Starter Colonies

A dedicated starter hive is a hive set up or equipped specifically for getting grafted larvae accepted as queen cells, that is, for the first 24 hours of queen rearing; the best-known examples are the ventilated swarm box (closed starter) and the sliding divider board that temporarily splits a queenright colony in two. It is not a hive used to start a new colony; its only job is to maximise queen cell acceptance. This page covers the types of starter hives, their design features, setting them up and common mistakes.

What is a starter hive for?

For a grafted larva to be accepted, the bees must adopt the foreign cup as a "queen cell" and immediately start feeding the larva with plenty of royal jelly. The colony that shows this drive most strongly is queenless, without open brood, packed with young bees and well fed. Starter hives create these four conditions either by rearranging a colony or by gathering young bees in a special box.

The starter only secures acceptance. After about a day, the accepted cells are moved to a finisher hive, where they are fed until they are capped and mature. The management of starter and finisher colonies is described in detail on their own pages; this page focuses on the equipment and set-ups used for the starter.

What types of starter hives are there?

How is a swarm box (closed starter) made?

A swarm box is a wooden box that holds a few standard frames, has no entrance, and has sides or a floor covered with wire mesh. The bees are kept inside the box, so every detail of the design is built around ventilation, water and food.

• Mesh surfaces: Wide wire mesh on the sides or floor; the heat and moisture produced by the crowded bees escape through it. The mesh must be fine enough to stop bees getting out of the box.
• Frame arrangement: Honey and pollen frames at the sides, a gap in the middle for the grafting frames. No open brood is added.
• Feeder: A syrup feeder in the lid or inside, in which bees cannot drown; a very large crowd of bees consumes its food within a few hours.
• Water: In hot weather, water sprayed onto the mesh or a wet sponge helps the bees keep cool.
• Lid and handles: A tight-fitting lid with an opening for inserting the cells from above; handles for shaking bees in and carrying the box.

Swarm box step by step

1. Preparation: Place the honey and pollen frames in the box, leave a gap in the middle for the grafting frame and fill the feeder.
2. Shaking in bees: Shake young nurse bees from the open brood frames of several strong colonies into the box. Make sure the queen does not fall into the box.
3. Queenless waiting period: Put the box in a cool, shaded place; within a few hours the bees sense they are queenless and cluster.
4. Giving the cells: Lower the grafted frame through the opening in the lid into the central gap without jarring the bees.
5. Transfer: After about 24 hours, move the accepted cells to the finisher; return the bees to the source colonies or use them for a new split.

How is a sliding divider board used?

A sliding divider board is a device placed between two hive boxes, with a queen excluder in the middle and a wooden panel that can be slid horizontally over the excluder. It usually also includes a separate rear entrance for the upper box.

1. Preparation: In a very strong, two-box colony, the queen is kept in the bottom box, below the excluder. The upper box contains frames of open brood, pollen and honey.
2. Making it queenless: About a day before grafting, the slide is pushed over the excluder; the upper box is separated from the bottom box and the queen's scent. The rear entrance of the upper box is opened, and the front entrance stays with the bottom box.
3. Starting: The upper box now behaves like a queenless starter; the grafting frame is given here.
4. Finishing: One day later the slide is pulled out; thanks to the excluder, the upper box becomes a queenright finisher. Any wild queen cells drawn on the brood frames in the upper box are broken down at this point.

This set-up allows a beekeeper with few colonies to run both a starter and a finisher with a single hive; but if the colony is not truly populous, acceptance remains low.

Features of a good starter hive

• Density: The bees must completely fill the spaces between the frames; a colony that merely "looks strong" is not enough.
• Young bees: Nurse bees with active brood-food glands are collected from open brood frames; old foragers do not feed queen cells.
• No open brood: Open brood divides the nurse bees' attention and leads the bees to draw emergency queen cells from their own larvae.
• Food: If there is no natural flow, feeding syrup and pollen starting a few days before preparation clearly increases acceptance.
• Coolness and air: In closed boxes overheating can kill the bees; ventilation and shade are essential.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the swarm box in the sun: A closed, crowded box overheats within a few hours.
• Shaking the queen into the box: If there is a queen in the box, the cells will not be accepted, and the source colony is left queenless as well.
• Keeping cells in the starter too long: A queenless starter cannot keep feeding for long; move the cells to the finisher after one day.
• Forgetting to pull out the slide: If the upper box stays queenless for long, it draws its own queen cells and wears itself out.
• Using the same colony for every batch: Colonies used as starters should be rested in rotation.