Imirie shim

[dickm]

Does anyone know where i can get plans for the "Imirie shim". George Imirie doesn't have them on his site and his e-mail doesn't work. I want to build a couple.

[Russ]

The Imrie Shim is nothing more than a spacer the size of the hive body or a super and roughly 1" tall with a notch cut out of one of the end pieces 1" long and 3/8" high to provide an opening for the bees to enter and exit. They provide a place for the bees to enter and exit without going in the bottom entrance. Also helps with ventilation. Hope this helps.

[Shadetree]

The bees filled the extra space it provided with a lot of burr comb, when I tried it.I just use a notch in the front of the inner cover and then make sure the top cover is pushed forward, to provide ventilation.

[dickm]

Thanks guys. Folks around here are drilling a 1" or 1 1/4" hole in the front of the super or deep. It would seem to do the same thing. Someone else I spoke to is putting his supers on just a beespaceback from plumb. It makes an entrance and helps with venting.

[Michael Bush]

I make a top entrance in the inner cover and then a vent box that looks like a shallow super with some holes in the sides covered with hardware cloth and a lid on it. You can make that from scratch or use an old medium or shallow super. That way the edge of the inner cover is exposed. I make most of my inner covers out of thin scrap plywood with a piece of 1/4" stock around the underside (to provide a bee space) and a paralellagram cut out of than with a nail for the hinge. This makes a door you can open and close. Like this

-------------------/--------/------------
/ . /
-----------------/--------/--------------

Then I put a couple of extra holes in the inner cover and put hardward cloth on all of them.

As for the shim, I make them from scraps from building hives. basically you cut a 3/4" wide piece from 3/4" wide stock (1 by) and make them the width and length of a hive. Notch the ends 3/8" deep and lap them. I use a countersink and put a screw in them. It can flex a lot, but I can square it up with the hive I put it on. I only use them for requeening.

[John Seets]

ShadeTree has the right idea. Don't use the shims, the bees invevitably fill it with burr comb connecting the super under it with the one above it. Cleaning this burr comb full of honey results in one hell of a mess and if done during a dearth of nectar will result in robbing. An inner cover entrance is the way to go. During warm weather, if you want to train the bees to use the upper entrance, screen the lower one closed for awhile. Just an observation and suggestion.

[WiredForStereo]

After reading about natural hives, I have designed an upper entrance almost exactly like the lower one and then I will close off the lower one. Getting back to Nature.

Sol Parker

[Michael Bush]

You can try it, but I don't recomend closing off the bottom one and I don't recomend making a top one just like the bottom one.

First, you need air coming in the bottom for convection ventilation.

Second, the bees need to be able to drag stuff off the bottom out the door. If you ever watched a bee struggling to carry a dead comrade all the way to the top of a hive, you'd see how much work you are creating. Also, it will eventually get ahead of the bees and they won't be able to drag them out.

Third, the top and the bottom are not treated the same by the bees. 3/4" will work for bottom board bee space, but it won't work anywhere else. If you have 3/4" at the top they will fill it and create a traffic jam. If you don't have 3/4" you will have a traffic jam.

Fourth, The bees need the space under the bars in the summer for cluster space and so they can ventilate the hive from there. If the bottom entrance is closed there is no ventilation and when the debris accumulates the bees will have no place to cluster. The slatted rack is the opposite of this approach and has succeeded rather well.

I think a good top entrace is good thing and always try to have one on my hives. Perhaps a bigger one with a good laning board would be an improvment if you get the beespace right and don't stop up the bottom entrance. I wonder if a slotted rack sort of affair, in order to maintain the bees space, and still accomadate a lot of bees, would work for the top entrance?

[Dave W]

How does the Imirie Shim and a double-screen board differ?

[Michael Bush]

An Imire shim is just a 3/4" square the size of a hive body with a 3/8" high small entrance in the middle on the front. It's useful for making room to put in a queen cage. Some people use it to make more room at the top for ventilation, but depending on the time of year etc. they may fill this space with burr comb.
http://www.beesource.com/plans/scrnbrd.pdf is the plans for the double screen board.

A double screen board is sort of like a Imire shim with screen on both sides and another 3/8" spacer on each side. It leaves a bee space on each side and does not allow the bees from either side to contact one another. It also, usally has some toggle entrances. It can be used for several things. You can use it to put a weaker hive on top of a stronger hive so they can share the warm humid environment, especially over winter. You can put some emerging brood and a new queen cage above the screen, open an entrace in the back for cleansing flights and the emerging brood will be more accepting of the queen than the field bees coming and going below the screen. You can use it to make a combine by putting one hive above and the other below until they are used to each other's scent. I think I'd still put the newspaer between when removing the screen, but it's more of a sure thing. Newspaper combines almost always work, but I have heard of a couple of instnaces that they failed miserably where the strong hive killed off the weak one.

It's difficult sometimes to describe such things without a picuture.

[thesurveyor]

I have used the Irmie Shim, and had no bad results with burr comb.

Like was stated here when introducing a queen it works like a champ. Give room to lay the queen cage ontop of the brood chamber.

They have never built burr comb between the shim and the adjoining boxes.

Just my experience, other people may have had different results.

Thesurveyor

[Russ]

I assume that when introducing a QUEEN when using the IMRIE SHIM that you should lay the QUEEN Cage with the screen wire down. Is this right?????

[odfrank]

I think the it makes a big difference on how your honey comes in whether they brace up a big bee space or not. Here there are flowers and nectar year round and our brood chambers are braced and burred to the point of making them almost unworkable. A queen cage in fall between two frames will have a six inch comb hanging from it within ten days.

[Michael Bush]

>I assume that when introducing a QUEEN when using the IMRIE SHIM that you should lay the QUEEN Cage with the screen wire down. Is this right?????

Yes. Screen wire down, cork off of the candy end and a small hole through the candy.

[Leighco]

I do'nt have plans, but like it for installing queens. It leaves enough space at the top of the frames allowing me to place the queen cage on the top bars. I have not had a problem yet using this method.

[mark williams]

George Imries said its design was to be used between 2 honey supers during the honey flow only,not between the hive body & super & you would'nt have an problem with burr comb.I've used them in numbers of way's with no problem,