Greetings all,
I was watching some of the National Honey Show lectures (UK) recently, and
enjoyed the series presented by Ralph Buechler of the Kirchhain Institute.
Among other methods of varroa control that were covered he provided
detailed information on the queen isolation method, that seems to have been
championed in particular by Italian beekeepers.

This method uses a special queen isolation cage that is set in a brood comb
in such a way that it allows worker access to the queen from both sides of
the comb.  The standard application of the method is a 25 day isolation
period, with an overall queen survival of about 85%. Considerably longer
periods have been used, apparently without particularly adverse effects on
the queen. The caging period has to be timed according to the local flow
calendar.

The isolation cage used has slightly narrower apertures than a standard
queen excluder, to make sure the queen does not escape after slimming down
during the extended caging period.

I'd be interested in anyone's experiences with this method, and if anyone
knows where these special cages can be obtained.  Lega lists one containing
a small square of comb foundation, but not the one with double-sided
access.  The critical design feature would appear to be the width of the
slots.  What is the maximum width to reliably contain a fully off-lay
queen?  Maybe it would be possible to build one for experimenting.

Rob Hughes
Upper Kingsclear, NB
46N -66W

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