View Full Version : Cluster Box
I have looked at all the bee sites that I can think of and did a Goggle search but cannot find any plans for a box called in THE HIVE AND THE HONEYBEE a (Cluster Box). Page 1038 figure 50 this box is used to catch the bees in when you smoke them up through a queen excluder for package bees or making up nuke boxes. I have an idea of how to make it but if someone has a drawing it would save the trial and error method.
I guess I didnÂ’t describe what I was looking for right.
If you were going to sell bulk bees or packages how would you remove the bees from the frames without shaking or brushing each frame.
Any information or a web site would be appreciated.
Thanks
[ November 20, 2006, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Ishi ]
Michael Bush
11-19-2006, 06:04 PM
Any box with lots of ventilation will do. It's used in queen rearing also. You can either put a screened bottom on a box and make sure it stays up high enough to let a lot of ventilation in, or ventilate the sides, or just build a frame and have screen for the sides.
sierrabees
11-19-2006, 09:26 PM
I have one of these. It was a lot of fun to build and works great. I places the queen excluder on the inside of the cutout though and it would be possable for the queen to hide under the top cut edge and get missed. If I were to do it over again I would route out a ledge the thickness of the excluder on the outside of the cut and put the excluder there. The full plans are at the site below.
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/marburg.html
BerkeyDavid
11-20-2006, 05:49 AM
Thanks for posting Doug! Really nice. Gotta make one of these. Another winter project... smile.gif
loggermike
11-23-2006, 01:17 PM
It looks like it would be easy enough to build.Maybe masonite or thin ply for the cross pieces.I thought about making a few and trying them,as it would be quicker to dump the bees rather than shaking one comb at a time.There was an article in one of the bee mags a few years back showing Koehnens using them (so obviously they work efficiently).
loggermike
11-23-2006, 01:45 PM
Heres the online article that mentions their use(no pics):
http://www.beeculture.com/storycms/index.cfm?cat=Story&recordID=318
Michael Bush
11-23-2006, 04:38 PM
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/BQPg72.jpg
Thanks loggermike this will help with the spacing and the time between smokings. I think LLoyd Penner used this method when he used to supply packages to Canada also.
MB
Thanks for the pic I want to make something to get the bees that he is putting in the pkg.