DerekM Board - A method of AS

[Cussword]

What if you do find the queen? do you stuck her in the bucket or in the hive

She would stay with the bees on the sheet. No bees go in the bucket, it's just a support for the board.

 

[rolande]

you shake the bees off and NOT find the queen.

OK, you establish that she's not on one of the shaken combs by not finding her. Sorry I was so slow on understanding the principle behind the method. Got it now.

 

[Tom Bick]

What if you do find the queen?

It's a reasonable question as I understand the queen has a good grip on the comb and if if a gentle shake is applied every chance she could still be on the comb after some of the flyers fly off. She could be moved to the new hive picked off the comb and placed on the sheet or I guess continue with plan A and keep shaking until she falls front the comb.

 

[Tremyfro]

There are a number of videos of this method on utube....and if you understand Russian...there are lots to see.

 

[Elaine]

What is your honey crop like from this AS+parent colony? Having more colonies is nice. Having a larger crop is better.

We don't have any comparable data on this, as other factors were not necessarily the same, such as hive type, and whether they were given fresh or already drawn foundation in the supers. I could say that last year was the first year we used this method, and that I got my best honey yield ever - but that would be finding a correlation where non was justified

 

[BeeJayBee]

What is your honey crop like from this AS+parent colony? Having more colonies is nice. Having a larger crop is better.

Compared with colonies that have been split at the same time using Pagden AS and all the box-switching 'balancing', the Taranov ones seem to settle quicker and seem to go on to collect more honey. But it's impossible to know whether it's a fair comparison because you can't repeat and try again using the other method with exactly the same bees.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

What if you do find the queen? do you stuck her in the bucket or in the hive

To clarify, I think the attached sketch shows how the bucket is used - it could be a milk crate or a large upturned plant pot. Derek's photos were taken in strong sunlight so you did not get to see the detail of what was under the board because of the dark shadow, which is why, I guess, the bees cluster under there.

Hope this is clear

CVB

 

[user 6228]

Description as PDF.

A description in PDF form. With thanks to the reviewer

 

[rolande]

I still think that checking that the queen isn't somewhere is a lot harder (and far less certain) than checking that she is somewhere. But I'm sure that people who have difficulty finding queens will find the method very useful.

 

[user 6228]

btw, the bees in the photograph now have 6 frames of brood.
how old is the queen? no idea! she flew into the garden with her swarm last year.

 

[snelgrove]

To clarify, I think the attached sketch shows how the bucket is used - it could be a milk crate or a large upturned plant pot. Derek's photos were taken in strong sunlight so you did not get to see the detail of what was under the board because of the dark shadow, which is why, I guess, the bees cluster under there.

Hope this is clear

CVB

thanks the diagram helps