Vertical space required between queen cell bars?

3932 Views 4 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Joseph Clemens, May 27, 2014

Intheswamp

Discussion Starter · May 27, 2014 (Edited)

I going to attempt rearing some queens in a month or so (yeah, tough time of the year!

) and will be using 8-frame mediums. I'm intending to use an 8-frame medium as mating box and nuc...a follower board to reduce the space down to from three to five frames to begin with and moving the follower over as the nuc (hopefully) expands. I keep thinking of dividing the 8-frame medium into two chambers for 4-frame mating nucs, but I think I will go the full-box route. Anyhow, my grande plans are to use somewhat of a cloake board method to build the queens. I've got a bee producing colony that is good at making bees but not so much making honey picked to raise and finish the cells...I've got a good honey producer colony that will be the larvae donor.

My current plans for my first excursion into queen rearing are to use strips of cut comb with young larvae...Smith/Alley type of rearing method, though cell punching is still high on the possibility chart.

I hobbled together a queen cell frame the other day and I'm curious as to the vertical height between bars being sufficient for queen cells to be drawn and for the possible attached hardware of cell punching (jzbz cups, wooden discs, etc). Is this enough room? 2-1/4" in the top section and 2-1/8" in the bottom section?

Thanks,
Ed

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Intheswamp

Discussion Starter · #2 · May 27, 2014

Hmm, figured I'd throw these pictures of the hobbled together queen cell frame out here in case someone else wants a nudge for a cell bar frame improvision.

I guess I could have used some thin flat stock and only required two pieces per end bar...but I had this old quarter-round trim I needed to use.

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Joseph Clemens

· #3 · May 27, 2014

Personally, I like using single cell bars. I use the JZsBZs plastic cell cups, called "wide base" (they have a mounting pin sticking out of their bottom side). Most often I use JZsBZs plastic cell bar holders (they hold fifteen wide base cell cups - or you could just cut a single kerf in the underside of a piece of wood/top bar). I fasten a JZsBZs cell bar to a nineteen inch long, narrow piece of wood, that I can then use as an individual cell bar, which will fit in a narrower space between frames -vs- an entire frame that is outfitted to hold cell bars.

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Intheswamp

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 27, 2014 (Edited)

Joseph, I just got through going back through the thread that David LaFerney started regarding your queen rearing method. I had ruled out grafting but I'm entertaining the thought again. Where do you get your JZBZwide base cells from? I've seen JZBZ cells cups offered but some places they state wide base and some places don't....is there more than one type/size? The idea of simply a narrow bar rather than an entire frame makes doggone good sense!!!! Thanks!

Ed

Link to above mentioned thread: http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...ing-using-the-Joseph-Clemens-Starter-Finisher

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Joseph Clemens

· #5 · May 27, 2014

I buy mine, directly from JZsBZs.com. Even though their website lists them in fairly large quantities, the proprietor, Jim Paysen has always taken our orders, for whatever amounts we need (even much smaller quantities). It's been a little more than a year since our last order, so I don't know if Jim is still running the operation, but hopefully they still have the same policy. I've often ordered just a few hundred of the Wide Base Cell Cups, and in several different colors.

I believe they are manufactured somewhere in Texas, and shipping is added from their facility there, to you.

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