Rainbow Mating Hive.....any good

[user 20297]

These things are cheap as chips; I was thinking of getting few and then letting very late stage, naturally produced queens emerge into them. It's the insulative value of them I'm most concerned about, although obviously, I would be doing this when I would expect the weather to be warm and settled. It's not any pretence of a big-time breeding operation, just an attempt to raise a few spare queens.

Has anyone used them?

https://www.thorne.co.uk/queen/mating-hives?product_id=7205

 

[B+.]

These things are cheap as chips; I was thinking of getting few and then letting very late stage, naturally produced queens emerge into them. It's the insulative value of them I'm most concerned about, although obviously, I would be doing this when I would expect the weather to be warm and settled. It's not any pretence of a big-time breeding operation, just an attempt to raise a few spare queens.

Has anyone used them?

https://www.thorne.co.uk/queen/mating-hives?product_id=7205

If you are happy to move the queen to another colony as soon as she starts laying, they're probably as good as any other mini-nuc. However, there is a risk that she'll be rejected. Far better to buy a larger nuc and allow her to develop a proper sealed worker brood pattern. Then you know that she's ok.

 

[user 20297]

If you are happy to move the queen to another colony as soon as she starts laying, they're probably as good as any other mini-nuc. However, there is a risk that she'll be rejected. Far better to buy a larger nuc and allow her to develop a proper sealed worker brood pattern. Then you know that she's ok.

Thank-you

 

[madasafish]

I have 5 x Apideas, 4 x Bee Equipment's poly mini mating nuc, 4 x Kielers and 5 Rainbow hives. (order of preference)

The Rainbows have poor insulation and QCs are prone to killing in frosts so I only use them as a last resort ,in summer, and shielded from sun. They are my least favoured.

Would I buy more? NO
(But iirc I paid about £7 each a long time ago.)

 

[drdrday]

Has anyone used them?

I've been looking at this in recent weeks too. In the end I went for these poly mating hives: Mating Hive for Queen Rearing - Beekeeping Supplies UK

Price is a little bit cheaper at around £10, but arguably less durable. I chose these in the end because they came with a clear bit of plastic as a CB, whereas I couldn't seem to find anything about the rainbow hives that mentioned any sort of CB. I can never resist just being able to lift the lid peek in the top and see what's going on or if there are any issues. Although I've played around with these mating hives, and got them set up with strips of foundation etc. they haven't been fully deployed with any bees yet (plan is to do that tomorrow), so I can't really comment on using them in practice. Only thing I will say is that it's difficult sliding the front up and down to open close the entrance at first, but once you've done it a few times it eases up.

To be honest the insulative value wasn't much of an issue as far as I was concerned. I only plan to use them for a few weeks in the summer - just long enough for a queen to get mated and go through a whole brood cycle before moving the queen on.
The only thing I thought might be an issue was comb being built in the feeder as it empties out, but we'll see.

I only keep 2/3 hives at a time, and although I wanted to try out queen rearing it was important to me that it didn't adversely affect my production colonies, so through using the Ben Harden method, and mini mating hives that only need a cupful of bees my main hives should be able to just get on with all that honey production with only minimal disturbance. We'll see how that works in practice!

 

[madasafish]

I've been looking at this in recent weeks too. In the end I went for these poly mating hives: Mating Hive for Queen Rearing - Beekeeping Supplies UK

Price is a little bit cheaper at around £10, but arguably less durable. I chose these in the end because they came with a clear bit of plastic as a CB, whereas I couldn't seem to find anything about the rainbow hives that mentioned any sort of CB. I can never resist just being able to lift the lid peek in the top and see what's going on or if there are any issues. Although I've played around with these mating hives, and got them set up with strips of foundation etc. they haven't been fully deployed with any bees yet (plan is to do that tomorrow), so I can't really comment on using them in practice. Only thing I will say is that it's difficult sliding the front up and down to open close the entrance at first, but once you've done it a few times it eases up.

To be honest the insulative value wasn't much of an issue as far as I was concerned. I only plan to use them for a few weeks in the summer - just long enough for a queen to get mated and go through a whole brood cycle before moving the queen on.
The only thing I thought might be an issue was comb being built in the feeder as it empties out, but we'll see.

I only keep 2/3 hives at a time, and although I wanted to try out queen rearing it was important to me that it didn't adversely affect my production colonies, so through using the Ben Harden method, and mini mating hives that only need a cupful of bees my main hives should be able to just get on with all that honey production with only minimal disturbance. We'll see how that works in practice!

Vaseline helps with sticky doors.

We get frosts in May - and low temperatures in early June. One the reasons I raise cells in an incubator is it avoids losses through a mini nuc getting cold and the Q dying.

Even with 7 main hives, populating mini nucs is incredibly demanding of bees. I shake in bees from super - no worry about drones or Queens and a well populated nuc requires apprx. 2 super frames worth of bees to fill a mini nuc to the required 0.25Liters of bees.

I find the Ben Harden method is not very good for getting cells started ## . Am going to make the box Q- for 24 hours with CB on top of QE when I insert next lot of cells.

## or it's my grafting . Or both.

 

[Apiarisnt]

These things are cheap as chips; I was thinking of getting few and then letting very late stage, naturally produced queens emerge into them. It's the insulative value of them I'm most concerned about, although obviously, I would be doing this when I would expect the weather to be warm and settled. It's not any pretence of a big-time breeding operation, just an attempt to raise a few spare queens.

Has anyone used them?

https://www.thorne.co.uk/queen/mating-hives?product_id=7205

Insulation is almost non existent, so warm weeks / months only. I drill a hole in the hardboard inner cover so that I do not have to remove it to top up the syrup. I cover the underside of the hardboard with parcel tape to reduce comb adhering to it. Useful when you have nothing else, but I will not be buying more.

 

[drdrday]

Vaseline helps with sticky doors.

Thanks! Although, I think it was just a couple of rough areas that needed to be worn a little in use.

We get frosts in May - and low temperatures in early June. One the reasons I raise cells in an incubator is it avoids losses through a mini nuc getting cold and the Q dying.

I appreciate the advantages of an incubator, but for a hobby keeper, rearing queens out of curiosity/challenge of the process it's a little excessive. I don't intend to rear queens outside of a couple of weeks each year in June or July, at which point the frosts are well past down south here. I think I've spent a grand total of £45 on nicot cups/roller cages/mating hives/grafting tools, and don't intend to invest any more, or take up any more space with bee equipment that won't get used more than a couple of weeks a year. I'll happily accept any risk of using a mating hive instead.

Even with 7 main hives, populating mini nucs is incredibly demanding of bees. I shake in bees from super - no worry about drones or Queens and a well populated nuc requires apprx. 2 super frames worth of bees to fill a mini nuc to the required 0.25Liters of bees.

I realise there's still going to be a loss to the main hives in setting up the mini nucs, but I think it really depends on the scale at which you're raising queens. Obviously there's a huge difference between setting up 10+ mating hives or just a couple. I'm aiming at 2/3 mini mating hives, which I'm hoping my double brood colonies will manage to populate without too much of a dint.

I find the Ben Harden method is not very good for getting cells started ## . Am going to make the box Q- for 24 hours with CB on top of QE when I insert next lot of cells.

## or it's my grafting . Or both.

For me Ben Harden was a revelation in simplifying something that had initially seemed to be a dark art. In fact it seems too simple to be true that the bees will happily raise queen cells in a queenright colony just by popping young larvae in vertical cells! What made me initially think that queen rearing would never be for me was reading all about cell building colonies, cell finishing colonies, and all of the hassle and complications of setting these up and keeping them going. Of course these methods are fine for those wanting to rear queens on a larger scale and keep rolling through the season, but are OTT for anyone wanting to rear just a couple of queens.
Since I've only had one attempt I obviously can't compare, or demonstrate that this wasn't a fluke, but 7/10 successful grafts from Ben Harden method was more than enough for me, and exceeded my expectations. Even if only half of those QCs become successfully mated queens I'll have more queens than I really wanted. I have no desperate need for queens, but would just like to replace the queen of a slightly runny swarm colony, and use one in a nuc to overwinter as insurance.
Would be interesting to hear how you get on with making the Ben Harden BB Q- for 24 hrs though, and if this improves the rate of acceptance.
Just out of curiosity, do you spray the queen rearing frame with sugar syrup/honey to encourage the bees to accept it a day or two before grafting?

 

[drdrday]

I drill a hole in the hardboard inner cover so that I do not have to remove it to top up the syrup.

Ah, so they do have some kind of inner cover. I couldn't pin that down just from browsing online, so that's good to know, even if they don't sound like the best option.

 

[B+.]

Thanks! Although, I think it was just a couple of rough areas that needed to be worn a little in use.

I appreciate the advantages of an incubator, but for a hobby keeper, rearing queens out of curiosity/challenge of the process it's a little excessive. I don't intend to rear queens outside of a couple of weeks each year in June or July, at which point the frosts are well past down south here. I think I've spent a grand total of £45 on nicot cups/roller cages/mating hives/grafting tools, and don't intend to invest any more, or take up any more space with bee equipment that won't get used more than a couple of weeks a year. I'll happily accept any risk of using a mating hive instead.


I realise there's still going to be a loss to the main hives in setting up the mini nucs, but I think it really depends on the scale at which you're raising queens. Obviously there's a huge difference between setting up 10+ mating hives or just a couple. I'm aiming at 2/3 mini mating hives, which I'm hoping my double brood colonies will manage to populate without too much of a dint.


For me Ben Harden was a revelation in simplifying something that had initially seemed to be a dark art. In fact it seems too simple to be true that the bees will happily raise queen cells in a queenright colony just by popping young larvae in vertical cells! What made me initially think that queen rearing would never be for me was reading all about cell building colonies, cell finishing colonies, and all of the hassle and complications of setting these up and keeping them going. Of course these methods are fine for those wanting to rear queens on a larger scale and keep rolling through the season, but are OTT for anyone wanting to rear just a couple of queens.
Since I've only had one attempt I obviously can't compare, or demonstrate that this wasn't a fluke, but 7/10 successful grafts from Ben Harden method was more than enough for me, and exceeded my expectations. Even if only half of those QCs become successfully mated queens I'll have more queens than I really wanted. I have no desperate need for queens, but would just like to replace the queen of a slightly runny swarm colony, and use one in a nuc to overwinter as insurance.
Would be interesting to hear how you get on with making the Ben Harden BB Q- for 24 hrs though, and if this improves the rate of acceptance.
Just out of curiosity, do you spray the queen rearing frame with sugar syrup/honey to encourage the bees to accept it a day or two before grafting?

I think the weakness in your approach is expecting the queen to stay in the mating nuc for a whole brood cycle (21 days from oviposition). You'll need to move them out of the mating nuc before the eggs are even hatched - there just isn't the space to keep them there any longer.

 

[madasafish]

Thanks! Although, I think it was just a couple of rough areas that needed to be worn a little in use.

I appreciate the advantages of an incubator, but for a hobby keeper, rearing queens out of curiosity/challenge of the process it's a little excessive. I don't intend to rear queens outside of a couple of weeks each year in June or July, at which point the frosts are well past down south here. I think I've spent a grand total of £45 on nicot cups/roller cages/mating hives/grafting tools, and don't intend to invest any more, or take up any more space with bee equipment that won't get used more than a couple of weeks a year. I'll happily accept any risk of using a mating hive instead.


I realise there's still going to be a loss to the main hives in setting up the mini nucs, but I think it really depends on the scale at which you're raising queens. Obviously there's a huge difference between setting up 10+ mating hives or just a couple. I'm aiming at 2/3 mini mating hives, which I'm hoping my double brood colonies will manage to populate without too much of a dint.


For me Ben Harden was a revelation in simplifying something that had initially seemed to be a dark art. In fact it seems too simple to be true that the bees will happily raise queen cells in a queenright colony just by popping young larvae in vertical cells! What made me initially think that queen rearing would never be for me was reading all about cell building colonies, cell finishing colonies, and all of the hassle and complications of setting these up and keeping them going. Of course these methods are fine for those wanting to rear queens on a larger scale and keep rolling through the season, but are OTT for anyone wanting to rear just a couple of queens.
Since I've only had one attempt I obviously can't compare, or demonstrate that this wasn't a fluke, but 7/10 successful grafts from Ben Harden method was more than enough for me, and exceeded my expectations. Even if only half of those QCs become successfully mated queens I'll have more queens than I really wanted. I have no desperate need for queens, but would just like to replace the queen of a slightly runny swarm colony, and use one in a nuc to overwinter as insurance.
Would be interesting to hear how you get on with making the Ben Harden BB Q- for 24 hrs though, and if this improves the rate of acceptance.
Just out of curiosity, do you spray the queen rearing frame with sugar syrup/honey to encourage the bees to accept it a day or two before grafting?

No.. just place in the hive 24 hours before.

(When using Nicot system I dribble honey into cells, 24 hours before so bees can clean them.)

 

[drdrday]

I think the weakness in your approach is expecting the queen to stay in the mating nuc for a whole brood cycle (21 days from oviposition). You'll need to move them out of the mating nuc before the eggs are even hatched - there just isn't the space to keep them there any longer.

Ah, OK. Thanks for that. I was hoping to keep them in there at least until I saw capped brood. I thought it was possible (if not desirable) to overwinter an Apidea, so I thought I'd get a few weeks in the mating hive.

 

[Ian123]

I think the weakness in your approach is expecting the queen to stay in the mating nuc for a whole brood cycle (21 days from oviposition). You'll need to move them out of the mating nuc before the eggs are even hatched - there just isn't the space to keep them there any longer.

I tried 1 a while ago and yes they absconded pretty bloody quick

 

[madasafish]

I place my mini nucs in shade - or at least partially shaded.
On top I place a piece of wood with one side raised so the wood does not lie flat on the roof. This acts as a sunshield and keeps the mini nuc cooler.
I leave Qs in mini nuc until brood is sealed - and often till brood emerges.

Only had 1 absconded - and that was in early days.
Overwintered Apidea/Kieler plus supers - with additional insulation- successfully every year. (need monthly fondant feed).

I also made my own out of 50mm insulation board and bigger frames - 5 -6 frames. These tend to be stronger and less affected by bad weather. Still need monthly feeding.