I use a quiet box which is just a nuc with a strap on it for easy carrying. Set the quiet box close to the hive and when you find the frame with the queen on it set it in the quiet box and close the cover go about your business then put her frame back in when you're ready. You can use a push in cage if you have difficulty handling frames. Push in cages are easy to make and doesn't cost much to do so

 

I use a push cage to. I like the one that come from England that Kelly Carey's. Works great for marking them to.

 

Okay, yes that push cage looks much easier than trying to catch her! That would work great to keep her contained while I figured out frames for splits!

If I wanted to keep her contained for longer, like for a brood break, can she stay in there. I search around some other suppliers, so would something like this work better for that: https://www.kelleybees.com/Shop/21/Queens-Bees/Queen-Rearing/4526/Queen-Introduction-Cage

 

You are asking about several different scenarios.

For routine protection of the queen during inspections and manipulations a quiet box is just the thing. I teach my beginning students to use one from the get-go. I find them to be helpful whenever I am doing any kind of manipulation. Once the queen, and the frame she is on, is removed and safely contained within the quiet box, I can work more confidently to get what I need done. You can easily make one of these. You can use a nuc box, but a better solution is a proper quiet box that is slightly deeper than a regular box or a nuc boxes of standard depth. The extra depth adds a measure of safety and ease if there are festooning bees or burr comb.

For a push-in cage to immobilize the queen on a frame for short periods, you can easily make a 3.5 inch -4 inch square cage from a piece of #8 bee-proof screening. I make one for all my students and recommend they always keep it handy when the hive is open (I always do in my own yard because you never know when the need for it will come up.)

Or you can buy one of the round needle cages with woven threads that is used when doing queen marking. These are smaller, but sharper-pronged and you need to have a deft hand to apply one safely. I use these only when I will be marking a queen on the frame and need to immobilize her. I use homemade push-in cages if I just want to trap her but am willing to allow her to move around a bit.

For separating or isolating a queen to create brood break that's long enough to be mite-suppressing a more complicated set-up is needed. I've never attempted that as it seems like there are easier, less-disruptive ways ways to control mites.

All in all, though, the quiet box is my mainstay. I never have a frame out and propped against the hive, or hung on brackets. My frames are always in a box of some kind, or in my hands en route to one. I find this keeps things calmer, prevents robbing and buys me time to work as gently as I like to do, which inevitably also means more slowly. I do not subscribe to the slam-bam, get-in, get-out style of beekeeping. My girls don't like that very much.

Enj.

 

Thanks! I was reading up on quiet boxes and found this video. Love the whole concept of reducing stress as well as a safe place to put the frame with the queen when manipulating or doing splits.
http://youtu.be/v7cshQc5RyY

Does anyone know of a quiet box configured like this is available to purchase. I know it's just a nuc with some add ons and is probably easy enough to make, but even still I think it's above my skill level!

 

This year I built several of the D. Coates plywood nucs from plans on the DYI section on BS. I cut a feeder hole in the top and added a screen so the bees cant get out. I plan on using one for a quiet box, I stapled a screen over the entrance and added some velcro to strap down the top for transport if needed.
I know you said you were not much on wood working, but maybe you could find someone who can build them. They are relatively easy to build and you can build 4 for around $15

 

ClareKate:

That's the same video where I learned about quiet boxes. And I am pretty unskilled in carpentry, as well.

Do you run all mediums? If so I think you could easily make one by buying a to-be-assembled deep wooden nuc box, and putting it together. Staple screen over the bottom for a floor, and then go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy enough 2" by 1" wood to make the two side runners and get them to cut the pieces to the exact dimensions of the long side. (They will do the cutting for free, I've discovered.)

I use a piece of black woven polypropylene weed barrier cloth for the cover (I think it's more breathable, anyway.) Buy a wooden dowel as a weight for the free end and attach it using a staple gun.

For the solid top, a piece of plywood would do. I don't use power saws, but have good luck with small hand saws cutting reasonably straight edges. Hinges are nice, but not necessary.

One of the unanticipated side benefits of beekeeping is that I have begun to be bolder about making things from wood. Last fall I trimmed down several dozen MannLake follower boards to fit my Betterbee boxes, taking off about 3/16ths inch from each side, a job several experienced woodworkers predicted would be tricky, even with power tools. I bought a thin dovetail hand saw, marked each side and stuck the boards upside down in a vise and had at them. The first few were nothing to brag about. But by the end of the job I was whipping right through them with quite satisfactorily straight edges.

The only snag would be if you run deep frames, as I do. For that reason I had to pay a woodworker to make my quiet boxes deep enough.

In a pinch you can just use a nuc box as a quiet box, even though it doesn't have enough extra depth to be safe for deep frames with queen cells or big festoons of bees. The idea behind the routine use of a quiet box vs. frames in the open is too valuable to let anything stop you from trying it out. I think you'll find it makes a difference.

Enj.

 

Wow, thank you guys for the suggestions on the quiet box. Did not anticipate to find that kind of discussion on this topic but so glad I clicked in to read anyways!

I will definitely figure out how to make me one of those, I will be getting a cheap cardboard nuc with my bee's, I am thinking this could be modified to work and hopefully hold up long enough for me to figure out how to make/commission a wooden one!

 

I saw some frame cages, cages that hold an entire frame, that hangs in the hive, at Sue Cobey's lab at UCD over ten years ago. I made myself 2 of them. They are made of sheet metal framework with queen excluder sides. You can place a frame in them with the queen on it. and bees can come and go through the excluder sides but the queen and drones can not. Back then, it was used as a way to force the queen to lay in drone frames for removal for mite control. They are also used for caging the queen to one entire frame to get correct aged larva to graft from. I'm betting you could shake all the bees off of a frame of open larva and put it in the frame cage and put in a new queen as a way of introducing her to a hive, but I've not tried that trick, not sure if it'd work or not in a hive that would refuse a new queen in favor of one of their own. but if you used their frame of open larva, maybe?

I've looked on internet to see if there are anything like them for sale, can not find them so far. I think it was Kilocharlie that has posted about some he has or made that he uses. Perhaps you can find someone to make you one up, if you can not find them for sale anywhere. I'll keep looking and if I see them for sale anywhere I'll post back here with a link.

 

I have deeps for my hives right now (and for the nucs I purchased to use this year) and medium supers, so I'd need to work a little harder to make a quiet box that was deeper than a deep super box. My husband has all the tools we'd need, but he himself claims that he's pretty bad at wood working (he restores antique tractors for a hobby and has very little interest in my bees or really having anything without an engine as a hobby!). I found this page, though, with some clear instructions and we may make a project of it later this spring. I think I would just want to add some wood to the bottom before the screen and legs to accommodate queen cells if removing frames to use in splits.

http://ashlandvabeekeepers.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Quiet-Box.pdf

Also, I watched a few more short videos from Billy Davis about his approach and using a drape. So interesting! I haven't watched this one yet, but he had a full lecture on nucs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCYbQJDAmqw

 

RayMarler & Kilocharlie,

I like the concept that Ray has described and I would like to have some. Ray, if you could post several pictures of the ones that you have I'm sure that I could build one. If Kilocharlie or someone else could post where to buy them, that would be great too. Can anybody help find the cage described by RayMarler in Post # 9 ?

Steve

 

If Kilocharlie or someone else could post where to buy them, that would be great too. Can anybody help find the cage described by RayMarler in Post # 9 ?Steve

I've seen them on Ebay....

 

I've searched the internet and can not find any at all. Mine are packed away somewhere out in the barn, I'll try to get out there and find them and take a pic.

 

OK, here is a link to a gallery of pics of my frame cage...

https://postimg.org/gallery/idarxyru/

It is sheet metal frame, I forget what gauge it is but it's pretty stiff. It has queen excluder cut to size and pop riveted to the sheet metal frame work.The framework is cut and bent into shape, the bottom and two sides of it are all one piece of sheet metal. The top is bent to give a slot for another flat piece of thinner sheet to slide in over the top of the frame's top bar. Hope you can make that all out in the pics. The top is two pieces, pop riveted in place.

So, you put in frame, the ears of the top bar stick out of each side to rest on the hive bodies frame rest ledges. The sliding sheet metal lid slides in over the top bar of the frame in the very tight space left . The sliding in sheet metal closure, both edges of it are under the top metal piece of the cage. I'm not very good at explaining, hopefully you can get the details in the pics.

 

Order some of those plastic queen catchers. They will get you started then you will get tired of them breaking and just start carching the queens bare handed. Picking up a queen by her wings doesn't harm her. That will come with experience. Inspections teach you alot . Then with experience you learn to do them less. The more you handle frames and such you will gain confidence. I don't like to wear gloves. I have better grip on frames without them. I have some mean bees but you will learn to handle them with time. Take it slow , learn all you can and enjoy the ride. Robert

 

We have one of those hair-clip-looking queen catchers. Our first use or two of it were uneventful. Then we had a queen that took one look at it coming after her, must have decided it was the Jaws of Death, and flew off. Twice. The first time she flew back into the hive where she hid. The next day we found her again, and this time she flew into the grass. Fortunately we were able to find her.

Usually if we want to catch a queen it is to mark her. I've found I can usually just put the queen marking tube over her, and wait until she crawls up the side.

 

Today i caged a queen because i added a frame of bees from another hive. All i did was put a old queen cage in front of her and she started to go inside but stoped so i tapped her butt With my tool and she walked right in. Easy as pie. Dont over think it. It's easy just do it.

 

If you are just making splits and you are still worried about harming the queen then I suggest that you don't worry too much about her. Just make sure that each hive in your split has a frame of eggs, some brood, some pollen, and some nectar/honey. Which ever one is the one without a queen will raise a new one. Check back three days later and which ever one has eggs is where the queen is at.

Start a calendar on split day so that you know when to expect the new queen to be laying. See Bee Math at Micheal Bush's website.