New book on Apideas

[jeff33]

Where?!

On Mars!!

 

[DanBee]

On Mars!!

Just trying to get my head round the logistics! Like so much in colony management, what works with thousands is very different to what works with hundreds or tens.

 

[SWEET]

Just trying to get my head round the logistics! Like so much in colony management, what works with thousands is very different to what works with hundreds or tens.

Hi Dan, responded to email, was returned but 2nd time seems to have worked, cheers.

 

[jeff33]

Just trying to get my head round the logistics! Like so much in colony management, what works with thousands is very different to what works with hundreds or tens.

I would like to know the size of any operation that would require 9000 minis, certainly no one in the UK, not even ITLD!

 

[blackcloud]

Must be Diane Abbott.

 

[SWEET]

I would like to know the size of any operation that would require 9000 minis, certainly no one in the UK, not even ITLD!

Think about what sort of operation would need that many (queen suppliers?) and not that far from UK.

In the US some operations are running 100k + hives.

If interested, look into the automation around mating hives in Australia, model rail tracks moving mating hives around to a timing schedule (at scale).

 

[madasafish]

I would like to know the size of any operation that would require 9000 minis, certainly no one in the UK, not even ITLD!

One US queen rearer raises 250,000 queens a year.

 

[SWEET]

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!!!

+ 1

Very impressive and well written modern book, loaded with information.

 

[Ian123]

Bee books are great and as a kid ploughed through many but bar using for the odd references I really struggle to find any that poke my interest these days. This 1 looks worth a look and will pick up a copy at the bee show for sure.

 

[Blunt Spike]

Dan, got a copy of your book this week. Looks great, just waiting to put the method into practice. I want to be self sufficient re queens in the coming years, your book should make that achievable. Thanks.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

We received Dan's book last week and for novice queen rearer like us it's fantastic. We have 75 mating box's that are massively under utilised, hopefully this book should help along the way.

Well written, good clear pictures, good idea to have a passage on wasp trapping as well, would recommend all beekeepers should have a copy.

I've not been asked at all for comment by Dan, and hope no one minds ?.

 

[madasafish]

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

Finished rereading it properly this weekend.

First impressions were correct.
Fills a major gap in the market : nothing else comes close.

 

[Ely]

Another one ordered here. I look forward to giving it a read

 

[Damo944]

Ordered. Looking forward to it after the great reviews on here!

 

[Brian Bush]

Hi Dan and everyone
I ahve just finished reading the book. I cannot speed read and have had my reading interuppted by a cataract operation.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and like others on the forum I am planning this years queen raising.
Just two points of interest
1 We have a local Dulux Colour Centre and they will mix masonary paint to any colour you want. I have Blues, bright Yellows, Purples and Reds!!!
2 My patent mixture for wasp traps is as follows: Old beer or cider, old jar of Jam, Sugar syrup and most importantly a good splash of vinegar, The mixture attracts wasps but the addition of vinegar repels the bees.

 

[DanBee]

Thanks all for your positive comments, it means a lot as I put much effort into trying to make the text thorough but clear and well illustrated... but was never sure if there was a demand for it, or how it would be received. Glad you are all enjoying the book and finding it useful!

"How did you write 250 pages about a shoebox?" is my favourite comment to date

Brian - interesting about the colour mixing, thanks, I never thought of that. Having quite some experience of the sometimes uphill struggle of selling things to beekeepers, I adopted a 'start cheap' approach, hence the £3 sachets of cement dye. There are indeed liquid pigment pots also available in more colours, but the colour mixing approach opens up a whole rainbow. What's the cost for a pot of any chosen colour? From memory 2.5 litres was the smallest economic quantity... which of course if you also have poly hives or nucs to paint in addition to Apideas this then becomes a useful quantity.

 

[SWEET]

Going well

 

[Finsbury]

Hi Dan,

I recently bought your book and tbh I'm blown away at the detail and simple to understand way you've written it, its excellent. The resources and tips are great too like the in/out cards, tips on feeding 'cassettes' etc etc. I tried using Apideas last year properly and found them to work really well. 2 ended up LW in a fortnight which i thought was very early but glad i read that in your book to see you concur with that. It really is a fantastic book and will help me a lot in raising queens using such a small resource. My old way was making nucs and therefore syphoning brood frames from production colonies and i do not want to do that this year as i just want to raise queens to requeen colonies rather than increase.


Ps. I didn't realise there was a hardback version until someone mentioned their copy the other day, wish id got that one!

 

[masterBK]

I use Apideas to get my queens mated. I "Demaree" my 25 double-brood colonies as my selected method of swarm prevention. I get my queen cells started (used to be grafted but the last few years I have used Cupkit as I find grafting at my age beyond me) in a 5 frame queenless congested ventilated "swarm box" that takes two frames each with two bars of 10 cells together with 2 frames of honey and a pollen comb. After 24 hrs (occasionally up to 2 days) in the swarm box I transfer a bar of started cells to be finished off in the top brood box of each of four Demareed colonies. They usually do a good job and when the Q cells are within 2 days of emergence the best cells are distributed to Apidea. Each Apidea is stocked with 300 cm3 of relatively young "misted" bees shaken off frames from Demaree tops. I usually set up 20 Apidea but there will often be one or two cells not accepted, a few queens go missing on mating flights , one or two not get mated properly so expect about a 50% success rate and am pleased if this is bettered

I applaud Dan for producing this much needed book on Apidea. I would point out that the BBKA news "special edition" on "Queen rearing" published in 2019 has several pages & lots of photos (which I provided) on the use of mating nuclei particularly Apidea as well as several other useful chapters on a whole range of other queen rearing topics. I will also be at the Somerset Lecture day on feb 10th so look forward to catching up with Dan (been a few years) GC

 

[Mint Bee]

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!

As others have said a good book. @DanBee in a previous response from last year you mentioned the webinars were available, but don't seem to be now, unless I sign up for a 14 day trial?