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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG0SKWlu58k
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Basically its 3x3x3 queen castle box with a modified bottom board and some add ons
Features
Queen less starter
Queen right finisher
larva timing box
Nursery (Incubation, emergence, banking)
Lastly (and most importantly to me) its a net gain system like a resource hive. Unlike a “Joseph Clemons” (nuc box queen less free flying starter/finisher) http://doorgarden.com/2011/11/07/simple-honey-bee-queen-rearing-for-beginners/ that you need to constantly feed frames of brood, this system produces frames of brood that are harvested and used to boost other hives, make nucs etc.
I work a chaotic and unpredictable on call schedule. 2018 was ruff, getting home from work late some nights and driving out to the main yard, grafting in the truck cab at 10pm in a thunderstorm was no fun.
I wanted a small, flexible, self-contained system I could stick on the side of the garage and work when I had time, no driving. So I developed this system (based on what some of the old masters had done, there is very little “new” in beekeeping, just new twists) I added a umbrella I can pop up if its raining and a few red lights to turn on for working it in the dark.
It made things SO much easier, only taking a few min after work most days. No hunting for the right age larva(often by headlamp, what a PITA), Grafting on the garage workbench in a comfy seat and good lighting made thing smoother and faster then a head lamp and steering wheel.
Grafting on a weekly basis allows this small system to produce a bar a week and simplifies the schedule so you do the same task on the same day all season.
The week looks something like this
Thursday- Place target frame Pull last week’s cells and place in nucs (or leave the to emerge in the cages)
Saturday- Catch and mark virgins if they were left to emerge. Move Mondays capped cells down to the cages
Sunday-(or Monday morning)Place solid division board to cover the queen excluder, remove back door plug
Monday-Graft
Tue- Remove solid division board, replace back door plug
While it looks like a bit much most of the tasks only take a few min, and the set up gives you some slush factor on some of your days if life/ weather gets in the way.
There is a myriad of ways to run this box such as keeping the queen on a single comb for timing and banking virgins up against open brood on the far end of the box (back).
One that comes to mind to try would be moving the target comb to the grafting frame position and letting them draw emergency cells on the age controlled larva. From there place push in cages over the cells on Saturday and rotate them to the back to emerge in the cages.
Doing this may overcome some of the main drawbacks with the use of emergency cells.. Mainly poor-quality queens resulting from older larva and lack positive selection pressure ie not making enuf queens from the “good” one you have.
Basically its 3x3x3 queen castle box with a modified bottom board and some add ons
Features
Queen less starter
Queen right finisher
larva timing box
Nursery (Incubation, emergence, banking)
Lastly (and most importantly to me) its a net gain system like a resource hive. Unlike a “Joseph Clemons” (nuc box queen less free flying starter/finisher) http://doorgarden.com/2011/11/07/simple-honey-bee-queen-rearing-for-beginners/ that you need to constantly feed frames of brood, this system produces frames of brood that are harvested and used to boost other hives, make nucs etc.
I work a chaotic and unpredictable on call schedule. 2018 was ruff, getting home from work late some nights and driving out to the main yard, grafting in the truck cab at 10pm in a thunderstorm was no fun.
I wanted a small, flexible, self-contained system I could stick on the side of the garage and work when I had time, no driving. So I developed this system (based on what some of the old masters had done, there is very little “new” in beekeeping, just new twists) I added a umbrella I can pop up if its raining and a few red lights to turn on for working it in the dark.
It made things SO much easier, only taking a few min after work most days. No hunting for the right age larva(often by headlamp, what a PITA), Grafting on the garage workbench in a comfy seat and good lighting made thing smoother and faster then a head lamp and steering wheel.
Grafting on a weekly basis allows this small system to produce a bar a week and simplifies the schedule so you do the same task on the same day all season.
The week looks something like this
Thursday- Place target frame Pull last week’s cells and place in nucs (or leave the to emerge in the cages)
Saturday- Catch and mark virgins if they were left to emerge. Move Mondays capped cells down to the cages
Sunday-(or Monday morning)Place solid division board to cover the queen excluder, remove back door plug
Monday-Graft
Tue- Remove solid division board, replace back door plug
While it looks like a bit much most of the tasks only take a few min, and the set up gives you some slush factor on some of your days if life/ weather gets in the way.
There is a myriad of ways to run this box such as keeping the queen on a single comb for timing and banking virgins up against open brood on the far end of the box (back).
One that comes to mind to try would be moving the target comb to the grafting frame position and letting them draw emergency cells on the age controlled larva. From there place push in cages over the cells on Saturday and rotate them to the back to emerge in the cages.
Doing this may overcome some of the main drawbacks with the use of emergency cells.. Mainly poor-quality queens resulting from older larva and lack positive selection pressure ie not making enuf queens from the “good” one you have.
