Queen frame trap

[Eyeman]

https://www.thorne.co.uk/health-and-feeding/varroa/biological?product_id=4893

Anyone know why these frames are made so wide. This one is 74mm. I would have thought that having the Hoffman spacer touching the inside of the queen excluder would give enough space for comb to be drawn and brood reared? This would give an internal width of just under 35mm. Same situation exists with the outermost frame against the wall of the brood chamber and my queens will lay on that side of the frame.

 

[mazzamazda]

https://www.thorne.co.uk/health-and-feeding/varroa/biological?product_id=4893

Anyone know why these frames are made so wide. This one is 74mm. I would have thought that having the Hoffman spacer touching the inside of the queen excluder would give enough space for comb to be drawn and brood reared? This would give an internal width of just under 35mm. Same situation exists with the outermost frame against the wall of the brood chamber and my queens will lay on that side of the frame.

It says 2 frames

 

[oliver90owner]

Has to be big - to try and justify the cost of nearly sixty quid!

I’ve never trapped a queen for that long. Very costly in numbers of brood lost.

 

[Poly Hive]

If it were drone comb though there might be an argument for but is it really worth the hassle?

Over the last oh 12 years now if not more I have been unable to find varroa in the sealed drone comb. That to me says the Oxalic treatment in Jan is working well.

PH

 

[Eyeman]

It says 2 frames

Hi
Only one frame goes in the trap at a time.

 

[Finman]

.
Idea is that the Queen is on a prison 3 weeks. IT lays only on the prison, and when all brood on the hive have emerged, mites are free and easy to kill with oxalic acid. Then hive is quite free from mites when hive makes winter brood.

The idea is explained in the Coloss Project.

Only one prison frame is needed.

Bees can draw in the prison what ever cells and foundation is not needed.

In Central Europe use to have much more smaller cages.
.

 

[Eyeman]

Has to be big - to try and justify the cost of nearly sixty quid!

I’ve never trapped a queen for that long. Very costly in numbers of brood lost.

My queens reduce and sometimes stop laying around end Aug / Sept for a short while. If the trapping could overlap that period there should still be time for winter bees.

 

[Eyeman]

.
Idea is that the Queen is on a prison 3 weeks. IT lays only on the prison, and when all brood on the hive have emerged, mites are free and easy to kill with oxalic acid. Then hive is quite free from mites when hive makes winter brood.

The idea is explained in the Coloss Project.

Only one prison frame is needed.

Bees can draw in the prison what ever cells and foundation is not needed.

My opinion is that this special frame is not a drone brood trap.

IT is a excluder cage or is it?

It's a queen frame trap.
Any idea why it's 74mm wide??? Over double the width of a Hoffman frame in a national hive.

 

[Eyeman]

If it were drone comb though there might be an argument for but is it really worth the hassle?

Over the last oh 12 years now if not more I have been unable to find varroa in the sealed drone comb. That to me says the Oxalic treatment in Jan is working well.

PH

No all of us have the luxury of keeping bees in the frozen north with those brood breaks.

 

[Finman]

It's a queen frame trap.
A.

........

 

[Finman]

It's a queen frame trap.
A.

What is that ? How it works, ... Usage description does no make sense. Two frames brood and what then?

Varroa trap perhaps but not queen trap. If trap's meaning is to catch something.

 

[For want of a better word]

In its original form marketed as a method to remove varroa mite from the colony

The Thrines one I have takes one frame, but the complete trap occupies the space of three Hoffman DN4 frames in the brood box.

I use it for raising larvae of a known age for grafting... queen is only in the cage for 24 hours.....better results than with the hit and miss Jenter/Nicot system... although there is the need to have the skill of grafting!


Yeghes da

 

[Eyeman]

In its original form marketed as a method to remove varroa mite from the colony

The Thrines one I have takes one frame, but the complete trap occupies the space of three Hoffman DN4 frames in the brood box.

I use it for raising larvae of a known age for grafting... queen is only in the cage for 24 hours.....better results than with the hit and miss Jenter/Nicot system... although there is the need to have the skill of grafting!


Yeghes da

Thanks
Any idea why it need to be so wide?

 

[Eyeman]

What is that ? How it works, ... Usage description does no make sense. Two frames brood and what then?

Varroa trap perhaps but not queen trap. If trap's meaning is to catch something.

National Bee Unit
Queen Trapping
Queen trapping is a technique developed by Dr. Maul in Germany

 

[Finman]

National Bee Unit
Queen Trapping
Queen trapping is a technique developed by Dr. Maul in Germany

It is like I described it. Coloss is developing it.

So queen lays inside the cage 27 days, and other brood are then emerged.


Look seasonal brood interruption study colos

If you do not use oxalic acid in broodless hive, method is not effective.

But what ever. Do as you want. Awfull price in that trap.
.

 

[Hivemaker.]

If you do not use oxalic acid in broodless hive, method is not effective.
.

Manipulations.

 

[drex]

Like cheers, I use one to get larvae of a known age for grafting. Can also be used as a manipulation against varroa, but is a lot of faffing about.
I made my own out of old plastic queen excluder, some strips of wood and a couple of hinges. I was not going to fork out at big T's prices.

 

[Finman]

.
It is an old Dutch method to catch mites from hive with brood frames. But I wonder who uses it as a "soft mite killing" method.

I had a broodless hive which had a new virgin queen. I tried to catch mites with brood frames, but they were so much that however mites killed winter brood. It would be easy to kill mites with trickling. Since that I have not considered to catch mites with brood.
.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Had a look at a Langstroth one at the Thorne sale. My guess is its wide for manufacturing reasons. The top of the QE on each side is fastened to a wooden bar which sits on each side of the top bar. (they need a better photo on the website). So the frame in the 'box' ends up quite wide.

Design must make swapping frames in and out easier.

Considering this next year. I thought the idea was to kill off a series of frames. And not to use oxalic.

If you do this at a set time of year you need one per colony. Expensive.

 

[Finman]

If you do this at a set time of year you need one per colony. Expensive.

I was going to do last sumer those coloss cages. They use very small cages in practice just keeping queen alive in main flow. Then after main flow bees start to rear winter bees and nature does not give yield any more.

Idea is to kill mites with oxalic when they are all free on bees.

Cage does not need frame or foundation inside. Bees draw in free space wild combs and then you cut capped brood cells off.


I nursed 30 years hives so that I killed the queen for main yield season and then fter 2 weeks I gove a new laying queen. Now queen is present but lays only one frame in 3 weeks.

It seems, that there are variations in cage usage. I have planned my cage and price is under 10€. It needs a piece of excluder to the side of free box.

.