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 ([log in to unmask])