Cloake Board Question

[Swift Nick]

I have been reading up on queen rearing and making a two entrance floor and Cloake board ready for my first queen rearing attempt (other than splitting hives that is).
I understand all of the reversing the floor bit & putting up a sloping front board to help fill the upper brood box, but when do you add the Cloake board? Is it at the point you reverse the floor or do you put it in a week or so before, to get the upper box bees use to that Cloake board entrance in advance of reversing the floor entrance and sending the lower box bees up.
Thanks Nick

 

[Walrus]

This shows one method of using a cloake board https://youtu.be/mS5YGK9OX5E

You want loads of nurse bees and sealed brood upstairs with open brood/empty comb downstairs with the queen. I have zero open brood upstairs and put nurse bees there by shaking them (through a queen excluder). This also gives you a clear view of any queen cells on the frames - get rid of those.

The way I do it the cloake board is closed when you put the grafts in i.e. when it is a "starter." This is also when you change the entrance on the bottom (or rotate box).

A day or two later to convert it to a "finisher" you put bottom entrance back to the front (or rotate box back to original position) and have the cloake board open i.e. it's now just a queen excluder.

https://thewalrusandthehoneybee.com/10-x-10-queen-production/

In my case grafting requires me to wear special magnifying lenses and I use a head torch too. If you don't get the larva at the first attempt give up on that one and move onto the next.

Around 9-10 days after grafting you can remove the now sealed cells and put them in queenless mating nucs.

 

[Swift Nick]

This shows one method of using a cloake board https://youtu.be/mS5YGK9OX5E

You want loads of nurse bees and sealed brood upstairs with open brood/empty comb downstairs with the queen. I have zero open brood upstairs and put nurse bees there by shaking them (through a queen excluder). This also gives you a clear view of any queen cells on the frames - get rid of those.

The way I do it the cloake board is closed when you put the grafts in i.e. when it is a "starter." This is also when you change the entrance on the bottom (or rotate box).

A day or two later to convert it to a "finisher" you put bottom entrance back to the front (or rotate box back to original position) and have the cloake board open i.e. it's now just a queen excluder.

https://thewalrusandthehoneybee.com/10-x-10-queen-production/

In my case grafting requires me to wear special magnifying lenses and I use a head torch too. If you don't get the larva at the first attempt give up on that one and move onto the next.

Around 9-10 days after grafting you can remove the now sealed cells and put them in queenless mating nucs.

Thanks Steve, that is really helpful.

 

[mbc]

I put the cloak board on nine days before I graft, this leaves no open brood in the top box, I only slide the divider in the day before(or sometimes a few hours before) the graft. Nowadays I find the board a bit superfluous as I always go through the bottom box to find the queen to put her aside and shake in half the nurse bees from the nest into the top box, I suppose it does make it quicker 're uniting the two halves once the cells are sealed.

 

[Lancs Lad]

As MBC says I always make the box above the Cloake Board hopelessly queen less by leaving it for nine days and add nurse bees, my preference has now swopped to the Vince Cook method again waiting nine days.