# General beekeeping > Queen raising >  Mini Plus frames

## gavin

Anyone know if the wooden frames sold for the standard Mini Plus hives (the one entrance types) are the same as the ones for the Lyson 'Mini Bee Hives' (the ones with a removable partition and two entrances)?

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## prakel

Just measured one of the Lyson plastic sidebars. approx 175mm; I believe that the other type are approx 160mm. As far as I remember, the top bars are basically the same.

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## gavin

> Just measured one of the Lyson plastic sidebars. approx 175mm; I believe that the other type are approx 160mm. As far as I remember, the top bars are basically the same.


Excellent, many thanks.  Not an ideal replacement but an acceptable one, it seems.

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## greengumbo

Hi Gav - not sure about your sizes but those lyson ones are excellent. Used the two entrance one last year for queen rearing and really liked them. Abelo sell them over here.

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## gavin

Thanks GG, nice to have another vote of confidence for the Lyson Minipluses.  Was in touch with Damien yesterday and will see him at Bee Tradex over the weekend.  I'm looking around for a good price for everything I'm buying and there are some good deals from continental companies at the moment given the Euro rate.

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## greengumbo

Excellent. Will have to visit your set up sometime soon !

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## gavin

You'd be most welcome.  Currently it comprises my usual apiaries (two of them), a storage facility in Dundee and piles of paper in my lounge!

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## fatshark

greengumbo
It's going to be lovely day tomorrow for BeeTradex at Stoneleigh  just the sort of weather that makes you realise that the new season is about to start and you've not got enough supers/broods/hive tools/smokers/extractors etc. _Wallet-emptying weather_ as the Sweinty people call it. Gavin might not be able to afford to return to Fife  :Wink: 

I'll be happy to give him a lift when I move there in the summer, but until then he'll be running the forum from his phone, living in a huge polystyrene shelter on the Stoneleigh showground. 

I can't (and daren't) go to BeeTradex for the reasons outlined in the first paragraph. And it gives me a bit longer to save for the sales at the Convention   :Wink:

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## Jon

> piles of paper in my lounge!


Sounds like you have made yourself a kind of mouse nest. Did you shred the paper yourself?
Load that into the back of the car and you will have somewhere comfy to curl up and sleep at tradex.

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## fatshark

m-in-nestimg_2068.jpg

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## gavin

If I do end up camping out in Stoneleigh's car park then I'll be knocking at your door for shower facilities .... at least once a week!  

Best take that paper mountain with me and get those teeth sharpened.  Madasa: I'll be the handsome one surrounded by admirers.  I would say that I'm grey and have a beard, but I doubt that would make me stand out in the Bee Tradex scrum.

And could I say how delighted I am that the thoughtful, intelligent, questioning beekeeper contingent up here is soon to increase.  The more the merrier (within reason in my foraging area of course ... ).

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## Jon

> Attachment 2209


Lacking the beard and veil but other than that exactly how I imagined his living room!
I had better be careful as he will be kipping in my place for the weekend of the UBKA conference.
Place could get chewed to shreds.

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## gavin

..... shredding the bedding in a wee hotel just along the road from FS.  Strangely about a year ago I really did have a mouse in the car.  I think it arrived in a Paynes nuc, old style with the entrance enticingly presented at ground level.  First I knew about it was discovering a shredded packet of almonds in the driver's door pocket.  Then there were wee piles of shredded carrier bag under hiking boots and some other stuff in the back, with almonds nestling amongst the insulation.  I did try my very best to get it out to freedom but it evaded me every time.  One day I found it quivering and easily approached but with a look of discomfort likely associated with the shredded packet of wipes nearby.  It did have a short spell of freedom before keeling over on the pavement. 

Sad tale, eh?!

Then just yesterday there was an empty mouse nest in a casually discarded Apidea at the association apiary.  I'll bet they make grand bumble bee homes after mice have cleared out the comb.

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## Jon

It is a cop out to blame the shredding on mice when you are doing it yourself!

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## gavin

Car seems to be so jam packed that there isn't even room for the driver to sit up straight never mind lie down in a nest of polystyrene and wood shavings.

I once showed you can get 15 hives into a car like that.  This time there is much more in there - only no bees this time, as far as I can tell.

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## Poly Hive

Deep breath time.

I have never found two queen set ups to be a success. As in two queens reared successfully. One always in my hands fails and one unit is a success. I dumped this idea some 20 years ago.

Argue the case please

PH

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## fatshark

> Car seems to be so jam packed that there isn't even room for the driver to sit up straight never mind lie down in a nest of polystyrene and wood shavings.
> 
> I once showed you can get 15 hives into a car like that.  This time there is much more in there - only no bees this time, as far as I can tell.


I can see space for at least a couple of queen marking cages left … 

Did you mean to buy Langstroth kit?

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## gavin

> I can see space for at least a couple of queen marking cages left  
> 
> Did you mean to buy Langstroth kit?


I don't even have to think if things are right when the guys from Thorne have packed the pallet sitting waiting for me.  What a delight to be driving a car smelling so heavily of western red cedar and pine.  And a hint of polystyrene.  After that picture was taken I went back for more.  The carrier bag of Cupkit components from the nice couple at the Fritz stall.  The free Swienty National brood box (its a long story).  Unfortunately for my passenger north from Northumberland the passenger's seat is occupied with a sack barrow and my travelling bags.  I'm sure we'll work something out, presumably by jetisoning cargo on the way.

Bee Tradex is a great event.  Plenty of time to browse the hectares of stalls, although I was still seeing some for the first time late in the afternoon.  Decent discounts.  Car parking nearby,  and the ability to drive a car right beside the Thorne (or Maisemore) juggernaut for the collection of orders.

At lunch in the cavernous canteen I plonked down at a table with a complete stranger, knowing that we'd have plenty in common to chat about. Turned out he was there for the model railway exhibition.  However tonight dinner was in the company of a large contingent of bee farmers, a most friendly and entertaining bunch of folk bursting with good advice.

PH: last year I was mating queens in Apideas side by side and facing opposite ways, much the same as a split MiniPlus box.  Don't anticipate huge problems but sure, there will be drifting from box to box sometimes.  I'm taking my lead from others on the forum who have had experience with them.

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## greengumbo

> I can see space for at least a couple of queen marking cages left  
> 
> Did you mean to buy Langstroth kit?


LANGSTROTH !  :Cool:

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