Manley Cage- Introducing the Queen in a Nice Way
[to my Russian readers, and Russian robots, das vadanya, but the whole entry below is useless- what i did, did not work, and needs revison. See addendum at end. Sorry. ]
I think this method of introducing queens is named after R.O. Manley, the author of the book covers I've been repairing (see earlier blog entry). . Relying on my memory, rather than checking my facts on Google, I am sticking to the story, and I think this is called a Manley Cage. I am sticking to that story in an effort to Google Less, Remember More.( Its not a world movement, and needs a snappier byline, but I am hoping to make it one. Less smartphones, less Google, less Pokemon fake creatures, more Luddites and real creatures.)
Basically, the idea is to install the queen in a big cage on a frame, and let her lay eggs. Which has two pluses, it allows the queen to start laying immediately, and second, in laying eggs, there is more queen scent- which makes the hive more likely to accept her. I report this prematurely, as I haven't actually found out if I am doing it right. I will know in a few days.
To make the cage- super easy- I bent some 1/8" hardware cloth, into a 3"x 4"x 1/2" frame, and cut a little door into it, so the door hinged (just cut three sides) and big enough for the end of the hole at the end of a queen cage. And then I pressed the cage into the comb. I also had some small finish screws, that I was going to hand screw into the corners to ensure it wouldn't fall of, which works great on all wax foundation, but not on plastic foundation. So I just pressed it in here, and it seems to stick fine.
Below you can see her with her two attendants wandering about. I wasn't sure about how much room I needed to leave, but I think as long as the workers can't ball her, and she can move freely, it's OK. I did take out a frame from the brood box when I inserted this frame back, just to ensure the frame didn't push into the adjacent comb.
This frame, which I had just shaken the bees off of, has a number of supercedure cells on it, one in this picture to the right. Its seems like a frequent problem this year- hives that swarm or supercede, and then lose the virgin queen, somehow. It even occurs to me, that this has been a problem for years- and something I hadn't noticed, having assumed that the mated queens had just "disappeared", or been killed, or died, for some reason. Which makes no sense. It occurs to me that the problem of losing queens is more significant to me than controlling Varroa even- its how I lose hives (can't say I have ever lost a hive to Varroa, though I have had high infections (though not this year-another odd thing)).
And here are two short videos showing the hives reaction to putting the cage in. Bees flocked to it, and immediately started fanning heavily. All over the hive- even down inside it. It seemed odd- I haven't seen this happen before in introducing a queen, but maybe hadn't noticed. But this hive, in particular, seemed pretty happy about having a queen. I looked thoroughly twice for an existing queen in this hive before introducing the new one, but the fanning indicates to me that its going to work.
Here's the hive I am introducing it to. Not a lot of bees in the upper super, but up to now, its been a great hive. I have set the frame into my second brood super up from the bottom (I use 3 Westerns for brood instead of deeps). I'll put a red pin on the outside where the frame is so I can remember where it is in a day or two.
I think this method of introducing queens is named after R.O. Manley, the author of the book covers I've been repairing (see earlier blog entry). . Relying on my memory, rather than checking my facts on Google, I am sticking to the story, and I think this is called a Manley Cage. I am sticking to that story in an effort to Google Less, Remember More.( Its not a world movement, and needs a snappier byline, but I am hoping to make it one. Less smartphones, less Google, less Pokemon fake creatures, more Luddites and real creatures.)
Basically, the idea is to install the queen in a big cage on a frame, and let her lay eggs. Which has two pluses, it allows the queen to start laying immediately, and second, in laying eggs, there is more queen scent- which makes the hive more likely to accept her. I report this prematurely, as I haven't actually found out if I am doing it right. I will know in a few days.
To make the cage- super easy- I bent some 1/8" hardware cloth, into a 3"x 4"x 1/2" frame, and cut a little door into it, so the door hinged (just cut three sides) and big enough for the end of the hole at the end of a queen cage. And then I pressed the cage into the comb. I also had some small finish screws, that I was going to hand screw into the corners to ensure it wouldn't fall of, which works great on all wax foundation, but not on plastic foundation. So I just pressed it in here, and it seems to stick fine.
Then I pulled the candy plug, and let her (and her attendants in this case), into the Manley cage, and bent the door back, like this:
Below you can see her with her two attendants wandering about. I wasn't sure about how much room I needed to leave, but I think as long as the workers can't ball her, and she can move freely, it's OK. I did take out a frame from the brood box when I inserted this frame back, just to ensure the frame didn't push into the adjacent comb.
This frame, which I had just shaken the bees off of, has a number of supercedure cells on it, one in this picture to the right. Its seems like a frequent problem this year- hives that swarm or supercede, and then lose the virgin queen, somehow. It even occurs to me, that this has been a problem for years- and something I hadn't noticed, having assumed that the mated queens had just "disappeared", or been killed, or died, for some reason. Which makes no sense. It occurs to me that the problem of losing queens is more significant to me than controlling Varroa even- its how I lose hives (can't say I have ever lost a hive to Varroa, though I have had high infections (though not this year-another odd thing)).
And here are two short videos showing the hives reaction to putting the cage in. Bees flocked to it, and immediately started fanning heavily. All over the hive- even down inside it. It seemed odd- I haven't seen this happen before in introducing a queen, but maybe hadn't noticed. But this hive, in particular, seemed pretty happy about having a queen. I looked thoroughly twice for an existing queen in this hive before introducing the new one, but the fanning indicates to me that its going to work.
RESULTS, 3 DAYS LATER
Surprise, driving over to open the hive, to see how the queen, in her cage (made by me), was laying heartily, eggs in each cell....and how I would release her, supported, and welcomed, by the entire hive...well, it didn't work. I couldn't believe it (why IS THIS HAPPENING I pretty much said out loud), and it turns out, that once i had got down to the brood super- in my work clothes- having stopped at my apiary on the way home from a job- I looked down, and saw that the carefully pressed in cage- had fallen forward. Off, really. Had fallen forward onto the frame in front of it and bees were all over the place. Like the barbarians had broken through the great wall, and I- the queen protector- who had said whence last I saw her: don't worry, this is WAY better than a tiny queen cage...well, it all came to naught.
However, after a desparate search, I did find her, in the super above (my third brood chamber). And marked her.
The deal is, they dug out that cage, and here are the photos, minus the bees, to prove it. What I found was they had eaten away all around the cage, until it had nothing to stick to, and it had fallen forward. Likely with a push.
This is the lesson that a fellow who hates looking stuff up on the web has to deal with. Undoubtedly, there is something I was supposed to do to make this not happen. Now I have to figure out how to make it work- as I really believe this is the way.
Comments
Post a Comment