Cloake Board - Complete With Galvanised Steel Sheet

A Cloake Board is a specialized tool in beekeeping used primarily for queen rearing, a process that helps beekeepers either raise queen bees from grafted larvae or naturally create queen cells within a hive. The method was invented by Harry Cloake, and it has become an essential tool for those looking to manage and increase their queen production.

How It Works:

The Cloake Board acts as a partition within the hive. It is made up of a queen excluder mounted to a wooden frame, and often comes with a removable stainless steel sheet to separate the top and bottom boxes of the hive. This separation allows the beekeeper to create two distinct areas:

• A queenright lower colony: A colony that still has its original queen.

• A queenless upper colony: A portion of the hive where the bees are queenless and will raise new queens, either from grafted larvae or through natural queen cell production.

Features of Our Cloake Board:

• Wooden Rim: Durable and sturdy, the rim frames the queen excluder to help divide the hive.

• Built-in Queen Excluder: Keeps the queen from entering the upper portion of the hive, while allowing worker bees to pass through to the queenless colony above.

• Removable Stainless Steel Sheet: This isolates the bottom and top boxes, which is key for the queen rearing process.

Benefits:

• Increased Acceptance of Grafted Larvae: By creating a queenless environment, bees are more likely to accept grafted larvae, making the process of rearing queens more successful.

• Natural Queen Cell Production: By manipulating the colony in this way, the Cloake method also encourages bees to raise queen cells on their own.

• Versatility: The Cloake Board allows you to either graft larvae or let the bees create queens naturally, depending on your beekeeping goals.

Watch the Demonstration:

For a step-by-step guide on how to use a Cloake Board effectively for queen rearing, we offer a demonstration video. This will walk you through the process of using this equipment to improve your queen management and help you produce healthy, high-quality queens for your hive.

This tool is particularly helpful for beekeepers who wish to focus on queen breeding or need a reliable method for managing and expanding their hives with new queens.