Brood Breaker

Description

The Brood Breaker cage is used to help control mites.  It does this by caging the queen for at least three weeks while all the brood emerges.  This breaks the brood cycle of the mites since there is no more brood for them to help reproduce.  With some beekeepers this is enough to lower their mite counts.  However, other beekeepers will then hit the colony with one OA treatment to kill all the mites on the bees.  Since there is no capped brood, then all the mites will be exposed to the treatment and die!

In our part of Texas we will introduce the Brood Breaker to a hive late in the summer when the mites are at their highest numbers and most colonies are already pulled back to making small amounts of brood.

The cage hangs from the top of the frame (over the top bar) and the front cage slides up to allow you to place the queen inside.  Simply slide the door closed carefully and gravity helps keep the cage closed.  We made the door fairly tight so that the workers are not going to be able to slide the door open.  The entire cage is covered in queen excluder slots.  You will use this with either a foundationless frame, or cut out a section of plastic foundation so it will fit.  You can use this with any size frame.

This size cage has been known to not induce the bees to build comb inside.  However, if they do start building comb, the door can be opened fully to clean it all out.  The key is that we do not want the queen to lay any eggs.  If she can only lay eggs in a small area, the colony interprets this as a bad queen since she is not laying as much as they need, and they will replace her.

We will add more pictures and videos over the course of this year to educate and help explain the concept.  And to show that the process works!

These cages come in yellow or white and we can take requests for other colors.  We will be adding a non-hanger version soon if you want to simply cut out a section in your plastic foundation and press fit the cage into the slot.

The designed and created in the United States by beekeepers for beekeepers!