[Laurieston]

So, following advice I built one (great fun it was too), and yesterday I put it in.  Here's how it went.

Kitted up on a lovely warm day.  Due to various reasons I have the equivalent to 2 brood boxes in one hive, containing a mixture of honey and brood.  Smoker ready, spare Super to use to hold frames which have to be placed in just the right constellations.

No Queen to be seen in the top brood box  (a good mixture of brood and stores) although some Queen cups being built.  This will make up the top (Queen-less) colony - sitting above the Snelgrove board.  Take out a couple of frames of eggs and stores and place them in spare Super which will make up the new colony (with existing Queen) below the Snelgrove board.  Set both of these boxes aside to search for Queen in lower box.

Queen is laying drone eggs in drone frame.  Carefully place her with the spare Super frames.

Suddenly realise I now have 3 boxes for two colonies.  Have to re-shuffle everyone together.  Lost Queen.  She has fallen on the floor!  Find her, my Precious.  Carefully place her back onto the have floor with what will be her colony.  Can Queens sting?

Rebuild whole hive as follows: 1. floor, 2. new brood box with Queen, some brood, some stores and lots of empty frames 3. Snelgrove board with open top front 4. Queenless brood box with lots of brood and eggs 5. queen excluder 6. Super with remaining honey frames 7. roof

Today there are lots of bees coming and going into both the top and bottom colonies.  I intend to divert the current foraging bees from the top colony into the bottom colony tomorrow to help build up the new colony as fast as possible. 

I come away feeling a little pleased with myself but also very consious that I have seriously manipulated these creatures to achieve what I want, but at what expense to them?

Has anyone else used a Snelgrove board, and what success did you have?  Any tips?

Laurieston

[P6te]

Hi Laurieston,

I've used Snelgrove boards many times.  The starting point varies depending on whether the hive is already on a double brood or not.  I would only be doing this procedure on a strong colony as a swarm control measure / to increase stock. If we assume the hive is on a single brood with 2 supers (separated by a Queen Excluder) and I have spare equipment I would proceed thus.

Dismantle the hive placing the existing brood box and floor to one side. Place a new floor and empty brood box on the original site. Fill this brood box with empty but drawn out frames leaving space for one frame that will come from the original brood box.

When manipulating bees I use Manipulation cloths that are about 19" square with round rods sewn in on opposite sides.

Cover the new brood box with a manipulation cloth and also the original brood box that is placed to one side. With a third empty brood box (placed on the hive roof - on the floor) go through the original brood chamber frame by frame and place the frames in the new (empty) brood chamber in the same order they came out looking carefully for the queen as you go. When you locate the queen (on a comb) place that comb in the brood chamber that just contains the empty drawn out frames (double checking it does not contain any queen cells!) on the original site.  If you wish you could shake some young bees off a couple of brood frames to further increase the strength of the 'artificial swarm'

The new brood chamber now contain the queen and one frame of brood.  Re-build the hive placing the Queen Excluder on top of the brood chamber, the 2 supers (and a third if necessary) followed by the Snelgrove board with gauze covering the bee escape holes. The Snelgrove board has openings on 3 sides, top and bottom.  Place the side with no openings to the front and place the original brood chamber on top with the frames closed up to the centre and a drawn out frame at the outside to fill the box, place crown board and roof on top.

Open the top opening on one side of the Snelgrove board. All the flying bees will return to the parent hive (with the queen).  The queen now has ample space to lay and with very little brood is highly unlikely to swarm.  The top 'hive' now finds themselves queenless and will raise queen cells. In 13 or 14 days from 'today' the first queen will hatch. Leave the hive as it now is for 5 days.

After 5 days, close the top opening and open the bottom one directly beneath it. Open the top entrance on the opposite side of the hive.   This will divert all flying bees to the parent hive keeping its strength up and the honey flowing in.  At the same time it weakens the top 'hive'.

After a further 5 days close the top entrance on the side and open the bottom entrance beneath it. Now open the top entrance at the rear of the hive. As before, this diverts all flying bees to the parent hive keeping its strength up, the honey flowing in and weakens the top 'hive'.

After a further 3 days close the side bottom entrance.  The bees will naturally find there way into the front of the hive where all the activity is.  By the time the first queen cell hatches the top hive will have been weakened sufficiently to prevent them from swarming and the majority of the flying bees joined the parent hive beneath. The reason to leave the rear entrance to the last is to ensure that when the virgin queen leaves on her mating flight that she is returning away from the main entrance and thereby reducing the chance of her attempting to enter the wrong hive.

When the queen has commenced laying you have a new colony and depending on your needs it may be a new hive or united with the parent hive in the autumn with whichever queen you wish.

The parent hive has effectively been artifically swarmed but with the advantage of receiving all the flying bees to maximise honey flow. In theory (but bees don't read books) this hive should not subsequently swarm.

This has ended up being a lengthy post but I hope it helps.

Pete

[Laurieston]

Thanks for the reply Pete, Snelgrove boards sounds complex, but now I've used one it makes a lot more sense.  I was surprised how quickly there were foraging bees returning to the upper colony.  I assume these were newly promoted bees (used to be nurse bees until all the foraging ones didn't come back) who were now foraging.  It was only hours before they were flying.  Are they promoted so quickly do you know?

And, the Snelgrove board has a hole in it, with mesh, between the two colonies.  I wondered whether this would result in both colonies smelling the presence of the Queen, albeit that she was in only one of the two.  This does not seem to be the case.  At least will see in a few days when I look into the hive to see if there is a Queen cell being built above the Snelgrove board.

All exciting.

I do like (my?) bees.

[P6te]

Hi Laurieston,

As you say, Snelgrove boards and their application sound complicated but the principle is simple. Artificially swarm the hive and bolster its strength and hence its honey producing capability.

Regarding 'newly promoted bees', its my understanding that bees adapt and turn their hand to the needs of the hive. In Spring for example when all bees are about 6 months old some must take on the role of Nurse bee.

Regarding the presence of a Queen, in the bottom (artificially swarmed) hive, the bees will all be aware of the presence of the 'queen bee substance' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee_pheromones for a good explanation) whereas the bees in the top queenless hive are not and hence the drive to produce a new queen.

One thing to add to my original reply, I've not tried this but I think it would be a good idea to place an additional queen excluder beneath the super that is directly beneath the Snelgrove board thereby ensuring that a Porter Bee Escape can be used to clear the honey without a Drone blocking it!

Pete
 

[Plantoid]

Don't forget to treat for varroa as two hives .
 The big prob with a Snellgrove method is supposed to be that every time a swarm issues from a nest the disease levels in the bees apporximately halves so in theory the disease / pest build up is lower than a double brooded hive ,  there for the single brood box  hive is healthier for swarming. But not for the honey & wax that a keeper may be aiming for .
 You have to accept your decisions early on and realize that the bees may suffer if things go wrong .
 My mentor in bees  Alvin said that in the long term with 50 hives I'd not be using the Snellgrove method as it is too time consuming . He was right in my case , far too much faffing around but for a couple of hives it may well be an interesting long term thing .