Robo’s World

It’s springtime and a lot of folks are eager to expand their apiary by doing splits. Splits are very popular since they are “almost free”. Problem is, a good portion of those doing splits use the “walk away” method because it’s easy and cheap without thinking it through.

Bees will rear queens in three different circumstances. Swarm queens, supersedure queens, and emergency queens. Swarm queens are reared when a colony is booming, resources are plentiful, and the colony is ready to initiate a natural split. Swarm queens are reared out of desire and not out of need, and are also reared vertically in queen cups. Since swarm queens are initiated by bee when conditions are optimal, the results are quality queens.
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It seems like frames and frame assembly is something that the beginners on Beemaster forums often have questions about. So with the help of my son, I’m working on putting together a series of short videos. Here is the first session which is an overview of frame types, frame sizes, and frame styles. I will do additional segments on frame assembly and frame wiring.

Overview

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Foundation & Wiring

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Eyelets & Assembly

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Jigs & Air Nailers

Jig plan available in download area.

I don’t like to put frame spacers in my supers because I like to start new un-drawn frames 10 to a super to get the comb drawn correctly. Once the frames are drawn, I reduce them to 9 per super to make extracting easier. I’ve tried putting 9-frame spacers in some and no spacers in others, but it always comes down to having a super with spacers when I need one without and vice versa. So I have settled on no spacers and manually spacing frames when setting the super.
You can spend close to $20 for a frame spacing tool that some of the dealers sell. By the way, it is about the size of a regular hive tool, and we know how easy they are to loose. One supplier even recommends using two of these tools to make it easier. So you can spend close to $40 or built one for just a couple of buck on your own.

All you need is a scrap board, 2 frame spacers and a cheap handle. I know, it looks like a fancy handle, but it was the cheapest one Lowe’s had. It was in the “clearance” pile and was less than $1.
Six frame nails and two screws, a wa-la! a $2 frame spacing tool.

Anyone that has done more than one cut-out knows what a pain it is to try and tie the comb into frames. Yes rubber bands may be easier, but they bring there own challenges too as they can sag with heavy comb. My preferred method is to use cut-out frames which are just regular frames cut down the middle, hinged on the bottom and have embedding wire strung around the outside. You simply open them like a book, install you comb and close the frame.

I start by cutting the side bars and top bars in half on a band saw. By using split bottom frames, I don’t need to cut the bottom bars. I then assemble them like I would a normal frame. By making a loop around the bottom bars with embedding wire creates the hinge. I put one on each end. I then string 3 rows of embedding wire on the outside of each side of the frame and hold it with staples.

Another crappy weather day gave me the opportunity to build some more medium supers. I buy rough cut 1×8 lumber from a local mill. I plane the boards down to 7/8″ so the supers are a little bit tougher that the normal 3/4″ commercial supers. Then using the table saw, I cut the boards to size, cut the hand holds and dado the frames rests. From there the sides go into a half-blind dovetail jig and after four passes with the router, they are ready to be assembled. I can get 10 supers from 8 boards.