Honey Bee Queen Castle - Construction and Usage

[@thepitpatrol]

Thank you for a excellent explanation.

[@jonparkmac]

You are welcome!

[@lawrenceearle4134]

Hi, great video, When You use a frame with eggs on it and the bees have to build the cell and care for the queen, would the second frame be brood? or food? if that was the way I was planning to use it, would it be better to use a three frame castle than a two, so there could be brood and food? thanks,

[@jonparkmac]

2 frames only ..one with a capped cell and the other with honey and pollen. Then you need a cup full of nurse bees to keep the cell warm and tend to the queen. No need for brood, they'll just demand attention hatch and eat honey. See next video where I used it kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5yckq2arbKrers

[@thuffman44]

Excellent video! I need to make one of these ASAP. Really appreciate your demonstration. Very helpful

[@jonparkmac]

Tim Huffman thanks, I hope it works or it'll become an overly fancy tool box

[@aliseyed3298]

Good Job. if you paint one side Red , what color the bees can see the red ?

[@jonparkmac]

It will look grey to them

[@aliseyed3298]

@@jonparkmac Why you choose Grey ?

[@jonparkmac]

Ali, have look at bee vision on internet. images.app.goo.gl/EFr6pkc5LRwrrYPu5

[@aliseyed3298]

@@jonparkmac I am so glad that we all learning more by asking each other question. Thank you for searching. We know bees do not have receptors to receive Red in their eyes. That means the light which is red cannot be sensed or received by Red color. To understand it better , I will give you one analogy . When we look at the sky at night , what color do we see sky ? grey or black ? Or what color is Black hole in the space ? Black or Grey ? Let's look at it deeper . We see Black hole Black , not grey . Other than that we should call it grey Hole not black hole . lol The reason we see it black , because our eyes are not able to receive light from Black Hole so we see it Black. That is why bees are not able to detect red so they should see it black. You can go on my Bee Academy on Facebook ( American Innovative Beekeeper Academy ) and explore more information. Thanks Jonathan . Ali

[@briangrindle6875]

I have looked at many designs and I like the use of 1x for the inner covers for durability and ventilation. Are the center section inner covers dadoed on both sides to seal off the dividers? Could you post a link to the plans if you have them? Thanks for the help!

[@jonparkmac]

Brian Grindle I'm afraid I don't have designs, sort of made it up along the way. But yes, the two inner covers are dadoed around all edges, with the inside edges only 1/8 ". I had to carefully trim a little at a time on each one for a custom fit. My first set I rushed them and had gaps larger than I liked and wood started to warp too. Hope this helps you and thanks for watching.

[@SFERDIAN]

Excellent work I made similar 2 frame mating nuc for only 2 compartments about 60 boxes and they work if the queen does not work I just pull the division bord and turn it in to 4 frame nuc

[@jonparkmac]

SFERDIAN that's a good idea. After raising my first guest in this one, I realize 4 x 2 frames us just too tight. I should have done 3 x 2.

[@Apostolis3486]

how you will feed in this hive?

[@jonparkmac]

You only need 2 frames. One with honey. That's enough to feed them until the queen is mated. Then you move those 2 frames to a normal hive like a nuc.

[@g.morris570]

I know this is an old video ( still relevant and I watched it well over a dozen times) are there colors you can paint the sides to get a better mated queen returns? Also location how far or close should this be from your other hives ( I have less then 10 hives )

[@jonparkmac]

Bees don't see colors in the red spectrum so yellow, green, blue purple or use patterns like circles and squares. You can keep them with your normal hives but since they have holes on sides I give them 10' of space or keep it on the end of a row and use only 3 compartments. In hind sight, 4 compartments is too tight anyway.

[@g.morris570]

@@jonparkmac thank you so much!! My queen castle I am in the process of building was a 3 way.. by default.. I went 3 way so my datto cut for deviders would not cut though the handle..lol love the videos!!!

[@chipfriday8166]

Would a 10 frame split into (3) compartment, (3) frame be better for holding temp around the queen cell and capped and uncapped brood?

[@jonparkmac]

Yes. I found when I used it the compartments are too tight for 2 frames. See my follow up video, I smoothed a cell. So 3 compartments I think would be better.

[@KayAteChef]

If you add a second layer of screen on the base board, you can stack this castle on top of a brood box to help the mating Nucs stay warm and humid without sharing queen mandibular pheromone with the box underneath.

[@jonparkmac]

Interesting idea

[@chrisjenkins8398]

What an incredible documentary. I have built 6 castles over the last 3 years but something was not quite right. My damn queen bees would be dead within a week. Last month, I became so frustrated I quit bee keeping all together. This documentary has been the answer to my prayers. I’M BACK IN THE BEE KEEPING BUSINESS… Thanks Jonathan!... It was all about the “shim”. Had I known this 3 years ago I would have saved over 4K dollars and countless hours. I want to nominate Jonathan for the ABF’s Burt Shavitz award.

[@jonparkmac]

chris jenkins thanks, you need a mentor. He can give you a shim where the sun don't shine. Don't mess with our bees man 😋

[@moosilauke18]

Just a quick comment. Wood expands from humidity/temperature across the grain, not with the grain.

[@waynethorne884]

To much work when you can build seperate, simple, functional cheaper and less work.

[@jonparkmac]

This is easy .. if you have the skilz