Building Snelgrove Boards

I have zero experience with actually using a Snelgrove Board- but have great hope that they are going to at least lessen one of my chores- catching swarms. I don't know how many I've caught over the years, I guess I'd guess 50-75, though it seems like more (might be), and most of them from my own hives. I have been fortunate in the past 4 or 5 years in that I work from home, and though its not billable hours to take a  break and catch a swarm,- I see them swarming (the ones on my roof), and can get them hived pretty quick, and get back to AutoCAD.

But other hives are lots farther away, and I have no way of catching these if they do swarm. Last year I lost the mother-of-all-swarms in my best hive, and it was 60 feet up a cedar tree. I think that's the second one ever that I lost- and its painful to see it launch out into the blue sky, with no way of catching it. It caught me entirely off guard (happening on April 1st).

Drawing it up my guess for and SB  so I can remember it later

So in the last few years I've been doing what my beekeeper friend Jim does, and that is, go through every hive once a week from April to July,  and either cut out, or move out, queen cells. Plus, I move empty comb down the center of the brood chambers, and pull out honey combs and put them in supers on top. Its a bit awkward, as I am often moving pollen up into my supers, and it gets confusing. But- it does seem to work, though lots of people say cutting cells is way too late. It might be- but in two years, its worked OK.

But I don't trust it- and the Snelgrove board, which I just learned about from Michael Jaross in the Mt Baker Bee group, seems promising, Its an oldish British method, apparently time consuming, but I like the idea of doing something proactive, and not, as in the past, splinting hives and losing honey.  Or not splitting, and losing bees.

So I begin this with making a bunch of Snelgrove boards. I  made 8. It took me a day- but I started out being optimistic that it would be half a day.  Here are the steps.

After cutting .25" ACX panels, I ripped  2x4s to 0.375" and start
cutting them en-masse for the different parts

Then I lay them out on tbe first board to get the arrangement right,,,

...glue the backs....

...and start stapling , using a quick jig.

Finished one side. The other side is exactly a mirror image. Takes
some thinking to coordinate, and I got a few things wrong.

Then I cut hardwood "doors" from scrap. I made these thinner, and about
3.25" wide, and was glad to use hardwood for durability.

And here are the boards, but without doors.

I cut the hardwood doors, then predrilled them for #6 machine screws and
nylon lock nuts.

This is how I did the doors- little screw handles and
Teak hardwood. The doors need to be thinner than
the adjacent boards.

The finished stack- with screens and ready to install.