Re: Queen Cage Holder

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jeanne hansen

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Jan 16, 2020, 10:46:06 AM1/16/20
to Brian Thomson, madbees m madbees
Dear Group,

This looks like an interesting item, see below.  The man would  like to come to a club meeting to show his product.  He just needs some help with time and location.

Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714


On Thursday, January 16, 2020, 09:11:54 AM CST, Brian Thomson <in...@honeylakebeecompany.com> wrote:


Hi Jeannie,

Hope it is ok I am emailing you, as you are the only email/ contact I could find for the Dane County Beekeepers Association.

I invented a little holder that holds queen cages in place when installing packages or new queens.  I was wondering if your club might like to see it.  The demo takes about 10-15 minutes.  This is brand new, I just stared making them in January and we were at the ABF show in Chicago where the response was very positive!

We live in Northern IL and would be happy to drive up to one of your meetings in March/April to show you're cub, if you would like.  If you club sells packages, we also sell them wholesale, should the club be interested in purchasing them as well.  Just let me know and I can send a price list.

Here is a short video on how they work:

Our website is:

Thanks and hopefully we will meet in person!

Brian and Karen Thomson
Honey Lake Bee Co
580 Crooked Lane
N Barrington, IL 60010

John Thompson

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Jan 16, 2020, 11:13:58 AM1/16/20
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Thats pretty cool, especially from the queen banking perspective. I'd get a few as I'd like to try my hand at raising some queens this year.

The only downside I can see is the knockoffs showing up in the 3D printing world, in spite of his patent pending.

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Paul Zelenski

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Jan 16, 2020, 11:19:53 AM1/16/20
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I actually think they would be kind of awkward for Queen banking. The cage is still going to sit between frames and either get pushed into the wax or keep the frames too far apart. For queen banking, there are already a bunch of products like full frames designed to hold multiple cages, which I think will work much better. But, that’s just my opinion. 
I’ve also never had a problem with hanging cages for packages but have pretty much always had the wood cages with the metal tab and install onto comb where I can push it into the wax. I could see it being helpful for nervous types or folks installing onto foundation. 
Either way, if it looks like something that will work for you and make your life easier, great. I don’t want to poopoo his ideas if others will benefit. 

Marcin Matelski

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Jan 16, 2020, 11:54:19 AM1/16/20
to 'carrie' via madbees
I'm all for local small-time beekeepers showing off their innovations and gadgets whenever possible.
I saw those queen cages at ABF and, personally, they're not for me. I think they were selling them for $5 each or 5 for $20, don't know if that was show price or regular price. 




Matt H

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Jan 16, 2020, 12:04:10 PM1/16/20
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Hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like you'd either have to use an undrawn frame or you'd have to remove a frame from your box to get this thing to fit.  Interesting idea, but I'm not quite sure what problem thing this solves.  The only one that comes to mind would be if one wanted to cage up a queen in a nuc for transport.  Pricing seems quite affordable and I wish them well.  

John Thompson

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Jan 18, 2020, 11:45:43 AM1/18/20
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I watched the video again. I see no reason why someone couldn't design a version for queen banking that would let you hang the cages under the bars of the frame, instead of off to the side as it's designed. Yes, as is, you need to put it next to undrawn foundation, or take out a frame if you have drawn comb. 

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Paul Zelenski

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Jan 18, 2020, 11:51:15 AM1/18/20
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Yup could be done. There are already a bunch of complete frames designed to hold dozens of Queens 

John Thompson

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Jan 18, 2020, 1:11:44 PM1/18/20
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In my mind, I've already designed a cage holder that could slide over the top bar like the original, but with some tabs on the bottom that would hold it in place over a lower bar so they wouldn't swing when the frame is moved. 

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trex raptor

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Jan 21, 2020, 10:48:08 AM1/21/20
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Are you discussing banking virgin queens or mated queens? I have found that it is easy to store virgin queens in an incubator for a week without any issues in development. I can control feeding and survival better than within a banked colony too. This also uses less bee resources since I don't need to create an additional hive to store queens. If I need to ship/sell a virgin queen, I just go to the incubator (rain or shine) and pick her out and send her off.

I think the device we are discussing would be good for new beekeepers buying a package of bees for the first time and should be marketed as a set. This would reduce the amount of calls I get from newbies asking how to install the package queen they bought from some "big box" bee supplier. In a perfect world we wouldn't be using packages though...


On Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 12:11:44 PM UTC-6, John Thompson wrote:
In my mind, I've already designed a cage holder that could slide over the top bar like the original, but with some tabs on the bottom that would hold it in place over a lower bar so they wouldn't swing when the frame is moved. 

On Sat, Jan 18, 2020 at 10:51 AM Paul Zelenski <paulze...@gmail.com> wrote:
Yup could be done. There are already a bunch of complete frames designed to hold dozens of Queens 

On Jan 18, 2020, at 10:45 AM, John Thompson <johntho...@gmail.com> wrote:

I watched the video again. I see no reason why someone couldn't design a version for queen banking that would let you hang the cages under the bars of the frame, instead of off to the side as it's designed. Yes, as is, you need to put it next to undrawn foundation, or take out a frame if you have drawn comb. 

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