I'm a new viewer of your videos and I must congratulate you on the professional way in which you clearly explain and take you through the various methods. Having watched several American videos where they don't know there - from there - , and don't even seem in any way be prepared to make a video on the subject , I can only sing your praises. I aim to be queen rearing shortly , so thank you for all the information given.
Love your Videos! Keep it up! Anything i see you doing i go out to the field and try it! Hope when i get more stable in the business i can help you out because your doing a great thing!
Hi Nathan, Thanks for the comments. I hope that I am able to encourage as many beekeepers as possible to try out some of these methods and hopefully it will help with their beekeeping. Let me know what you try and how you get on. Stewart
I have been doing the Leave alone splits and have setup a cell builder colony so that they can supply me with queens as i am new to beekeping i have just cut out some eggs out of a parent colony and attach it to the frames that i have made to your specifications based on what i see and placed it in the cell builder. Hopefully that goes well and i will have some queens in short time to create more splits and add to the splits i have made and hope to continue. This method i think is most effective as graphing is too specific the bees already know what they are looking for to draw queen cells. Your Videos are clear instructive and very understandable and clear. The Follow up videos also help because you know wat to look for after you have done it. Continue to do your work! Its helping and you are doing a good job! Best Regards Nathan
Hi Stewart. Thanks for the showing us the Alley Method. It looks like a great method and was certainly very successful for you. I realise that results with each method will vary each time they are attempted, but is the greater success you've had with the Ally Method over the Miller Method indicative of how they usually perform? Thanks for the interesting explanation at the start about how the queen cells could come from slightly different aged eggs or larvae and to take that into consideration with the timing of moving them into their mating nucs.
Hi Paul, Thanks for commenting. Regarding the Miller v Alley methods, I've had great success with the Miller method, producing many queen cells from one frame. I think on this occasion I simply allowed too much drone comb to be built and there were insufficient fertilised eggs for them to produce viable queen cells, so, beekeeper error. I guess I have used both methods no more than a dozen times and had a variety of results from both so it's hard to say that one out performs the other, I just love trying out different methods and increasing my knowledge and experience. Stewart
Regarding the timetable you speak about at the start of the video. Would you suggest moving the queen cells to their nucs at 12 days to take account of the older larvae that might be present? Excellent videos btw. Really enjoying them so thanks very much!
Hi Rob, Yes, moving the sealed queen cells in good time after they are sealed is a smart move. You don't want early emergence of one queen to destroy all the others you've worked to produce. Stewart
I know this is 2yr old now, but curious as to whether you found the Queen because I didn’t see it. I noticed there was a cut in the video, and at least one frame taken out of the shot, so wondering if you took her out & just didn’t show it? I have been learning a lot from your videos so thanks for sharing.
.... maybe I should have been a little more patient & watched the rest of the video before asking my question 🤨 I see you did say that the Queen was destroyed - Oops!
Hi Stewart, fab video as usual. Have been thinking about converting a hive into a 2/3 way nuc. I have seen a video from Turkey where they have a long hive box split into numerous compartments, which are separated by on fine gauge mesh. Apparently the bees can see/smell their neighbour's and hence go into overdrive to compete!! Finally, have Ben looking to try the cell punch method and see you are covering this in a new video. Without spoiling the forthcoming video would you mind sharing where you bought your cell punch please? Many thanks again.
Hi James, Thanks for the comments. I don't like to leave any colony for too long without a queen or queen cell but it is a variable that is difficult to pin down to one specific timeframe. Some colonies can go for weeks without a queen and be fine while others will have laying workers within days it seems. One of the joys of beekeeping! Stewart
Stewart, Would the bees left in the super at the end, not become laying workers whilst waiting for their new sovereign? Looks like a method I’d like to try next season. I’ve just been separating then uniting as a way of queen rearing, but really want to get into using the small mating nucs. Marc
Hi Marc, With the Cloake Board method there is a laying queen in the bottom box so laying workers are not an issue. The time taken to produce a new queen is such that the workers do not become laying castes and so it is a great method for producing multiple batches of queens. I'm not so keen on using the small queen mating nucs, I find I have a higher percentage of absconding queens, failures and they generally take a lot of work for me. That's not to say they don't work, it is a really good method for a lot of beekeepers, I just prefer to use nuc boxes with more bees and a little more flexibility in timing. Stewart
Hi Iris, The colony has a disease called chalkbrood which is a fungal infection that some queens are unable to cope with. It appears to be a genetic trait and so the best way of stopping it is to replace the queen. If you allow the colony to replace the queen themselves with another queen of the same genetic strain she is likely to also struggle with chalkbrood. Stewart
Thanks Stewart, However don't you have to remove the chalk brood frames then and destroy the frames with the effected brood? As isn it a fungus and by nature likes damp conditions?
Hi Iris, Generally when the chalkbrood infects a susceptible colony the bees will do all they can to remove the affected brood. This tends to remove a lot of the problem. In badly affected colonies I would remove frames and replace but most colonies are quite able, with the right queen, to manage themselves regarding the chalkbrood. Stewart
Hi Stewart, video very interesting ,can we buy a Alley brood box or do we need to make one i do not have the time at the moment would much sooner purchase from somewhere ????
Hi Stewart,can I ask at what day of the sixteen days did you cut out the queen cells,,and can I cut them out as soon as they are capped, at day eight or nine thankyou,chris c
Hi Chris, I don't rightly remember but it would have been around day 12 I think, that's when I normally do that kind of work. It allows the queen to start developing well and also makes sure you don't mistime the wove and have queens popping out everywhere. Stewart
Hi Kjell, thanks for commenting. It was just for demonstration purposes really, I did introduce several queen cells into queenless nucs and they have all emerged well and are now laying. Sometime bees will tear down queen cells and so the cage is to protect them in a similar way as if I had wrapped them with foil which I do sometimes do in strong, aggressive colonies. Stewart
In addition to answer. One could protect the emerging queen with-in a small 1/8 mesh screen cage that is pressed into frame or other wise placed between 2 frames. Some might allow sufficient space for a emerged queen to hide from potential aggressive bees if need be.
Hi Todd, I get them from Bee Equipment online. Here's a link directly to the product. bee-equipment.co.uk/collections/queen-rearing/products/top-bar-cell-protectors-100-pack Stewart
Hi Robert, Thanks for commenting. Which queen are you referring to? I normally remove queens that are either creating colonies that are very defensive in their behaviour or perhaps the queen is prone to disease. Did I remove a queen in this video? Stewart
Hi Robert, Yes, I remember now, sorry, making so many videos can blur the mind sometimes! So, Chalkbrood is a fungal infection that can spread through a colony and it appears that some queens are more susceptible to it than others. The best means of stopping it is by replacing the queen. Stewart
Hi William, I understand now, there are some strange folk out there but we're all entitled to an opinion, I just ignore it in favour of seeing how many people comment positively and give the videos a thumbs up. I appreciate your comments and support. Stewart
Hi vas koritsas, thanks for the question, it's a really good question. The practical answer is that it was the only colony in that apiary that I had that was available to split and yes ideally I would choose a completely healthy colony. Having said that, the chalkbrood was not a heavy infection but it had been slow to clear so I was going to replace the queen anyway. The normal process that I follow for reducing and removing chalkbrood is to replace the queen In splitting the colony and putting new queens into them all I was doing is producing four queens on the old comb. I anticipate that the new queens will get into laying pretty quickly and the chalkbrood will disappear as they will be queens from a different maternal line. Stewart
I'm a new viewer of your videos and I must congratulate you on the professional way in which you clearly explain and take you through the various methods. Having watched several American videos where they don't know there - from there - , and don't even seem in any way be prepared to make a video on the subject , I can only sing your praises.
I aim to be queen rearing shortly , so thank you for all the information given.
Hi 1950jpk,
Thanks for your kind comments. Good luck with your queen rearing, let me know how it goes.
Stewart
Things are evolving to become a masterclass! excellent good sir! The facebook group has been great also.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your comments. I'm glad you are enjoying the videos and the Facebook group is being of help.
Stewart
great video thanks and have a wonderful day'
Love your Videos! Keep it up! Anything i see you doing i go out to the field and try it! Hope when i get more stable in the business i can help you out because your doing a great thing!
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for the comments. I hope that I am able to encourage as many beekeepers as possible to try out some of these methods and hopefully it will help with their beekeeping.
Let me know what you try and how you get on.
Stewart
I have been doing the Leave alone splits and have setup a cell builder colony so that they can supply me with queens as i am new to beekeping i have just cut out some eggs out of a parent colony and attach it to the frames that i have made to your specifications based on what i see and placed it in the cell builder. Hopefully that goes well and i will have some queens in short time to create more splits and add to the splits i have made and hope to continue. This method i think is most effective as graphing is too specific the bees already know what they are looking for to draw queen cells. Your Videos are clear instructive and very understandable and clear. The Follow up videos also help because you know wat to look for after you have done it. Continue to do your work! Its helping and you are doing a good job!
Best Regards
Nathan
Absolutely splendid stuff Stewart
Hi Linton,
Thanks for commenting, hope all is well with you.
Stewart
👌
Hi Stewart.
Thanks for the showing us the Alley Method. It looks like a great method and was certainly very successful for you.
I realise that results with each method will vary each time they are attempted, but is the greater success you've had with the Ally Method over the Miller Method indicative of how they usually perform?
Thanks for the interesting explanation at the start about how the queen cells could come from slightly different aged eggs or larvae and to take that into consideration with the timing of moving them into their mating nucs.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for commenting. Regarding the Miller v Alley methods, I've had great success with the Miller method, producing many queen cells from one frame. I think on this occasion I simply allowed too much drone comb to be built and there were insufficient fertilised eggs for them to produce viable queen cells, so, beekeeper error. I guess I have used both methods no more than a dozen times and had a variety of results from both so it's hard to say that one out performs the other, I just love trying out different methods and increasing my knowledge and experience.
Stewart
Thinks
Regarding the timetable you speak about at the start of the video. Would you suggest moving the queen cells to their nucs at 12 days to take account of the older larvae that might be present?
Excellent videos btw. Really enjoying them so thanks very much!
Hi Rob,
Yes, moving the sealed queen cells in good time after they are sealed is a smart move. You don't want early emergence of one queen to destroy all the others you've worked to produce.
Stewart
I know this is 2yr old now, but curious as to whether you found the Queen because I didn’t see it. I noticed there was a cut in the video, and at least one frame taken out of the shot, so wondering if you took her out & just didn’t show it?
I have been learning a lot from your videos so thanks for sharing.
.... maybe I should have been a little more patient & watched the rest of the video before asking my question 🤨 I see you did say that the Queen was destroyed - Oops!
Hi Wendy,
If I'm honest I can't remember, I don't recall there being any problems with finding the queen so it was probably all ok.
Stewart
Hi Stewart, fab video as usual. Have been thinking about converting a hive into a 2/3 way nuc. I have seen a video from Turkey where they have a long hive box split into numerous compartments, which are separated by on fine gauge mesh. Apparently the bees can see/smell their neighbour's and hence go into overdrive to compete!!
Finally, have Ben looking to try the cell punch method and see you are covering this in a new video. Without spoiling the forthcoming video would you mind sharing where you bought your cell punch please? Many thanks again.
Wonderful techniques steward
How long can a Hive continue without a Queen? Will you be putting in a "Miller" Queen into it?
Hi James,
Thanks for the comments. I don't like to leave any colony for too long without a queen or queen cell but it is a variable that is difficult to pin down to one specific timeframe. Some colonies can go for weeks without a queen and be fine while others will have laying workers within days it seems.
One of the joys of beekeeping!
Stewart
Stewart,
Would the bees left in the super at the end, not become laying workers whilst waiting for their new sovereign? Looks like a method I’d like to try next season. I’ve just been separating then uniting as a way of queen rearing, but really want to get into using the small mating nucs.
Marc
Hi Marc,
With the Cloake Board method there is a laying queen in the bottom box so laying workers are not an issue. The time taken to produce a new queen is such that the workers do not become laying castes and so it is a great method for producing multiple batches of queens.
I'm not so keen on using the small queen mating nucs, I find I have a higher percentage of absconding queens, failures and they generally take a lot of work for me.
That's not to say they don't work, it is a really good method for a lot of beekeepers, I just prefer to use nuc boxes with more bees and a little more flexibility in timing.
Stewart
Hi Stewart, Fascinating!!! You saying the queen has to go as she has chalk brood? So they don't make a new queen cell themselves?
Hi Iris,
The colony has a disease called chalkbrood which is a fungal infection that some queens are unable to cope with. It appears to be a genetic trait and so the best way of stopping it is to replace the queen. If you allow the colony to replace the queen themselves with another queen of the same genetic strain she is likely to also struggle with chalkbrood.
Stewart
Thanks Stewart, However don't you have to remove the chalk brood frames then and destroy the frames with the effected brood? As isn it a fungus and by nature likes damp conditions?
Hi Iris,
Generally when the chalkbrood infects a susceptible colony the bees will do all they can to remove the affected brood. This tends to remove a lot of the problem. In badly affected colonies I would remove frames and replace but most colonies are quite able, with the right queen, to manage themselves regarding the chalkbrood.
Stewart
Hi Stewart, video very interesting ,can we buy a Alley brood box or do we need to make one i do not have the time at the moment would much sooner purchase from somewhere ????
Hi Guys,
Is it the Cloake board you want or the alley frame itself?
Stewart
Hi Stewart,can I ask at what day of the sixteen days did you cut out the queen cells,,and can I cut them out as soon as they are capped, at day eight or nine thankyou,chris c
Hi Chris,
I don't rightly remember but it would have been around day 12 I think, that's when I normally do that kind of work. It allows the queen to start developing well and also makes sure you don't mistime the wove and have queens popping out everywhere.
Stewart
Sorry I´ve just seen you´ve answered my question here! so 12 days was a good guess on my part lol
I was curious why you put the queen-cells in cages, why not simply introduce the cell to the queenless hive and let it hatch there??
Hi Kjell,
thanks for commenting.
It was just for demonstration purposes really, I did introduce several queen cells into queenless nucs and they have all emerged well and are now laying. Sometime bees will tear down queen cells and so the cage is to protect them in a similar way as if I had wrapped them with foil which I do sometimes do in strong, aggressive colonies.
Stewart
In addition to answer. One could protect the emerging queen with-in a small 1/8 mesh screen cage that is pressed into frame or other wise placed between 2 frames.
Some might allow sufficient space for a emerged queen to hide from potential aggressive bees if need be.
Where can you get queen cell holders you used ?
Hi Todd,
I get them from Bee Equipment online. Here's a link directly to the product.
bee-equipment.co.uk/collections/queen-rearing/products/top-bar-cell-protectors-100-pack
Stewart
The Norfolk Honey Company
Thank you, I enjoy your videos
Why are you using cages when you are only putting one cell into each mating nucs?
Hi Moebees,
I sometimes find the bees tear down the queen cell so putting a cage around it helps prevent this.
Stewart
Why do you have to kill the queen please New to beekeeping
Hi Robert,
Thanks for commenting. Which queen are you referring to? I normally remove queens that are either creating colonies that are very defensive in their behaviour or perhaps the queen is prone to disease. Did I remove a queen in this video?
Stewart
The Norfolk Honey Company
yes you killed a queen from the hive you put in to the four way hive, it had chalk brood. not sure about chalk brood.
Hi Robert,
Yes, I remember now, sorry, making so many videos can blur the mind sometimes! So, Chalkbrood is a fungal infection that can spread through a colony and it appears that some queens are more susceptible to it than others. The best means of stopping it is by replacing the queen.
Stewart
Who is the one person that does not The Norfolk Honey Company?
Hi William,
Sorry don't understand your question? Did I say something in the video that you are questioning?
Thanks
Stewart
No. I was just confused why someone gives all your videos a thumbs down, SOMEONE must not like you.
Hi William,
I understand now, there are some strange folk out there but we're all entitled to an opinion, I just ignore it in favour of seeing how many people comment positively and give the videos a thumbs up.
I appreciate your comments and support.
Stewart
Why did you use a colony with chalk brood to raise new nuclei? Don't you run the risk of spreading the disease to these colonies?
Hi vas koritsas,
thanks for the question, it's a really good question. The practical answer is that it was the only colony in that apiary that I had that was available to split and yes ideally I would choose a completely healthy colony. Having said that, the chalkbrood was not a heavy infection but it had been slow to clear so I was going to replace the queen anyway. The normal process that I follow for reducing and removing chalkbrood is to replace the queen In splitting the colony and putting new queens into them all I was doing is producing four queens on the old comb. I anticipate that the new queens will get into laying pretty quickly and the chalkbrood will disappear as they will be queens from a different maternal line.
Stewart
Chalk brood ??? I'd be burnt everything
MAKET BICAĞININ AĞZINI DEĞİŞTİRMEDİN GİTTİ
Hi enver sahin,
I'm sorry but I don't understand, is there any chance you know English and can resend?
Stewart
Rain? Why bring it up as if a surprise - it is England. Still using that aweful knife. Buy something sharp and with more than 1/8 inch of blade.