Skyhook
Queen Bee
- Joined
- May 19, 2010
- Messages
- 3,053
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Dorset
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 5
Going back to basics, Pagden (generally) works, and your method seems not to. Looking for the differences between the two, they are principally the amount of communication between the two halves.
I can understand the logic of the mesh panel if you intend to recombine, but I don't understand the logic of the open feed-hole. You say With transit allowed between top and bottom, flying bees migrate to bottom box, nurse bees remain in top BB with brood.- but this is exactly what would happen without this. If you close the feed hole and open the rear entrance from the beginning, you have a vertical pagden. If you intend to persevere with this method, I would suggest that is the first thing to change. You may wish to add a feeder on the top box until they have their own foragers, depending on the amount of stores in the BB.
It may be worth fitting the mesh over the feed hole, then covering it solidly, so they know exactly who is where. You could then remove the solid covering a few days later when the excitement has died down, to prepare them for combination.
.
I can understand the logic of the mesh panel if you intend to recombine, but I don't understand the logic of the open feed-hole. You say With transit allowed between top and bottom, flying bees migrate to bottom box, nurse bees remain in top BB with brood.- but this is exactly what would happen without this. If you close the feed hole and open the rear entrance from the beginning, you have a vertical pagden. If you intend to persevere with this method, I would suggest that is the first thing to change. You may wish to add a feeder on the top box until they have their own foragers, depending on the amount of stores in the BB.
It may be worth fitting the mesh over the feed hole, then covering it solidly, so they know exactly who is where. You could then remove the solid covering a few days later when the excitement has died down, to prepare them for combination.
.