Apiamondia

[pikeydad]

Not only a exellent carpenter but every bit as wise as you forefathers, without trying to sound sycophantic you sound like the most interesting person on the forum and I am glad I read your posts as I was about to give up the idea of making my own mating nucs. P.S. I don't like polystyrene but love wood.

 

[adrian wilford]

eh, dont fool us, your no apprentice, with dovetail joints like those for such a small box!!! where in north yorks are u?

 

[Little John]

I use Apidea boxes - have 26 of them and am very happy with the results. ~ 90% mated, returned and laying this year.
What you do is you only attach a small strip of foundation to the top of the frame - the bees will finish the rest if the queen is good. This is also a good way to see if everything worked out. Lots of fresh comb = queen mated, all happy. Hardly any comb = something went wrong.

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Greets
Phil

Hope you don't mind me reviving this thread, but the above is exactly what I'm about to do ... only with Klindworther mating NUCs:

Now in the video that still was taken from, ("Work in the Cast Swarming Period"), George Klindworth puts a scoopful of swarming bees into the NUC ahead of introducing the Virgin Queen - now as we all know, swarming bees are already geared-up to draw comb.

But from what you write Phil, it seems that bees at any stage are capable of drawing enough comb from scratch in just a couple of days, to satisfy the initial needs of a freshly mated Queen - is that right ?

I've already made quite a few Klindworther mating NUCs for next year, and was just having second thoughts about whether to retro-fit them with frames - but the idea of using the newly drawn comb itself as an indicator of Queen-rightness is very appealing.

Regards

LJ