[little_john]

Some people will say that a hive turntable is completely unnecessary - but I think they're brilliant, especially when running a Cloake Board stack ...

Here's the first one I made from a Lazy Susan bearing and some scrap wood:



The second one I ran for a few years in skeleton form:



But as I much preferred working with the first - I eventually got around to making a second similar in construction to that one:





So why do I have more than one Cloake Board rig ? So I can employ one using proven methods of raising queens, while running experiments (and persistent failures - such as the Nicot Laying-Cage method, which I'm determined to solve !) on the second.
LJ

 

[Murdock]

Little John, that is what beekeeping is all about... trying new stuff over and over. As you get older the over and over part is because you forgot about the first time you did it.

 

[Cuttingedgelandinc]

Great idea. We use a custom bottom board with removable blocks on both ends. This allows us to switch the entrance from one side to the other very easily.

 

[little_john]

Thanks.

Sure - I tried that approach with a device called a Morris Board, which entails using a static hive with entrances on the underside of the MB at both front and rear. The idea being that with the front (lower) entrance closed, the bees would exit via the back, and return to the front, but - finding that entrance closed - would then vector upwards an inch or so to one of two openings above it, and so into one of two five-frame nuc boxes where the grafts (or similar) were awaiting them. Essentially, the Morris Board being a more complex version of the Cloake Board.

But in practice I found that - being creatures of habit - the bees wanted to leave via their usual exit, and patiently waited there for it to be opened. No doubt given time they would have got bored and looked elsewhere, but I thought "why not work with the bees' habits, rather than expecting them to change to fit the equipment ?" - and so decided to rotate the hive itself rather than swap between front and back entrances.

Then, as the lower entrance option was no longer required, I duly converted the Morris Board to a 'Divided Cloake Board', where I have two five-frame nuc boxes on top to direct the bees into, rather than one large one. This way I can then alternate between the boxes, as well as using a less powerful parent hive below the board - which suits my own requirement for small numbers of queen cells at regular intervals.

Whatever works ...
LJ