On Mon, 3 Oct 1994 22:36:58 AEST+1000, Rodent wrote:
 
>O.K....maybe I am just easily confused.....this has probably been
>discussed here before....but what depth is "the common shallow frame
>equipment"?
>Adrian.
 
Thanks for the question,  Adrian.
Since we in Czech Rep. have not Lanstroth dimensions, my hives for
minicolonies have 4 frames 420 x 170 mm each. This means that similar
dimension would work as well. The wax space should not decrease much
bellow 150 mm.
 
Dave Green wrote:
>   I don't know if this would work in weather as severe as you have, or if
>you have other bees. Most years I winter over a bunch of late nucs (to save
>the young queens) on a double screen over strong hives.
>a feeder of dry sugar on them throughout the entire winter. The sugar must be
>above the cluster and in continuous contact with them.
 
Minicol. are quit independent on any other "normal" size colony. They
stand separately in a small apiary, or can easily be moved anywhere they
are needed in any time of the year. They are ideal pollination units in
enclosure (when honey bees can be used). In our conditions they go in
winter with 5 kg stores and later on they may need 1 kg more candy or
sugar if there is no regular spring nectar flow. Here the weather is
instable - some  winters are warm others cold and the same goes for other
periods of the year. Spring cleaning flights come in the second half of
March. Recently I have carniolan bees, but I had crosses with italians
earlier, too. Both of them went well through winter. In our conditions
minicolonies allowed to develop  are full of brood and  bees between May 1
and 10. They must be used than to make minidivides or to other purposs
otherwise they would swarm.
 
The successful life of small colonies is thanks to a bit new approache in
hive construction, and I would like to know, if the possibility of
wintering selfstanding units as large as (or even less than) a pound of
bees for the cost of 5 - 6 kg sugar stores would be desired in spite of
the fact that they would have to be keept in special hives. This
disadvantage  could be partially compensated by the use of the apiary
shallow frame equipment.
If the principle would be applied with standard Langstroth frames
(445 x 232 mm), it would allow to winter and develop colonies on  6 frames
(what would be equal to 2 pound packages). The need in stors would be
covered with 10 kg of sugar or honey. Colonies could be easily moved and
treated against varoa mites. When full of brood and bees they could be
transfered into common hives for further development and honey production.
During the season empty hives could be used for making new colonies,
divides,... Would this all compensate the disadvantage of special hive?
 
Best regards,
Vladimir Ptacek
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