New book on Apideas

[DanBee]

Can I post this here? I've just published a book on Apideas that I've been working on quietly for some years.



It's a practical manual intended to guide people through using these for queen mating. 250 pages, over 280 colour photos and illustrations.

More details, page previews and ordering links here. I'm selling signed copies direct, and Northern Bee Books are stocking it. £25 for the softback and £45 for the hardback.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes it’s fine Dan.

 

[Brian Bush]

This is an excellent book!!!!!! Five smiles!!!!!
Hi Dan my wife bought me your book for my birthday in January. I am over half way through and was going to post an endorsement on the forum when I had finished reading it.
It is one of the best written most practical books I have ever read. Well done. I reccommend it to all. I will be writing a review fot our next Association Newsletter!!!

 

[Buzz Off]

Can I post this here? I've just published a book on Apideas that I've been working on quietly for some years.

View attachment 35127

It's a practical manual intended to guide people through using these for queen mating. 250 pages, over 280 colour photos and illustrations.

More details, page previews and ordering links here. I'm selling signed copies direct, and Northern Bee Books are stocking it. £25 for the softback and £45 for the hardback.

Well done. This is an excellent book, very practical, so well explained and demystifies the Apidea. I bought it from the Book Depository for €28.50 softback which included postage to Ireland. Can't wait for your next book

 

[DanBee]

Brian, Buzz - thanks for your kind comments - but most of all glad you enjoyed / are enjoying reading it and have picked up some useful practical tips from it. It does amaze me that the Apidea has been around for some forty years without anything really in the way of guidance.

 

[SWEET]

Looks very good, quick look at the links - does the book cover adding virgins directly with the scoop of bees? (rather than adding a cell and leaving in the dark for 3 days?) reason I ask, tried that last year and worked fine so wanted to check this was not just luck.

I'm a big fan of these units.

Ordered

 

[DanBee]

Hi Daboss

Thanks for ordering. You describe a shortcut that can work, but success is conditional on a number of factors. When it works, it's great, when it doesn't work, it's not always clear why not, and you've lost a viable virgin queen.

I treat just-pulled virgins and ripe queens cells the same - either pop them into a queenless already-established apidea, or add them when filling with bees and then store in the dark. The confinement period is not just for letting the queen emerge, its principal purpose is as time for the box of bees to realise that they are, in effect, a new colony, and to start to behave accordingly when released. Following this rationale gives me better success rate for establishment... and it's not as if a just-pulled virgin is going to be taking mating flights during that time anyway!

Dan.

 

[SWEET]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the details.

Maybe luck and I'll try again against the 3 days dark method this year. I'd literally placed a cup full of wet bees with virgin (hatched from incubator an hour or so earlier) closed them up and moved to mating site, left them for an hour and opened the unit. As you say, at scale this would prob fail vs the method of locking them in for 3 days. It was really just a test to see what happened and get some bees into them.

Looking forward to reading the book

 

[DanBee]

Hi Daboss - moving them to a different site would have helped with the success, assuming the usual distances. Let me know how you get on if you do decide to test both approaches in quantity at the same time and in the same mating apiary.

Have just wrapped your book up for postage, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

Dan.

 

[Ian123]

We used gather the bees and keep in a travel box in the cold workshop toilet for 2-3 days giving the odd spray of weak syrup.
You’d prep all minis and have emerged virgins to hand. It was then a case of lid off the swarm box and spray as much to stop them flying, measure of bees into mini dunk virgin and cage. Drop the virgin in and close lid, they then stayed like this and placed out in the evening. I didn’t like opening them all together in daylight as you get a cloud of confused bees and some minis gather more than others.

Dan….Will the book be on sale at the show?

 

[DanBee]

Hi Ian - yes, another variation, confining the workers before distribution to the mini-nucs.

Yup, Northern Bee Books have it now so they'll will have the book on their stall at the Beekeeping Show end of the month and any others they are attending - I'll be seeing Jerry in Somerset on Saturday for their lecture day.

Dan.

 

[SWEET]

Thanks for the rapid posting Dan, looking forward to reading it

 

[jeff33]

Hi Daboss

Thanks for ordering. You describe a shortcut that can work, but success is conditional on a number of factors. When it works, it's great, when it doesn't work, it's not always clear why not, and you've lost a viable virgin queen.

I treat just-pulled virgins and ripe queens cells the same - either pop them into a queenless already-established apidea, or add them when filling with bees and then store in the dark. The confinement period is not just for letting the queen emerge, its principal purpose is as time for the box of bees to realise that they are, in effect, a new colony, and to start to behave accordingly when released. Following this rationale gives me better success rate for establishment... and it's not as if a just-pulled virgin is going to be taking mating flights during that time anyway!

Dan.

I have had quite a few failures when adding a virgin to an already established mini mating nuc. Then again, the virgins were added within a few hours of the laying queen being removed, perhaps best to remove brood frames or means of raising their own?

What Daboss describes is effectively a shook swarm, be it in a much smaller scale. Bees will generally tend to accept any queen in this situation.

Your book will be added onto the 'to buy list'! All the best with it's sale

 

[madasafish]

Speed read my copy which arrived yesterday.
Recommend to those unfamiliar with mini nucs

 

[Curly green finger's]

I’m running 20/30 mini nucs last season wasn’t so good for my returning virgins what are folks thoughts about using older and younger workers with a ripe cell to aid mating flights?

 

[SWEET]

You could spilt them into testing/RnD groups of 5 and see how that plays out for your bees/environment? - I'd want a solid working method before firing off 30 mini nucs.

Speaking to someone the other day that runs 9000

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I cracked mini-nucs last year after an online talk from Ken and Dan B. I've bought the book to fill in a few gaps. It absolutely does that.

 

[DanBee]

I’m running 20/30 mini nucs last season wasn’t so good for my returning virgins what are folks thoughts about using older and younger workers with a ripe cell to aid mating flights?

Many factors involved. How were they established, how populous, how were they set out in the apiary, did you 'set up and forget' or go back regularly to check progress, on what day did you add the queen cell, had you tried a 2nd queen cell after the first had failed, etc.

We take available workers from the brood nest area of a strong colony. You can filter the workers if you like to get the younger ones, but we've never found this necessary.

 

[DanBee]

Speaking to someone the other day that runs 9000

Where?!

 

[DanBee]

I cracked mini-nucs last year after an online talk from Ken and Dan B. I've bought the book to fill in a few gaps. It absolutely does that.

Thanks BKP.

Yes, the Apideas webinar is still available if anyone wants a taster of our approach. In fact there's 20 of them, mostly practical topics like swarm control, double brood, queen raising, reading bees, out apiaries, etc. All require a small payment, but that goes towards paying for the hosting service ... I'm not going to retire on the proceeds!