Apidea Boxes

[Busy Bee]

I have 2 Apidea's made up,
1 still has virgin queen 2 weeks and the other has no queen.

I was lead to believe that a queen will mate in 9 days in an apidea, Its now 15 no mated queen. The weather is perfect, I have a queen mated in about 10 days in a full hive starting to lay.

Is the Apidea system fictitious?


Busy Bee

 

[ENZO]

I was just about to give up, 3 weeks and no eggs in 4 of my apidea's out of 5, then on my last inspection, I saw eggs in all of them, now the problem is that there were eggs on all the frames and nowhere else to lay.

This is my last year of using Apidea's, I find them just too small/fiddly, a midi nuc would be much better and you could leave them a little while longer.

I don't find that the queen mates any quicker either, probably just a myth to sell the things

Hope for the best, Enzo.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Is the Apidea system fictitious?

No, these and the other mini mating nuc's work very well or i would not be using large quantitys of them,you are best to get the queens out of the smaller one's as soon as the queen is proven to be laying properly,after about ten days,and don't put to many young bee's in them.
My queens are mating very fast in them at the moment with this hot weather.

 

[PaleoPerson]

I have used 2 Apideas and three full hives to mate queens in the last month or so and did not notice any difference in mating times. Also lost 1 queen in Apidea and 1 in hive when they did not return from mating flights. All others were about three weeks until they were laying.

However, I found the Apidea easier to use in an emergency, I had a queenless hive and united the colony with an Apidea with a virgin queen inside and all went very well.

The reason I used the Apideas, was to produce queens to replace others with minimum interruption to egg laying i.e. the intention was to produce mated queens for introduction.

 

[Roy S]

I find apideas are great, the only thing I find though is that bees soon run out of space in them, at the very least get the larger feeder that sits on top of the apidea and allows use of five frames instead of three. I use a super on all mine together with a feeder. This gives me 10 apisea frames or roughly equivalent of three shallow BS frames of brood. allows a lot more flexability, and touch wood...I've not had any of the reported absconding that apideas and other mini nucs are supposedly notorious for.

 

[Haughton Honey]

This is my last year of using Apidea's, I find them just too small/fiddly, a midi nuc would be much better and you could leave them a little while longer.

Try a Kieler mini-nuc Enzo.......it has a larger volume but the principals are the same as an Apidea.

 

[Max]

I've used Apedia's and they work well. The thing to remember is they are there to get the queens mated and laying, then you move them and start the process again.

Just make sure they have shade in this hot weather or else they will abscond.

 

[Poly Hive]

I think the Keiler came along first and it is they I refer to when I discuss Mini Nucs. I have always thought the Apidea too small.

PH

 

[burren]

Hello
I tried 2 apideas recently ( 1st time) and they now have eggs in both. I put 8/9 days q cell in and today in day 27.

 

[Bcrazy]

I have just today checkec both of my Apis one has the queen mated and laying well the other was constucted before the other one and the queen was 10 days overdue. So i removed the queen cell and cut it open to see if it was BQCV that might bee the cause of no emergence. here's what i found>

Thank fully it was not Black Queen Cell Virus but why she did not hatch I do not know. So members Apis do work.and some don't
Enjoy your queen rearing

 

[Busy Bee]

Hi all,

I left the Apideas as long as I could and walla the queens have mated. However I have noticed the 2 queens look very small. Would there be a particular reason for this?

Regards


Busy Bee

 

[crazy_bull]

Try a Kieler mini-nuc Enzo.......it has a larger volume but the principals are the same as an Apidea.

I agree i have a dozen Kielers and find them great and easy to use, I chose them for the bigger volume against a apidea.

C B

 

[beebreeder]

As HM says they work extremely well especially when a flow is on, I have both Apidea and Kielers running at present (lots more kielers) The Apidea definitely are harder to use and the colonies buid up very quick even with a feeder above and two extra frames, they will abscond more readily from Apidea, but Kielers can suffer attachement to the sides. But all in all the Kielers win hands down, thanks HM

 

[beebreeder]

They also need to be strong from now on as the wasps get around and they are easy prey

 

[susbees]

I agree i have a dozen Kielers and find them great and easy to use, I chose them for the bigger volume against a apidea.

C B

Right, we have a control experiment here. Our breeding group met yesterday at an apiary as follows:

1. My 3 Keilers...one with just hatched virgin, two with ripe cells
2. 5 Apideas in total...three with just hatched, two with ripe cells

All from the same batch, all mininucs within fifteen feet of each other. The only difference being that the mininucs had been preused (drawn comb etc) whereas the Keilers were fresh this week (no comb).

So we'll see...

 

[thebhoy]

Re the Kieler ...

Does anyone know of a UK supplier for the additional top boxes that they make?

These can be added and built up with extra bars added to help the mini nuc colony grow.

I couldn't find anyone and ended up making one up from some timber and using mini top bars.

I did find a company in Germany that sells them and some other interesting products.

http://www.holtermann-shop.de/index.php/cPath/70_67/category/begattungskaesten.html

Thebhoy

 

[ian]

Hi

Thebhoy:Find out what company's are going to Stoneleigh and put an order in for them to bring some kit over in the Spring.

Thornes sell kiellers and have a few on the shelf at Windsor


Regards Ian

 

[susbees]

From my non-existent German...thanks IM translator...I'm pretty sure they are Segeberger second boxes (compatible)...the idea from elsewhere is that with ten or twelve frames filled with brood on transfer that there's your nuc. Sorted.

I like . Well unless I need the Keilers for another batch in which case back to Plan A.

 

[susbees]

Now the time wasting has started. German catalogue...with white puttees to put around the all-vulnerable bottom of suit to shoe gap so the lady concerned can wear her slip-on patent shoes with neat wedge heel....well I assume it's a woman...

...enough. Coffee.

 

[Hivemaker.]

(Modern beekeeping) Rooftops on this forum sells kielers.