Hey! I managed to draw a little bit and to solve the cage and cover. The only issue is with the little hinge, but nothing impossible to solve. If you want to, you can always correct my messy stuff if you see improvements ! https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6557850
No existing model, but it wasn’t that hard to replicate at the end
Took me a little more (the bottom of the cells are difficlt to draw and there aren’t a lot of files with the right bottom), but at least now I’m not scared to solve some stupid issues that always frustrate me by drawing and printing easy solutions!
I know this link existst, but sometimes when it’s treatment season those are out of stock, or take forever to arrive. I can print 4 in a few hours, so it can always help to print one at home. Also, I’m not sure, but I think the ecological impact is bigger if it comes through the Aliexpress expedition than through 3D printing using filaments from Vietnam. But the link is valid, and and is way better to order there price-wise than to order it here!
Hi all! Thanks for all the replies ! I played a little bit with Tinkercad and we’re close enough. The only part needing perfection is the little lock (le opening piece needs manual help to open), but that’s the same thing for the original one. An other solution is indeed passing through a chinese marketplace if the wait is not long enough and the CO2 impact is not important for you. The printer was a little difficult to have it printed, and I had to print it on the side.
I’ve uploaded it on Thingiverse : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6557850
Hey! You are both right! Queen and bee cages are made of plastic or sometimes wood and metal mesh. But having protective cells can be useful. If you add a queen-cell in a colony a few days before birth, that queen will almost always be accepted. In case of mated queens, their pheromones are strong enough that they will be often (but less probable depending of the season and presence of young larvae) accepted. Usually we put mated queens in a cage with some sugar so that the bees eat trough it, giving time to the queen to disperse her pheromones. Virgin queens however have the lowest acceptance rate, and it is sometimes better to re-encage them in a (now plastic) cell with a wax cover so that she will be born again. For the foundations, it is a little more difficult than just pressing at the moment, but the size of most of frame-standards would impose the use of huge machines. But it would be less human-energy consuming than the actual method