# A Temporary Horizontal Warre ...



## little_john (Aug 4, 2014)

The quickest of updates ...

Our bad weather continued today with a thunderstorm, but I managed to work around that to get two Warre-style boxes placed on the above dual shim-base. I took the opportunity to insert a couple of new-ish combs into the brood-nest, as this colony is an absolute delight to work with, and I'd like to take a dozen or so daughters from this queen in order to see whether this superb behaviour is simply a fluke, or whether it might be a genetic trait. I've bought several Carnie queens over recent years direct from Slovenia - so there's the remotest possibility that this queen might be the result of a Carnie-Carnie cross, rather than being one of my usual mongrelised mutts.
LJ


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## little_john (Aug 4, 2014)

Update after one week ...

This is working much better than I could have predicted - the bees readily adjusted to their new conditions, and are currently powering away. The only 'fly in the ointment' is that the weather has continued to be cold and with rain every single day, and so I haven't been able to engage in queen-rearing as originally planned. But - according to the forecast, our summer begins tomorrow, and so I hope to re-start queen-rearing with some fresh bare combs then.

Must say it's an absolute joy to instantly convert a vertical stack to horizontal for these sort of manipulations, with the prospect of an equally instant reversal back to vertical afterwards,
LJ


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

little_john said:


> Update after one week ...
> 
> This is working much better than I could have predicted - the bees readily adjusted to their new conditions, and are currently powering away. The only 'fly in the ointment' is that the weather has continued to be cold and with rain every single day, and so I haven't been able to engage in queen-rearing as originally planned. But - according to the forecast, our summer begins tomorrow, and so I hope to re-start queen-rearing with some fresh bare combs then.
> 
> ...


I like the concept
I have done this with the long lang I have but it was to clean and repaint the hive the bees seemed fine.

GG


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## little_john (Aug 4, 2014)

Quick update ...

This is how I've been running this 'lash-up' - using parts from other hives and a pair of Warre-style boxes as feeder-shells, with hessian sacking inside them for insulation:










But - I've become so impressed with how it's been working, that I've made a pair of pukka feeder-shells which can be used in either vertical or horizontal mode - and which are now being fitted with >3" blocks of polystyrene insulation: 










I discovered something yesterday which *is* important. When I first decided to try this unusual technique, I wondered whether there might be sufficient reduction in Queen pheromone within the non-Queen box to trigger a supersedure response. Although I suspected there wouldn't be, I've still ensured that frames of brood moved into the non-Queen partition were fully capped ... or so I thought.

Yesterday I started a Cloake Board run, and pulled some brood frames from the Queen-partition for the source larvae.
Needing a few more frames - pollen, honey, and some for 'padding' to fill the unwanted space - I sourced these from the non-Queen partition. It was while inspecting that box (which I hadn't done for some time due to bad weather) that I found a fully capped Q/C, and a second Q/C still at the larval stage. The capped cell was swiftly cut-out and placed in the incubator. The other Q/C was culled.
So - if this pheromone reduction can be relied upon, it could be very useful indeed - or a pain in the backside, depending upon your views about this. After the Cloake Board run is finished (assuming all goes according to plan), I'll see if this 'Supersedure Event' can be repeated. 
'best
LJ


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

little_john said:


> Quick update ...
> 
> This is how I've been running this 'lash-up' - using parts from other hives and a pair of Warre-style boxes as feeder-shells, with hessian sacking inside them for insulation:
> 
> ...


why not put QE material on each of the center walls and run it 2 Queen?

how did it do for honey production?

GG


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