Queen Castles

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
BS Honey Bees
Shop deals on ebay
Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hi Domino

It looks like a home made lang box that has then had grooves cut in it for correx to be slid down to make it into a 4x2frame nuc box but with a solid floor and holes cut high up for the bees to fly from.
 
If you've got a gullible buyer lined up I can do you one in Windsor - cash first!
 
Just another thread, similar to one already running?

Not a good idea at all. Without sufficient bees to service the potential lay-rate of the queen, it fails miserably. A glorified mating nuc and nothing more; likely with the risk of queens or bees finishing up in the wrong place.

How many times do we need to remind the non-thinkers that the normal nuc colony is over five frames. There are good simple reasons why smaller colonies develop more slowly.

I would not countenance less than three frames for a decent nuc - and my frames are 14 x 12!
 
Well, the general usage of 'queen castle' doesn't necessarily demand that the compartments are of two frames. Three aren't unusual, likewise, the option of removing dividers to unite into larger units is also a common feature.

I myself mentioned my own preference for using a minimum of three frames in nucs on another thread earlier today -and explained why. As for making nucs without sufficient bees, that's a silly thing to do no matter how many frames are being used and has little bearing on the kind of box which holds them.

Glorified mating nuc? Don't think there's any 'glorified' about it. It's just one more way of using equipment. Not the way I do it but there's no doubt that many beekeepers do get good results with this kind of equipment.
 
I see the OP has 14 x 12 format.

Three compartments with three frames, with entries on three different sides, would be OK with the larger format.
 
Easy to make if you have no tools.
If the OP is on 14x12. Buy a poly or wood 14x12 brood box a sheet of corrugated plastic
cut you plastic to make dividers and fix in place using silicon bathroom sealer.
drill holes to match sections. Use a piece of ply as a floor Make sure that when the floor and roof are in-place that the bees can not migrate from one section to another. at the end of the year make sure there is only one Queen. Remove the sections and let all frames overwinter as one complete colony. Plug the holes with corks There will be no infighting of the bees when the sections are removed as there are more than two pheromones.
 
A good idea, but not tried by the poster, I reckon. Much easier to transfer all the bees and frames to a fresh hive body.
 
oliver90owner said:
A good idea, but not tried by the poster, I reckon. Much easier to transfer all the bees and frames to a fresh hive body.
Click to expand...

So are these intended just to be used as starter nucs ? Put a frame with a queen cell and a cup of bees in each 'compartment' and let them get on with it ? Quite an economic use of hive space to start with but, even with 14 x 12 format they would need to be moved into a proper nuc to overwinter ?
 
Yes, Pargyle, just that.

My MB nucs are used with a divider for exactly that purpose. It does not significantly, if at all, reduce the need for numbers of bees. As I keep saying, there is a requirement for sufficient bees to service the maximum lay-rate of the new queen( as well as foraging and wax building?), for the best rate of colony expansion; a 'cupful' of bees is simply no good - too large for them as soon as the queen starts laying. A double brood box hive close to the swarming point can easily be split into nine - eight splits with queen cell along with a frame of brood and one with stores and brood (the number of bees added would depend on factors such as bees returning to the parent colony and the amount of open or capped brood transferred or whether the splits were moved to a distant site).

The MB nucs have/had an entrance at each end to avoid bees migrating to the mated queen side or both queens in the same side!

Making splits in mid to late May is a good plan. Generally no problem for mating in early June, so soon need moving into separate nucs and then into full hives. Later queens can be over-wintered in nucs (my MB nucs have 6 frames, so nearly as big as a National deep!). No problem with keeping later colonies small enough by transferring capped frames to other colonies. Usual simple beekeeping practices, really. Strong nucs and strong colonies in full hives for the autumn.

Just keeping everything simple is always the easiest and often the best way to go. Four two frame splits into a deep box is not, IMO, a good idea, particularly with the entrances all on one side, as shown in the link in the OP. No good for expansion and no good as a mating nuc, either. Think in simple terms - there are less than 10 000 cells available for stores, brood and laying space for a young queen, where all the open brood will require servicing by house bees. A cupful of bees is inadequate for anything larger than an apidae, if brood is present.
 
pargyle said:
So are these intended just to be used as starter nucs ?
Click to expand...

Mating nucs. 'Queen Castles': it's all in the name, they're not 'increase castles'.

Of course, with a bit of thought; hands on and timing there's no reason why they couldn't be built into good nucs... But the most economical way to build a nuc is to make it properly in the first place, which is pretty much what RAB said in his first post in this thread.
 
.
I used 35 years these multi devided mating boxes. Then I gove up and I made individual 3 frame mating nucs. I have no idea to use again those multi cells boxes.

The biggest proplem in these castles was that queen losses were huge. When I loaded the cells with new queens, they piiped to each other and called to fight. They searched each other and sometimes only 1 was alive out of 4 cells.

Individual small nuc box are easy to handle and move to another mating yard. When I establish mating nucs, they are better to move 3 km, that workers do not return to their original home.
 
Last edited:
Finman said:
Individual small nuc box are easy to handle and move to another mating yard.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this but, got to ask, why did you wait 35 years before changing over?
 
queen castles are for getting new Queens mated not making nucs
they have been developed for using one box for 4 queens at the same time.

But the problem with them is when you get more than 3 pheromones the queen losses are unacceptable. I would advise the OP to drop the idea of castles as they are a waste of resources
We use these.
mating12.jpg
 
I'm a great believer that we should allow practical experience to set our own limits. If the op still likes the idea after what's been written then I think further research is in order. Shame he's on 14x12 as there's a poly langstroth version (I think it's one of the 'frankenbeute' options) available on the continent. I personally don't like the look of 'Lauri Miller' mating hive shown in thebeeman's post with the single feeder spanning the length of the entire box, but each to their own, if it works for us then nothing else matters.
 
oliver90owner said:
Yes, Pargyle, just that.

My MB nucs are used with a divider for exactly that purpose. It does not significantly, if at all, reduce the need for numbers of bees. ......

Just keeping everything simple is always the easiest and often the best way to go. Four two frame splits into a deep box is not, IMO, a good idea, particularly with the entrances all on one side, as shown in the link in the OP. No good for expansion and no good as a mating nuc, either. Think in simple terms - there are less than 10 000 cells available for stores, brood and laying space for a young queen, where all the open brood will require servicing by house bees. A cupful of bees is inadequate for anything larger than an apidae, if brood is present.
Click to expand...

Thanks RAB ... as always ...makes a lot of sense now.
 
I have used this queen castle for the last 2 seasons and have had 100% success in starting a Nuc with just 2 frames. I place a frame either with a queen cell or just one with fresh eggs and another frame with some pollen and honey along with a good amount of nurse bees and then wait. once i see that the queen has been released and is laying i can move the 2 frames into a 5 frame Nuc box to expand. It might not be the "correct" way to use it and it might be a "glorified mating nuc" but it works for me. I dont have alot of space on my roof so having one box is great.
and it is made from an old IKEA dresser!
The entrance holes are on each side not on one side
eastvanbees.wordpress dot com
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
All Queens Dead At Once
Replies
11
Views
877
ericbeaumont
ericbeaumont
S
What's going on here?
Replies
18
Views
683
Garry R
Garry R
P
In the Queen Castle
Replies
3
Views
657
Swarm
Swarm
S
Reverse A/S - anyone used this
Replies
15
Views
590
Paul_Ward1
P
JamezF
Swarm control without finding the queen
Replies
9
Views
485
Erichalfbee
Erichalfbee

Latest posts

Back
Top