I am looking for technical and practical information on the Cloake
queen breeder system, which involves a temporary total exclusion of
the queen to the lower brood chamber. This is achieved by inserting a
metal rim above the queen excluder (which is left in place). When it
must be impressed upon the bees that they have no queen, the
bottom chamber is turned 180 degrees and a tin plate inserted into
the rim. Bees in the bottom chamber are cut off for a short time by
closing the old entrance. The new entrance is above the original,
between the two brood chambers.

The system would be suited to breeding scutellata queens. The
African bee resentes manipulation in small colonies and easily
absconds.

Thanking you in advance

Barry Sergeant
Kyalami
South Africa