Double Screen Boards | Pros & Cons

[@michaelfike7542]

Awesome video glad it worked out for you and got a extra colony.i had 2 queen's get mated and made it back home safe and now they are laying great. ❤🐝🐝👍

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@lc7014]

Super helpful answered my questions about this process 👍

[@CooperBees]

Thanks for describing your process so well!!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@babybeeapiaries8667]

I did this for the firs time this year on 8 hives and had 100% success on both levels on all hives. It was crazy how well it worked.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Easy to do…and it really does work well.

[@GEEZBEEZ]

Thanks for the info on the double screen boards. I have used them but not nearly enough. I am going to use them this year for early spring splits. Thanks again.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

They’re a great tool. Good luck

[@sonofthunder.]

just watched,started reading snelgroves book,and seen bobs video on double screen,i will be keeping mine in standby

[@DuckRiverHoney]

They’re handy, I got a bunch this off-season. Just need to get all my gear painted now.

[@drjmarkrodgers1428]

Great thinking! Success all the way around!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks!

[@VaderSpade]

One way I use a double screen board is in requeening. I'll pull a frame of young brood up and shake in extra bees from the lower hive. The old lower queen that I want to replace goes on laying until I know I have a good replacement and then I remove her and do a newspaper combine. No laying time lost.

[@SparkieDog1]

How many sheets of paper do you use? I've heard one sheet, two sheets but I've never combined two hives.

[@VaderSpade]

@@SparkieDog1 Just one seems to work for me.

[@russellkoopman3004]

@@SparkieDog1 I had one hive fight after a newspaper combine using one sheet. So my next one I used two and didn't cut any slits either. Next morning, 12 hours later there was a ball of newspaper shreds outside the hive and no dead bees. These were two strong big hives. For a smaller hive I would use just one. Just my two cents worth.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Good way to requeen and make a lot of honey, but you need to play the averages. Most May work out but some probably won’t, so backup nucs or queens would be handy.

[@SparkieDog1]

@@russellkoopman3004 Thank you.

[@lydiafife8716]

Very nicely explained! Great video! Thank you!!! 🙏 🐝

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Thanks! You’d be surprised to know how much I appreciate these comments. :)

[@soakedinsaki]

I love using the dbl screen board. If I have a hive with multiple frames with swarm cells I will actually split them down and use numerous dbl screen boards over multiple hives. Increases your chances for more queens.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I’ve done the same. I pulled 3 one or two frame nucs out of a hive with cells in Spring.

[@mcdaver1640]

good stuff! thanks

[@DuckRiverHoney]

👍

[@jacobsenterprises]

This is great. I have two hives bursting at the seams. What should the nighttime temp be before I make a split. Don’t want to wait too long but also don’t want to have them get chilled brood.😅

[@DuckRiverHoney]

It depends on how strong you make the splits. Bigger splits can heat themselves better.

[@Keith-xc9wf]

Wow your hives are so pristine! Mine look like the ghetto haaaa!😬

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Lots of new equipment this year. It'll age, as all things do.

[@graemediesel2936]

Good video. I wonder if it would have been advantageous to swap the top and bottom boxes? (Put the weaker part of the split on the bottom where it will be reinforced by returning foragers)

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I split them pretty evenly…whichever is on top will get weaker and whichever on bottom will get stronger. Both those colonies are doing well now in mid December.

[@timjones6637]

@@DuckRiverHoney Curious, how to double feeding after install double screen board?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

If I want to feed both I use a frame feeder in the top and bottom. I just have to move the top nuc aside a bit to refill the bottom.

[@timjones6637]

@@DuckRiverHoney This is what I thought. Thanks.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

No problem

[@timjones6637]

Are you saying both queens in between screen board will stay after all with different smell?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

The double screen prevents the two colonies from sharing queen pheromone (because the bees can't touch through the screen), that is why you can have two colonies.

[@kevinhemp2197]

I learn a lot from your video’s and this is the best explanation of how to use the double screen board. After the split is established could I just set them next to each other instead of moving the new one a few miles away?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

You could, but you’d probably lose all your field force as they are oriented to the “old” location. The rule of thumb is move them less than 3 feet or more than 3 miles.

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

A lot later... Hive moving : x3 Feet to x3 Miles Rule : Is rubbish. Ignore this info ! You can enclose any Bees in a Nuc / Hive etc... with good Ventilation AND some 1:1 Syrup (as Feed and source of Water.) Both important in Hot or Stormy Weather. By closing in a Hive of Bees say for x5 or so Days : "They will forget the following" : 1) Any loyalty to a Queen (eg a Made Up Nuc.) Workers Stay ! 2) Bees will forget their original Bearings (Location, or Orientation to where their Home was.) So by doing this you can move many Hives, Hive Boxes, Nucs, Splits, Mini Mating Nucs, even Queens (in their Cages.) With no problems at all ! Simples. Hope this helps. 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2023 ! 🥳 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Ps. Always good to Isolate any Incoming Hive : A bought Nuc or Hive, a Bait Hive, even a Caught Swarm on Site... away from your other Hives until an Inspection shows everything is fine and dandy. You don't want Varroa Mites, and other Disease to cross Spread by Bee Drift or the Beekeeper themselves ! Use different Gloves, and Clean your Hive Tool too. 👀

[@richardlearning3452]

Watching your video and can't help noticing if I am correct. You are using all medium boxes. If so what is the reason for this?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Lots of reasons, but the biggest one is simplicity. I don’t have two sizes of anything, and I don’t need nuc boxes.

[@mikem970]

Reason for the blue tape, on the top box? Nice video.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

The tape is there to help the virgin queen find her way home. They orient on that and the tape makes the nest entrance stick out.

[@mikem970]

@@DuckRiverHoney I’ll remember that! Thanks for the videos!!

[@DuckRiverHoney]

No worries. You can do the same with paint, but the tape comes off easy if you don’t want it there forever.

[@davidmyers7048]

why didn't you put the bottom box on the top?

[@pijoe86]

In the top colony, how is that one doing? At 16:30 into the video and again a few seconds later, there were several cells where it had appearance of laying worker due to multiple eggs in same cell.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I believe they're fine, and queenright. I've experienced several new queens that will lay multiple eggs in a cell, but even with those new queens it isn't the norm. Most laying workers I've seen lay a LOT of eggs in each cell. With these two nucs most of the cells have one egg, and they're in the bottom of the cell, so pretty normal.

[@Stumper52]

@@DuckRiverHoney it is completely normal for a newly mated queen to lay two eggs here and there while she's figuring it out. If you had a laying worker the eggs wouldn't be centered in the cell as their abdomen isn't long enough to reach. This is why you see eggs on the cell walls and all over the comb.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

^ this

[@silvertonguedaywalker9116]

Hi Nana here meaning Nana of lots of Grandchildren. I have never seen Boxes like that. I see you can have them to the Height you want/need. I would live to see a Vlog from the very start of your journey..How much is a Set of 4 or 5 level of Hives.. As I. Still learning about Bees you come out with words i do not know lol. Did you go on a course at the start x

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I’m pretty much self taught, but Penn State has an online course that’s supposed to be really good.

[@jonmarcos8488]

What are the disadvantages? Or why would you not want to use this double screen?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

It’s an extra piece of equipment, and it makes it tougher to inspect the lower colony. You also lose field bees from the upper portion vs taking a split and moving it to a yard a few miles away.

[@prof0man]

I'm curious. Were you successful in getting the original swarm that left to home in on any of your swarm-catching boxes, or did they just fly away and live happily ever after somewhere else? I dislike loose ends. LOL

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Those bees are currently living in an undisclosed location. I figured they’d move into my trap as it’s already caught bees this year, but they had somewhere they liked better.

[@BeeGeeTheImp]

Do you normally expect to see that many drone cells in the bottom box?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

A colony that is preparing to swarm increases drone rearing. So yeah it’s normal in that specific hive to see a bunch of drones.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Drone rearing is increased when a colony prepares to swarm.

[@eberntson]

Three weeks!? Aren't you going to feed them in between?

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I did pop them open and refill feeders, but I didn't dive in enough to disturb the colony.

[@peterlightbody8443]

Interesting , who taught you Nathan , self taught , read a lot of books , had a mentor , how long have you been beekeeping , first time I have heard about Dragon fly theory. Peter Australia.

[@russellkoopman3004]

Bob Binnie has had several videos on this topic. I have 3 of them, a 5 frame, an 8 frame, and a 10 frame. They have worked well for me the last 2 years.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Peter I’m self educated I’d say. I have a background in agriculture, with a couple of college degrees in Ag Economics. I’m also obsessive and read nothing but bee books and watched nothing but bee videos for a couple years after I got into bees.

[@peterlightbody8443]

@@DuckRiverHoney , Good morning Nathan from rainy Melbourne , do you have a personal email at all , for I have a question or 2 . ??

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Hi Peter, [e-mail] is a good email for me. Thanks

[@VaderSpade]

I see the lower queen at 19:40.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

I checked and still didn't see her!

[@billybobbarker3175]

The video is great wrt the boards. But … the hive at the beginning that swarmed. If I came upon a swarmed hive that had cells and all that extra room, i certainly would not be propagating those genetics. I would destroy all the cells and get my new cells/queen(s) from a different hive.

[@lymitutit3046]

I wouldn't let so much space in both of the splits ( down the D.S board and up ) . I do not know if in the box below the D.S board is a Queen. but I would have let only one box for each level , and specially the upper box. You have to imagine that both of the splits will become smaller and smaller every day. The brood chaine is broken, on the both 'splits' ( assuming that there is no Q in the lower box) . Thus you will have dying bees every day, but not young ones to replace them, for at least 21 days. Not talking..... over the flying bees of the upper box which will go back to the lower split . Too much space for such small bee-colonies.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Good point, but what I did is a bit of an exception. Both of the top nuc boxes are mostly foundation, so there isn’t any comb, nectar, or pollen to protect, thus much less risk of wax moth or small hive beetle pressure. The advantage of this is I can leave those nucs alone for 7-10 weeks if I need to without worry of them overcrowding. Heck, I can leave them both there till February…wintered as double mediums.

[@littleman7950]

Remember to it only really takes a small bunch of bees to raise a queen then he can boost them up

[@sentimentalbloke7586]

You forgot that there is still a queen in one of the boxes.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

Don’t quite understand you…the hive swarmed, queen left, split it, now have two queens.

[@sentimentalbloke7586]

@@DuckRiverHoney The queen swarms only when there is either a new queen present or when one is about to emerge, I thought that I had seen one of the cells with the entrance open, but empty.

[@DuckRiverHoney]

No, the old queen definitely left. None of the queen cells had emerged yet.