Snelgrove board

01 · HOW IT WORKS

Double screen for the scent, doors for the bees

The two windows carry mesh on both faces with air between them: warmth and scent pass, but the bees of the two storeys never touch. That is why the two halves do not become strangers and later reunite without fighting. The eight entrances come in pairs, one above and one below the board on each of the four sides. Open one and close the other, and the foragers that learned that door come back to the same spot and walk into the other storey.

02 · WHAT IT IS USED FOR

Stopping swarming, raising a queen or running two

The classic use is checking swarming in a strong hive with queen cells: the queen goes down with one frame of open brood, above her go the excluder and the supers, and above the board stays the rest of the brood with its nurse bees. Below, the queen with the foragers and room forgets about swarming; above, queenless, the nurses raise a new one. Then you choose: let the young queen mate and run two queens in the same stack until you unite them by removing the board, or take the upper storey away as a ready-made nuc, with no extra stand and no foragers lost.

03 · THE DOOR SCHEDULE

Every change sends foragers down

The day you split, open only one upper door, the front one say, and keep the rest closed. Four or five days later close it and open the lower door on that side and the upper door on another side: the foragers from above, already flying from the front, now walk in below. Four or five days after that, the same with the next side. Each change drains flying bees towards the queen and the supers, where the honey is made, and leaves the young bees above tending the queen cell. Mark the sides and write down date and door at every visit: the wrong door shares the bees out backwards.

04 · THE SIZE

425 × 510 mm: the footprint of 10-frame Langstroth and Dadant

It rests on the rim of the body, so what counts is the outer footprint of the hive, not the frame: it covers the 10-frame Langstroth and Dadant bodies used in Spain, Dominguez included, and comes up short on 12-frame bodies. The screens are left uncovered: to cut the scent as well, cover them with a slat.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Supplied without excluder: the method wants one between the queen and the supers.