Double Screens...

[RBar]

I have never used Double Screens, but it occurs to me that they could be very useful for wintering weak hives together, etc.
The plans offered on this site recommends 1/8" hardware cloth...a bit hard to find locally.
Would not metal door/window screening work for this as well? Why would it need to as large as 1/8"? This seems a bit large to me.
Anyone care to advise me on this? I need to make some soon!
Roy

[Korny's Korner]

You should have a couple, at least, on hand. You will find many ways to use them, the use is endless. About any screen can be used but stiffer screen is better. The screen package bees come in has many uses for me and can be used to make a double screen.

Korny

[Michael Bush]

>I have never used Double Screens, but it occurs to me that they could be very useful for wintering weak hives together, etc.

I have not found them at all useful for wintering weak hives. The moisture all rises to the top and there are not enough bees to handle it. If you want to stack up weak hives, I'd make 1/4" solid bottoms that will let some heat through without letting the moisture through.

[tecumseh]

window screen will work except the bees will propolize the screen so they will quite quickly become more like a cloak board than a double screen. this being the real reason (rational) behind 1/8 hardware cloth is that the bees will not close it off with propolise.

I have used double screens to overwinter very weak hives over stronger hives (but not super stong). I suspect (don't absolutely know) that michael bush concerns would be more relevent in the snow areas and not so much a concern in texas or tennessee. when spring arrives (or low night time temperature are less of a concern) I exchange a queen excluder for the double screen (sometimes inverting the boxes) and allow the two hives to equlize themselves in regards to population.

ps... build the double screen with closable entrances on opposite ends and opposite sides of the double screen. this provides another means of diverting population into the weaker unit and some people use this in a similar manner in producing queen cells in queen right units.

[RBar]

OK...Tecumseh...I'll have to think about that last statement...
I know that a hive with brood above a queen excluder is considered by the hive to be queenless...is that what you mean by it being a "queen right" colony?
The upper closable entrances just makes it a shorter trip for the workers, right?
ALSO, in the case of generating queen cells, it could stay on a while longer as a mating hive as well...right? If one is using medium supers...hmmmm....one ends up with an operation that looks a lot like... what Michael Bush has been doing all along!?!

I think it would probably be better to take the full top hive and break it down into two NUCS for two new queens...in Tennessee, 5 Frame Nucs, well filled, should survive the winter better, right?

Roy

[Dan Williamson]

I'm sure there are some good uses for them but I don't even own one.

[tecumseh]

RBar adds:
I'll have to think about that last statement...

tecumseh replies:
I think??? you have kinda""" captured the image... although not completely. in this case (queen right cell production) the bodies and entrances are routinely flipped to keep the bodies equalized in population and the field force coming into the queenless body which encourges maximum production of royal jelley. a double sceen (acting as a cloak board) is interchanged with a queen excluder to alternate the upper body between being queen right and queenless. the basic idea is that you confine the queen to one deep body (typically the bottom) and use the other hive body for queen cell production. the double screen simply seperated the two bodies so that queen substance from one body is not passed to the queenless hive body. after the cells are started the queen excluder is reinstalled thru the finishing stage.

I have seen (and up pretty close) this technique employed by a queen cell producer but have never really used this technique myself. The obvious advantages are it allow you to produced commercial quantities of cells without resorting to depopulating hives for swarm boxes.

lastly a double screen is an excellent top to move hives in hot weather.... if for no other reason, everyone should have one for this purpose.

[Dave W]

>it occurs to me that they could be very useful for wintering weak hives together . . .
>window screening . . .

The Sept 07 issue of ABJ has an article that describes the use of a "screen board" made w/ "window screening" to make "double-queen" hives, wintering weak ones, and making up nucs.

[sierrabees]

I made up a few Snellgrove Boards a few years ago. They sort of serve the functions of a double screen board with the added advantage of having entrances on all four sides that can be opened or closed to suit the beekeepers needs. Plans are available on Dave Cushman's web site.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/textlinks.html