As beekeepers become more experienced in their day-to-day beekeeping activities, they often find themselves looking to expand their operation, or to incorporate a new practice into their operation. Queen rearing is one of the more interesting and rewarding aspects of beekeeping1. Not only does the practice of raising queens provide self-sustainability to a beekeeping operation, but it also provides the opportunity to earn additional income if selling queens to other beekeepers. There are numerous methods of queen rearing, but this week’s blog will focus on one method known as the Cloake Board Method.
Cloake Board Method
All queen
rearing methods follow the same concept of creating conditions that contribute
to a natural impulse for bees to swarm1. During the spring build up
season, colonies naturally favor colony reproduction. Later in the season,
queen rearing can be more of a challenge1. Throughout this blog we
will explore the methodology and theory of the Cloake Board Method.
The Cloake
Board Method is credited to its originator Harry Cloake2. The Cloake
Board Method combines both a cell starter and cell finisher colony into a
single unit2. If interested in learning more about the cell starter
and cell finisher method, please check out ATTTA’s blogs “Raising Queen Honey
Bees (Thursday 13 May 2021)”, “Queen Breeding (Thursday 27 May 2021 )” and
“Cell Builder Colonies (Thursday 17 June 2021)”. The Cloake Board Method, just
like the starter/finisher method, has both a queen-less and queen-right component.
The main advantage of this method is that it eliminates the need to move
developing larvae in between a starter (queen-less colony) and finisher
(queen-right colony)1. Instead, the conditions of both a starter and
finisher are achieved by closing and then opening a cloake board.
A cloake
board consists of an outer wooden frame, which fits between two hive boxes, and
has a sliding board which can easily separate or combine two boxes of bees. When
the cloake board is closed the colony on top is queen-less, and when the board
is opened the colony becomes queen-right1. When setting up the
Cloake Board Method, a queen excluder is placed below the cloake board to
confine the queen to the bottom box. Additionally, the bottom and top entrances
are placed in opposite directions which facilitates bees exiting from the
bottom box to re-enter in the top box, and the result is a boosted population
in the top box1.
The top box
is where the grafted frame of young larvae will be placed. Therefore, it is
important that the box contains a large population of young nurse bees to care for
developing queens1. When setting up the cloake board colony, frames
of young, uncapped brood should be moved up from the lower box, which will
attract more nurse bees upward.
The cloake
board colony should be prepared several days prior to the planned grafting day.
During this time make sure the queen is marked and confined to the bottom box.
Place the cloake board between the boxes, but the sliding piece remains out. Start
to feed the colony sugar water and pollen in the upper box where the grafted frame will be
placed. Continue to feed the colony sugar water and pollen leading up to grafting. One day prior to grafting, it is important to check that the queen is still confined to the bottom
box. Each frame should be inspected for any unwanted queen cells at which point
they can be removed. Make sure the top box contains a strong population of bees
with several frames of brood and an abundance of food. A frame of foundation can be placed in the top box as a placeholder for the grafted frame. Finally, place the slide
piece into the cloake board to create a queen-less state in the top box for
12-24 hours prior to grafting.
Next week’s
blog will discuss details of various grafting tools and techniques. Grafting
should be done 12-24hrs after creating a queen-less state in the top box, and
the grafted frame will replace the placeholder frame of foundation.
Then, 48hrs
after placing the grafted frame the cloake board should be opened to create a
queen-right colony in the top box. This triggers a swarm impulse and provides a
higher quality of care to the developing queens1.
Finally, 10
days after the graft cells are ready to be harvested from the colony. The
grafted frame containing mature, capped queen cells should be handled very
carefully to avoid injuring queens. Queen cups should be carefully cut from the
grafting bar, and either be placed directly into a queen-less colony, into an
incubator for transporting, or into an incubator for short-term storage.
It is
essential to pull the queen cells out of the colony prior to emergence. For any
beekeeper considering queen rearing remember that the timeline of activities is
strict, and that the method will not be successful if not followed precisely.
Read next week’s blog to learn more about queen rearing, with a focus on grafting techniques.
Connecting with ATTTA Specialists
If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:
visit our website at https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
Email abyers@perennia.ca
References1. Johansson, T.S.K. and Johansson, M.P., 1973. Methods for rearing queens. Bee world, 54(4), pp.149-175.2. Cloake, H. 1977. Queen Cell Raising, My way. Proc. Apimondia 1977. Adelaide, Australia.