How long do Apideas last?

[Martin Pamplin]

I have a colony which swarmed at the beginning of June (I caught the swarm) and has been broodless since. They are however still bringing in nectar & pollen and are a happy docile bunch - which makes me think there is a virgin queen in there even though I have never seen her.

I also have an Apidea (My first) with a mated, laying queen. They have only drawn the back two frames, is this normal?

On Wednesday I am going away for 2 weeks. Should I try and unite these two or will the Apidea be OK for that long?

 

[For want of a better word]

the apidea will either run out of food, space or both.
looked at one ..keiler.. this morning and in 3 weeks had cleared most of the fondant ... 900g.. plus drawn out all frames filled with brood and built comb to fill the feed chamber

and the unwise say amms are not prolific!!!

if you definitely can not see any eggs or young larvae... combine... what would you have done with the apidae queen otherwise?

just a thought!

 

[beebreeder]

This may sound a bit off the wall but it has worked numerous times for me. If you have a spare nuc box open the sliding floor of the Apidea and place the Apidea over the feed hole of the nuc, if you can get the roof on great if not improvise with a fertiliser bag and some bricks, keep the Nuc entrance small and close the Apidea entrance, I have found that providing you have no wasp problem the bees will expand down into the nuc. Wehen you get back from hols hopefully there will be enough bees in the nuc for you to put the quenn down their under a small piece of QX and they will then all move down as the brood above hatches. this idea is not perfect and food is a problem as there is not enough bees to protect food frames in the nuc but its better than them absconding and loosing the lot, if the nuc has a q/exclude then use it. Just an experience

 

[MJBee]

With a small slot cut in the side bar of a super frame (National) the 3 Apidea frames will fit side by side.
I have 5 Apideas and when finished queen rearing I place the queens in Nucs or colonies then start a mini colony in an insulated super. a drawn super frame either side of the 3 apidea frames in the modified super frame. Subsequent Apideas are united with newspaper and their frames added the same way. As more Apideas and therefore more bees are added this mini colony expands quickly and the modified frames can be phased out when empty.