smaller cell bee keeping

[tony350i]

http://anarchyapiaries.org/hivetools/node/14

i thought this might be interesting, he talks a bit about how long it take to get good drawn smaller cells and the uncapping off mite infected cells.

you don't have to have top bar hives to keep s/c bees i use B/N hives.

 

[BKF Admin]

Tony its nice to hear from someone trying something different.

How long have you been doing small cell ?
Hows it going ?

Just off to see the video now,thanks for the link.

 

[tony350i]

Hi Admin,

i started regressing 3 to 4 years ago and one of the reasons is as follows.

My first hive was large cell and before winter I was advise to treat for mites with strips and like a sheep I said cool I go and buy some and read the packet and stuck the strips in. I felt uneasy about this and after a couple of day’s I rang the beek and started to question how the strips work and does it get into the honey. He said not’ a problem the bees when expanding the brood nest in the spring will consume the honey so it doest’t get into your supers.(I let people make there own minds up on that one). I was all ways under the impression that when bees expand the brood nest if the colony is strong and you want the queen to use as much of the brood comb as possible then adding a super and uncapping the honey in the brood comb encourages the use of most of the comb, my first flow is oil seed rape so I try to get as many forages as I can and I don’t like the idea of contaminated honey off my doing getting into my supers.

That’s one reason why smaller cell was my chosen way and is how I keep my bees.

Look at the time I must go to work, more late.

 

[Finman]

.
I think that small cells are OK as long as Tony does not start to save Mother Earth with his tiny cells.


.

 

[Heather]

how do the unwired frames stand up to spinning off the honey

 

[tony350i]

how do the unwired frames stand up to spinning off the honey

i only spin wired super frames and don't take honey from the brood box. All the super frames are standard large cell wax.
If i do get a build up of natural drawn brood frames with a good amount of honey in i uncap and spray with water and stick them on a strong hive with supers on, the bees will move it to the brood box or into the supers in which case i can take it.