Apidea basics

[Bob Bee]

Its my first outing with Apidea so some sensible advice would be appreciated:
For succesful use in raising queens from queen cells produced by my own colonies:
When using bees and Cells from the same colony how ripe should the cell be for success, or how early after a cell is sealed will it still be ok to move bees and cells together into the apidea.

When using bees from a different colony from the cell how long is it ok for the bees to be in the apidea, drawing comb before a ripe cell is introduced.

Anybody point me to a useful guide for using these, that will answer these questions, explain the process well ?

 

[madasafish]

http://www.beedata.com/data2/mininucs.html

 

[itma]

The basic idea is that you move the QC to the Apidea at the last possible moment. OK, the day before she is due to emerge ...
Or you put in a virgin in a hair-roller ...
The Apidea has nothing to do with raising the cell, and you don't touch the cell until it is well developed (almost a bee).

By the time you put a cell in the mini-nuc, you want the bees to be established in there and feeling queenless.
Starting off, its a cupful of baby bees* and food**, for "3 days" in the dark and cool, misting the front mesh at least once a day, before adding the QC.
They should have made some sort of a start on comb drawing on the foundation starter you provided.

After removing the mated Q to her new colony, you can give them a new QC a matter of hours later - and keep the same Q-mating colony going, with drawn comb, bees etc.
Doing this, your need will be to "bleed off" flying bees (as with the Pagden A/S method) to avoid the mini-nuc becoming overcrowded. You shouldn't need to top up with more baby bees.



* Getting baby bees to fill the thing. Take a frame from the BB, give it a gentle shake, walk away from the hive, and shake it hard into a big bucket, and spray the bees lightly with a plain water mist (some suggest syrup).
After doing this with a couple of frames, you'll have plenty of baby bees in the bucket. You want about a cupful (250ml?) of bees for a normal 3-frame Apidea. A flexy plastic beaker is a not-too-damaging scoop/measure.
And you load bees via the removable floor.

** Food. Fondant is conventional. IMHO syrup would be better (if you don't have to transport the thing) as otherwise they'll be limited by their water availability. But the Apidea feeder insert ought to be painted to ensure its water-tightness, and some put a skein of hay into it, to prevent drownings.
Put the bees in (to the upside down Apidea) before you think of loading food... (especially syrup)

 

[Bob Bee]

itma
I've two on the go, one with bees and queen cell, but three days off emerging (best guess) one with just bees, no cell second day inside, cool dark place in a bush adjacent to the apiary. Set up as described above, bees in bottom, fondant in feeder,spayed with mist on the vent screen.

In two days time I intend to move the one with just bees to another site where there will be at least one QC which should be just two days from emerging.
I'll read up on the beedata link but would still appreciate any experienced advice.
I'm fascinated that its renewable without replacing baby bees.

 

[Bob Bee]

at what point/points do I allow the bees in the Apidea to fly ?

 

[MJBee]

3 days in the dark shut in and misted with water daily, then introduce the ripe QC move to mating location and open the entrance, then cross all fingers for successful emergence and mating.

 

[oates]

Is it necessary to evict drones before placing b/b bees into the apidea?

 

[beekeeping4you]

Yes

 

[mbc]

Yes

Really ?
I've read that keeping bees confined with drones will agitate them, but in practice I've stopped filtering out drones and find it makes no difference whatsoever.
Obviously if you're sending mininucs out to specialist mating stations with selected drone populations, sending your own unselected drones with them would be unpopular.

 

[susbees]

Obviously if you're sending mininucs out to specialist mating stations with selected drone populations, sending your own unselected drones with them would be unpopular.

Indeed. Very. Forty grafts in the last couple of days. Onwards (probably to rain)...

 

[beekeeping4you]

Really ?
I've read that keeping bees confined with drones will agitate them, but in practice I've stopped filtering out drones and find it makes no difference whatsoever.

Hi mbc,
This time it will make a difference, there is my new 'Schley' Insemination Kit waiting for the first batch of virgins this year!

We will fill the Apideas next Tuesday with the QE in front of the entrances where it will stay until the inseminated queens have produced the first capped brood. A single drone trying to leave the box could already spoil it all...

(Otherwise I agree, a few drones in a mating hive didn't make a difference, the bees always evicted them within days.)

Regards
Reiner

 

[Bob Bee]

Helpful stuff thanks. I did my first grafting session with CBBIG last week, will soon have this queen rearing business sorted, hopefully. I may also do a demaree on one of my strongest colonies, nice dark bees on a double brood drawing a third super, but only if it develops cells.....

Paignton zoo have just introduced some nice dark bees into the tortoise enclosure, from local stock (the local news called them Cornish Super Bees, a description I'm happy to live with.....)

 

[mbc]

, a few drones in a mating hive didn't make a difference, the bees always evicted them within days.)

I dont find this in my mininucs, in fact the opposite really, my mini nucs seem to attract a limited number of drones.

 

[aberreef]

I've been planning on rearing a few queens from a hive I had to AS last week. The QCs are due to hatch on Monday or Tuesday. I've got 2 new Warnholz hives ready.

Is it possible to introduce the bees and QC at the same time? Weather here has been appalling all week and set to continue so I don't want to bother the hives more than necessary.

 

[Bob Bee]

I dont know Wornholz but using apadea I have had two successes using bees and cells introduced at the same time, but they were from the same hive.