything fitting properly, measure twice cut once.

 

[The Apprentices]

Main box measurements

The box itself is made from off the shelf 20.00mm PSE redwood/pine.
The front and rear boards are 182.00 wide by 115.00mm deep, both of these have the 10.00 by 10.00mm frame ledge cut on the top insides.

The two side boards are 195.00 by 115.00, I dovetailed my boards together with the tails on the front and back and the pins on the sides, when the hox is assembled you should have an internal measurement of 155.00 by 143.00 depending on the actual thickness of the timber you purchase, it can vary fom supplier to supplier by a millimeter or so.

On this model I have fitted a mesh floor and sliding varroa floor for surveying.

The mesh is the same size as the outside of the box and held in by two slotted rails measuring 25 by 20mm with a central groove of 5.0 by 5.0 mm a fitted with a section of plywood or in mine some sign makers foam board from the skip.

The two slide rails are placed over the mesh and held in place with wood screws, the rail at the front has a screw either end but not in the middle otherwise the middle would end up coming through the doorway.

The rear rail has three screws.

 

[The Apprentices]

frames

Frames are made from 23.00 by 9.00mm flat strips with a 3.00mm by 3.00 groove in the middle done over the top of a saw bench or you could cut this using a tenon saw with a wooden guide clamped on one side.

The top rail is 173.00mm long.

The two side bars are 100.00mm long and are set into the underside of the top bar by 5.00mm and the outside of the side bars should be 18.00mm from either end of the top bar leaving a bee space.

On these I have slightly releaved the edges by 2.00mm to give a little extra breathing space.

The bottom bar is a 6.00mm dowel which can be taken out to slide a sheet of foundation in and then replaced.

You should find that there is at least a bee gap all around and between the floor.

 

[The Apprentices]

I think that covers most things, if I have missed something please ask.

I have made ten with the very elabourate matching rapid type feeders and ten with simple jar top feeder units, both would suffice I will soon see which on is better if at all.

The entrance disc again is a mirror copy of Cushman's best made from alloy because the brass ones I did are a lot of work, I have drawn these out in CAD and now get them laser cut.

 

[Teemore]

A timely update - I need to make some mating nucs in the near future and your posts are a good and inspirational prompt!

 

[Nic Rhodes]

How are the bees liking these mating hives?

 

[PuckUk]

Another variant on the mating nuc is within this 1970's German skep Out Apiary.... I'm absolutely enthralled with the content of the whole series....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA5pY8hOEj4[/ame]

Definitely worth watching the whole series..