Gloucestershire high-rising for swarm control

[Jonathan F]

Can someone please explain the details of the Gloucestershire high-rising method of swarm control. The method, the advantages and disadvantages and the dos and don'ts.

I've looked at a Cheltenham & Gloucester document, but some things are not as clear to me as they should be.
"If queen cells are found the brood box is moved to one side" - Will it work if no queen cells are present at the start?
"One frame of young brood with attendant bees is placed in the new box" - presumably a frame without any queen cells.
"closed up with two frames of foundation" - with a dummy board.
"Most of the bees are shaken off the frames in the old brood box" - So the old brood box has brood, stores, a queen and a few bees, but it does not sound as though many bees are left with the queen for those first 7-10 days.

Details would be welcome!

 

[dpearce4]

could you post a link to the document so we can read it.

 

[For want of a better word]

Sounds like a variant of an artificial swarm using 2 brood boxes

Moving brood frame with a queen cell to a nwew position with all the bees seems logical... if none new box in new position will produce a new queen... if it has viable eggs/larvae.
any mention of a queen excluder or allowing bees fo fly back to original stance with queen?

As Tracter man would probably say KISS

Yeghes da

 

[MartinL]

. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . but some things are not as clear to me as they should be.
. . . . . . . - Will it work if no queen cells are present at the start?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Details would be welcome!

Without queen cells they are not very likely to want to swarm!

 

[For want of a better word]

Without queen cells they are not very likely to want to swarm!

Some would say that once they are sealed it is too late!

Yeghes da

 

[Jonathan F]

could you post a link to the document so we can read it.

www.gbka-cg.org.uk/swarm_collection_manual_v1.pdf

 

[For want of a better word]

Gloucestershire high-rising -
This method can be used to produce a single three-f
rame
nucleus in which a new queen is raised. If queen ce
lls are found the brood box is moved to
one side and a new brood box put in its place. One
frame of young brood with attendant
bees is placed in the new box and closed up with tw
o frames of foundation. Most of the bees
are shaken off the frames in the old brood box but
the queen must be kept in it. The old box
is placed on top of the supers above a division boa
rd as described above.
After 7 to 10 days the boxes are transposed. The si
ngle frame should now have queen cells​

which can be cut down to one to raise a new queen
Mike Hunt’s method

I think the IF queen cells are found bit is confusing... shirley these would be placed in the new box on the old stance... with queen in old box to one side

The old box with the old queen place atop the new brood box with q cells but no queen... I do it the other way around!
Then when I got to Mike Hunt's method and had to stop reading



( remembering the poor chap who was always being paged over the factory Tannoy system and the poor receptionist embarrassment..... sorry)


Yeghes da

 

[Jonathan F]

bump

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Gloucestershire high-rising -
This method can be used to produce a single three-f
rame
nucleus in which a new queen is raised. If queen ce
lls are found the brood box is moved to
one side and a new brood box put in its place. One
frame of young brood with attendant
bees is placed in the new box and closed up with tw
o frames of foundation. Most of the bees
are shaken off the frames in the old brood box but
the queen must be kept in it. The old box
is placed on top of the supers above a division boa
rd as described above.
After 7 to 10 days the boxes are transposed. The si
ngle frame should now have queen cells​

which can be cut down to one to raise a new queen
Mike Hunt’s method

I think the IF queen cells are found bit is confusing... shirley these would be placed in the new box on the old stance... with queen in old box to one side

The old box with the old queen place atop the new brood box with q cells but no queen... I do it the other way around!
Then when I got to Mike Hunt's method and had to stop reading



( remembering the poor chap who was always being paged over the factory Tannoy system and the poor receptionist embarrassment..... sorry)


Yeghes da

I preferr the simple method of queen cell raising taught to me by my old mentor - Huw Jardon

 

[dpearce4]

looks very bizarre. not a way I would work. The thing I think is that as you are moving the queen away there will be no flying bees so they will stop the swarming process.

 

[prana vallabha]

I preferr the simple method of queen cell raising taught to me by my old mentor - Huw Jardon

which is ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

complicated method, bit of a stiffy really, although SWMBO has expressed an interest, she only said this morning she'd like to get her teeth into it

 

[stilllearning]

It's a method of swarm control probably best used by commercial beekeepers as its quick and you've no need to find the queen. What you need is a brood box about three deep frames preferably with food in and a dummy board , a crown board and most importantly a travelling screen which has been adapted so it can be used as a floor.
When you look through a hive and find queen cells you then find a frame with eggs on ( less than 3 days old) this tells you (a) you still have a queen and (b) you have a frame to use in the high rise. Shake the bees off and put to one side.
Take the the entire brood box off the floor and place it on the screen, checking the floor to make sure the old girl isn't on it .
Put the empty brood box on the floorboard and put the frame of eggs in it with an empty frame either side.
Put the hive back together again then put the original brood box with the queen in on the top with the entrance facing the opposite way to the bottom one .
You can either go through the top box and knock out the cells or leave it if your pushed for time as all the flying bees will return to the bottom and in theory there won't be enough bees left in the top to swarm so will therefore tear the cells down sometimes they do sometimes they don't .
Leave for 7-10 days.
On your return go through the top box and if there's eggs the queen is still there .take off the top box and swap it with the bottom one . Hopefully the frame of eggs which was left in the bottom now has queen cells drawn out as they had no queen for a week.if you want knock off all the cells bar one arrange the frames with the food queen cells then the dummy board and put it on the top and hey presto job done .
It's a quick and easy way to get another queen and a method of swarm control doesn't always stop them but then if bees are determined to swarm there's not a lot you can do to stop them flying away anyway.
It's not to everyone's liking and it's something you need to persist at we've been using it for over 30 years and it's nice to have it as an option and when your right in the thick of the swarming season you can get through a lot in a short space of time .
There's a few other things which need to be taken into consideration , is there a flow on , is there enough food , can you get back in the next 7 days and so on and so on.i could write another page on it but hopefully covered the basics .
Also it can be used as a crude way of queen breeding as you don't have to use the eggs from the original hive you can take some eggs from a queen that you like.

 

[Hivemaker.]

It's a method of swarm control probably best used by commercial beekeepers as its quick and you've no need to find the queen.

Have used this method as well, i just call it a reverse vertical artificial swarm, it is well described on the old German IWF videos, and i tend to use the method where after a week the frame of brood with cells in the lower box is removed, or just the cells destroyed, and a second frame of open brood given for another eight or nine days... for them to make more cells from, this usually ensures the bees have well and truly got over their swarming impulse.

 

[B+.]

this usually ensures the bees have well and truly got over their swarming impulse.

Its a pity nobody makes videos like this anymore. IWF were ahead of their time

Its C13136 "Selection of the Honeybee - yield and behaviour" if you can find a copy
The German TIB (Technical Library) own the copyright now but I didn't see it in the index. Maybe its still available somewhere.