Ben Harden Method

[BeeAware]

Has anyone tried rearing queens using the Ben Harden method? If so, what were the results?

[RayMarler]

I'm not familiar with the Ben Harden method of queen rearing, can anyone give me a link to info?
Thanks!

[Radar]

Here is a link


http://publishing.yudu.com/Awrwx/BC0812/resources/10.htm

[BeeAware]

I'm not familiar with the Ben Harden method of queen rearing, can anyone give me a link to info?
Thanks!

There is some info on Dave Cushman's website. I have received emails from Mr. Ben Harden and he has been helpful with advise, so I think I will try to use his method this spring with a few modifications and see what happens. I also use the Case, or Hopkins method with pretty good results in rearing a few dozen queens. I just thought perhaps some of the readers here had used the Harden method. I know a beekeeper in my area who has reared queens this way but have not been able to talk with him about it.

[wayacoyote]

To Dave Cushman's site
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/benhardenmethod.html

[jean-marc]

Well I'm not really sure who Mr Ben Harden is, but on this side of the pond they call those queenless flightless colonies stocked with nurse bees , swarm boxes, or starter colonies. They make really nice queen cells, the best in my opinion. Once started they are placed above the excluder in a queenright colony. One difference I see is Mr Harden advocates the use of Dummy boards. Not a bad idea as it would crowd the bees, thereby increasing the concentration of bees onto the queencells. There was an article maybe 2-3 years ago in the ABJ where a Brazilian Prof used the same idea except he placed a 5 frame nuc above the excluder (no need for Dummy boards as the nuc box is narrower). He then used 2 narrow covers to close the sides of the colony(the queenright part below the excluder).

The other difference in the method is that Mr Harden grafts the larvae into a special innercover instead of onto grafting bars.

The method is very good but I think it's a big stretch to attribute it to Mr Ben Harden.

Jean-Marc

[Radar]

<The method is very good but I think it's a big stretch to attribute it to Mr Ben Harden.>

Mr Ben Harden is a prominent beekeeper in the Republic of Ireland, I would not think that anyone in Europe, would say that he did not originate this system whereby the queen cells were tended by the bees in a restricted area between two insulated wide dummy boards and at the same time working in the supers above during a honey flow.

[jean-marc]

Beekeepers have been using queenright colonies to finish queen cells for a long time. Snelgrove boards come to mind. Snelgrove boards allow beekeepers to do this. Many many queen rearing outfits in the U.S. use queeright colonies to finish cells. Honey supers could be placed on those hives but most outfits do not because it is very inconvenient to have to lift an extra box or two. Queen cell finishers are handled quit a bit especially if incubators are used to hatch queen cells. It's easier for an outifit in that situation to pull individual honey frames than to handle an extra box or two. Is Mr Harden alive? I'm assuming he is. I can concede that he advocates the use of dummy boards, but as pointed out earlier the brazilian's acheive the same idea with a nuc box above the excluder. As far as finishing cells above an excluder american queen breeders have been doing that for a very long time.

Marla Spivak teaches essentially the same queen rearing method but without dummy boards. This queen rearing technique was taught at the University of Minesotta by Dr Basil Furgala, so it is a least 50-60 years old. At the U of M they like to rear queens when colonies are strong and have a honey flow on. Mostly outfits who do that use it to raise one or two rounds of queen cells. They make great cells but there is a lot of extra box handling that the very large queen rearing outfits want to avoid.

Jean-Marc

[jean-marc]

I almost forgot to say that the only truly novel idea in the Ben Harden "method" is the modified inner cover. That cover acts as a holder for the queen grafts so that when grafted larvae are districuted to say 9 hobby beekeepers (5 cells each) then the starter colony does not have to be opened. All you do is give the 24 or so old graft to the hobbyist and replace with an empty queen grafting cup. This way there are way less bees flying around in the truck or car.

Jean-Marc

[Radar]

Mr Harden is still alive and I am sure that he will only claim credit for the insulated wide dummy boards(almost boxes) that are used to restrict the volume of the brood chamber in which the queen cells are placed, through which the bees pass freely into the supers above. He recommends his system to small scale queen rearing without loss of honey production.

[jean-marc]

Alright, then I'm in total agrrement with you on Mr Harden's claims about his sytem. Glad to know he's alive.

Jean-Marc

[Radar]

I have to appologise, I have given the link to a talk by Norman Walsh in which he refered to the Ben Harden system, unfortunatly that was a modified version, using the dummy boards but not as Mr Harden had advocated, there was no access to the supers.

The link given by Wayacoyote is more accurate:-

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

[Michael Bush]

>Marla Spivak teaches essentially the same queen rearing method but without dummy boards.

And G.M. Doolittle did it WITH and without the dummy boards and published that method back in 1889. Along with many other variations.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesdoolittle.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesdoolittle.htm#QueenrightCellBuilder

Marla's method is basically a slight variation on the Smith method:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearingsimplified.htm