Is there a statute of limitations on beekeeping matters for the web?

How incessantly ought to a blogger write about swarm management or thelytokous parthenogenesis or the provenance of honey?

The reply after all is as usually as they wish to. It is a free world.

However that does not imply that the posts can be learn 🙁

If I wrote about swarm management each week, I might rapidly run out of recent issues to write down, however – much more rapidly – I might run out of readers. It is an fascinating matter, there are many methods it may be achieved (and several other by which it can not) and, at instances throughout the beekeeping season, it is one thing all of us need to do.

However selection is the spice of life, and there are many different fascinating beekeeping matters that deserve consideration.

Like thelytokous parthenogenesis.

Nonetheless, if I wrote about thelytoky for 2 weeks in a row I might most likely outlast the endurance of readers (by a couple of fortnight).

So, maybe the frequency with which a subject is roofed ought to mirror its significance to all beekeepers, or my means to pronounce it?

Common readers ought to do not forget that they had been new readers as soon as. Some may have discovered the positioning, loved a publish or two after which rummaged again by the archives for different issues of curiosity. On common, guests to the positioning entry 1.8 pages … so for each 5 guests a day there are about 9 pages learn (or no less than seen).

Different new subscribers by no means look again, do not use the search facility and surprise why I’ve by no means mentioned the intricacies of – for instance – dummy boards. So that they publish a query (or e mail me straight) about no matter matter is on the forefront of their minds.

Is a decade lengthy sufficient?

Any readers, common or latest, who have been in search of an article on dummy boards may have had to return a couple of decade.

Every week is perhaps a very long time in politics, however within the extra respectable and sedate world of beekeeping, a decade continues to be a very long time.

I’ve solely posted twice on them earlier than, in February and July 2014, they usually had been solely examine 1500 instances final yr (a fraction of a fraction of a % of the whole … I will be fairly positive most of you studying this did not learn them). Each posts now redirect right here, however you may be capable of discover them in an web archive.

Essentially, the one factor that is modified within the intervening interval is the price of dummy boards when bought from the beekeeping suppliers.

In 2014 a dummy board value about £6 and I commented that I used to be ‘horrified’ one thing so easy might value a lot.

The identical factor is now £15.70.

That is not inflation … that is theft.

Utilizing the Financial institution of England’s inflation calculator, a £6 dummy board in 2014 ought to now value about £7.89.

Hmm?

If I might consider a superlative larger than horrified, I’d use it now.

However, I am getting forward of myself …

What’s a dummy board?

Within the UK, we name them dummy boards. High bar beekeepers and people within the USA most likely name them follower boards.

A dummy board is a board the identical width and depth as a regular body that’s used to handle the bee area adjoining to – usually – brood frames.

The Nationwide hive is designed for 11 frames. Assuming the frames will not be closely propolised and that they’re pushed collectively in opposition to one wall of the hive, there stays a ‘less-than-one-frame’ hole between the final body and the alternative wall (panel A within the diagram).

This area is necessary. It permits the adjoining body to be separated from its neighbour and lifted clear with out rolling the bees on the interface of the frames.

Nonetheless, this ‘additional’ area messes up the bee area within the hive and the bees will construct brace comb within the hole. Underneath sure circumstances they fill this with nectar or brood.

To keep away from this you insert a dummy board, shut sufficient to the final body to offer the proper bee area (panel B).

When beginning an inspection it’s straightforward to take away the dummy board, shake off the few adhering bees after which gently prise the final body away from its neighbour. With area to work, the bees won’t be rolled or crushed and life can be a lot simpler.

Usually, this implies that you’ll want one dummy board per brood field.

Here is one I made earlier

Dummy boards are trivial to construct.

One piece of 6-9 mm thick plywood (of the precise dimensions in your frames) and a few planed softwood of about 8×8 mm or 8×15 mm for the highest bar. Utilizing some waterproof wooden glue and body nails, connect the highest bar to the plywood.

Job completed!

I will not insult your intelligence by suggesting how greatest to chop the wooden to dimension, or get the ply and prime bar centred, or clamp every thing collectively whereas the glue units. Or, for that matter, supply the wooden … the offcuts bin of a neighborhood timber service provider is an effective place to begin.

These dummy boards want no portray, waterproofing or therapy. The bees will cowl them in a skinny movie of propolis inside days.

Actually, it is that straightforward?

Sure. For a tiny outlay, you can also make one thing that, bought commercially, prices a daft sum of money.

Are they pretty much as good?

Basically, sure.

Over time – by which I imply a few years – these easy boards typically delaminate a bit.

Ugly? Maybe.

A problem by way of hygiene? Probably not if the dummy board stays in the identical hive. If not, blowtorch it properly.

An obstacle to perform? Hardly ever.

The £15.70 industrial dummy boards most likely don’t delaminate. They often have birch softwood strips alongside the top grain of the plywood.

Nonetheless, in my view, a restricted quantity of delamination is a really small worth to pay for the ~£15 saving I make per board.

However plastic dummy boards are ‘solely’ £8

The identical Lamborghini-driving industrial suppliers who promote wood dummy boards for £15.70 additionally promote a plastic equal for about £8.

Half the worth and fewer than half pretty much as good in my opinion.

However nonetheless an excessive amount of.

I believe there are three issues unsuitable with the plastic ones:

• they’re plastic. The bees profit from plastic (polystyrene) hives, so I am moderately blissful to place up with the petrochemical merchandise. Nonetheless, I can see little or no profit for the bees from a plastic dummy board, not least as a result of …
• the lugs are fragile. A number of of mine have damaged. Maybe I am much more clumsy than I believed? You may ‘repair’ them utilizing a screw instead of the lacking lug, nevertheless it’s not likely perfect.
• they do not cope too properly getting used as a stand for a sizzling smoker on an adjoining poly hive roof. They’re additionally somewhat heavy.

Nonetheless, of their favour, they don’t warp or delaminate (in going by some previous photos I see that they do warp).

Tremendous dummy boards

‘Tremendous’ as in becoming honey supers … although the worth once more suggests a superlative product.

Among the industrial beekeeping suppliers additionally promote tremendous dummy boards. I’ve by no means had a purpose to make use of these and – amazingly contemplating the scale of my bloated stockpile of “beekeeping issues I’ve purchased however not use” – do not even personal one.

I do not routinely examine the supers so by no means must make the area to take away the primary body. My supers begin with 11 evenly-spaced new frames. As soon as drawn or filling properly, I take away frames to finally go away 9.

Maybe I am lacking one thing? Nonetheless, I am moderately assured that tremendous dummy boards are one thing I can do with out.

Different dummy boards I can do with out

With one exception – see under – I also can do with out dummy boards which can be any thicker than a single piece of ~9 mm plywood.

I do know some beekeepers construct dummy boards which can be full-frame thickness, or twice that. They use these for ‘dummying down’ 3- or 4-frame nucleus colonies in a 5- or 6-frame nuc field.

These ‘over-width’ dummy boards may even be insulated to avoid wasting the bees heating the lifeless area within the nuc.

While this reasoning is completely sound, I take a practical method.

I solely have 3- or 4-frame nucs once I’m getting queens mated in late-Spring or Summer season. I doubt the bees want the additional insulation at the moment of the yr and am blissful to make use of a single skinny dummy board (C within the schematic diagram above).

If the colony expands and builds brace comb behind the dummy board, then I have been remiss in my inspections. I ought to have added additional frames and allowed them to increase correctly. A fatter dummy board may stop the brace comb … however the overcrowding may encourage swarming.

DIY to economize

I believe the worth of economic dummy boards is a compelling argument for doing a little bit of fundamental DIY for beekeeping.

Really, fascinated with it, I might most likely purchase the wooden, the Evo-stick glue and a cheap tenon noticed for the worth of 1 industrial birch dummy board.

The great thing about DIY for beekeeping is that I need not spend £145 on Maismore’s new ‘Adapta-Dummy’ which automagically fills the vacant area in a hive – any hive.

I can spend 5 minutes and ~70 pence knocking easy dummy boards collectively from bits of ply or, if I actually felt they had been needed, construct one thing of any thickness I needed with a little bit ingenuity … and never way more moolah.

And, if I needed to search out out whether or not a one-frame-width insulated dummy board was useful, I might construct a number of and take a look at them. That is much better than promoting a kidney to subsequently uncover that they had been no higher than my present setup, and simply gathered mud and cobwebs within the shed.

Fats dummies

If the monetary financial savings of constructing easy dummy boards are a compelling purpose to ‘do it your self’, then the industrial availability of ‘fats dummies’ is one other – equally compelling – purpose.

The Maisemore’s Adapta-Dummy is fictional.

At the very least, I hope it’s.

Fats dummies will not be, however to my information they don’t seem to be out there commercially.

Maintain on … what’s a fats dummy?

My definition of a fats dummy is one thing that occupies a considerable area in a brood field. Usually, for causes I am going to get to shortly, the ‘substantial area’ is that occupied by 3.5 brood frames.

Customary self-spacing Hoffman frames are 35 mm thick, so 3.5 frames occupy 122.5 mm.

Two fats dummies due to this fact occupy the identical width as 7 frames which, in a Nationwide brood field, leaves area for 4 further frames (D within the diagram above).

This setup – two fats dummies separated by 4 frames – is what’s used within the ‘Ben Harden’ queenright queen rearing technique.

This technique, which Ben Harden did not invent however did popularise with articles in BIBBA’s ‘Bee Enchancment’, is a quite simple (and due to this fact good) method of queen rearing. For my part it is a perfect technique for freshmen to queen rearing to begin with; you want one robust colony, some enthusiasm, and no specialised tools.

Aside from two fats dummies.

Ben Harden queenright queen rearing

I’ve used this technique for years and written about it extensively. I am due to this fact solely going to concentrate on the features related to this publish on fats dummies.

Within the Ben Harden setup, the 2 fats dummies are separated by 4 frames.

The 2 frames adjoining to the flanking fats dummies comprise pollen shops; it’s vital that there’s a lot of protein close by to make sure that the growing queens are well-nourished.

Between the pollen-rich frames is one body containing chosen larvae to be reared as queens (usually this can be a cell bar body containing grafted larvae).

The ultimate body comprises open brood to draw a lot of nurse bees up (from the brood field under) to the quick neighborhood of the chosen larvae.

The concentrated nurse bees be certain that the growing queens are properly fed. Until there’s a robust nectar circulate it’s often essential to feed the queen rearing colony with ~200 ml of skinny syrup (1:1 w/v) day-after-day or so till the cells are sealed.

Fats dummies for queen rearing

I’ve constructed quite a lot of fats dummies for queen rearing.

The most affordable and best to assemble had been constructed from salvaged Correx ‘For Sale’ indicators, strapped along with yards of gaffer tape. I crammed them with polystyrene chips or bubble wrap, reasoning it will present higher insulation, although I am undecided if it made a lot of a distinction.

Nonetheless, it may possibly’t have completed any hurt.

These Correx fats dummies had been constructed over a decade in the past, are nonetheless in use most summers (and occasional winters) and ‘simply work’. The edges have bowed out a bit over time, nevertheless it would not actually impression their perform.

However, if you’ll DIY, you may virtually all the time ‘construct one thing higher’.

Because it’s usually useful to feed syrup when rearing queens, it was logical to construct a ‘Mark 2’ fats dummy with an integral feeder. While I am competent with Correx, making a syrup-tight feeder was past me, so I used skinny plywood on a wood body. The latter (I believe … it is a very long time in the past) consisted of butchered brood frames, spaced appropriately with some scrap softwood. Once more, these had been stuffed with some kind of insulation.

The feeder is sealed on the within, most likely with varnish. Alternatively, I’ve sealed functionally-similar body feeders by sloshing round some molten beeswax inside.

Fats dummies for different duties

For Ben Harden queen rearing there’s actually no different than utilizing fats dummies much like these described above.

However they can be utilized for different issues as properly.

After I unite nucs with a full hive – for instance, when requeening a hive with a brand new queen mated from a 3-5 body nuc – I am going to usually use the newspaper technique with a second brood field part-filled with a fats dummy.

I am going by the hive to be requeened and take away the undesirable queen, lay a few sheets of newspaper excessive bars after which add a second brood field. The latter is part-filled with one or two fats dummies, relying on whether or not it is a 3, 4, 5 or 6 body nuc that is being united. Three or 4 frames go between two fats dummies, any extra and I simply put the nuc frames in opposition to the sidewall and push one fats dummy up in opposition to them.

I’ve beforehand mentioned taking your ‘winter losses within the autumn’ by uniting weak (wholesome) colonies with robust colonies in late autumn, somewhat than probably shedding them within the winter.

Nonetheless, inevitably, I’ve additionally tried overwintering weak colonies. You should utilize a fats dummy to part-fill the area in a brood field, putting this over a powerful colony separated by a break up board with a double-mesh display screen. The bees within the higher field profit from the heat of the colony under, and use the higher entrance supplied by the break up board.

Nonetheless, the ‘profit’ may nonetheless not be sufficient to maintain the small colony alive … I am due to this fact more likely to depart the fats dummies within the shed overwinter and unite the weak colony earlier than the top of the season.

Conclusions

Dummy boards and fats dummies are instance of easy beekeeping tools that:

• enhance colony administration
• are used more often than not in each hive (dummy boards) or hardly ever (fats dummies) … you both must buy a number of, or they’re unused for many of the yr
• value ‘foolish cash’ when bought commercially, or will not be in the stores
• will be simply and inexpensively constructed

If anybody can persuade me that £15.70 represents good worth for cash then be happy to depart a remark under.

Notes

Anybody pondering the title referred to sure actions on social media is perhaps upset, however nonetheless appropriate.

Observant readers will observe that nothing has modified on the web site since final week. I hit a last-minute glitch, now resolved, so plan to alter issues on Tuesday subsequent.

I hope 😉