Author Topic: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.  (Read 5079 times)

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Offline capt44

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Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« on: September 10, 2015, 11:15:47 pm »
I am building 100 boxes that will contain 4 three frame mini Nucs each.
So that will give me 400  mating nucs to start.
Then as they are mated and laying I can mark them and flag them ready for sale.
I couldn't raise them fast enough this year.
I didn't have enough mating NUCS.
I plan to have around 450 mating nucs total for I have 75 five frame nucs in storage.
So much for retirement huh.
Capt44

Offline pistolpete

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2015, 12:17:17 am »
That's ambitious of you.  I had something like 70% success with my mating nucs this year.  That's on a small scale with ripe queen cells introduced to the Nucs.   Do you worry about having enough drones for all that ? :)
My advice: worth price charged :)

Offline Perry

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2015, 08:11:16 am »
Wish you lived up here. We had a bad shortage of local queens this past year. The main guy doing it had one batch of 800 go sour, only 80 out of the bunch mated successfully.
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Offline capt44

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2015, 10:43:56 pm »
I have 4 beeyards so surely I'll have enough drones.
I have one hive at 3 of the yards that are drone hives meaning a laying worker.
It's not hard to raise drones.
Capt44

Offline apisbees

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2015, 12:35:12 am »
I have read that small drones are inferior when it comes to getting the job done
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Offline capt44

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2015, 09:54:37 am »
So far I have been getting good feedback from my customers.
They said they would definitely be ordering more next season.
I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, I just do what works. ;D
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2015, 09:53:07 pm »
man that sounds like a lot of work Capt..
   I am putting together ten three compartment queen castles and will have at least twenty five frame medium nucs for queens.. that will be HALF the queens I need..  Going to be busy spring jumping from fifty or less hives (depending on how many winter) to one hundred and fifty.. Oh, and a busy winter making hives!!
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Offline capt44

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2015, 11:04:05 pm »
Well it's just me, the dawgs and the honeybees so it gives me something to do and stay out of trouble.
I just like promoting bees.
I've got 38 boxes built so far (4 mating nucs to the box).
But total I've also got to build 1,100 frames to go in the nucs.
That's 1,100 top bars, 1,100 bottom bars and 2,200 end bars.
Plus I'm building 25 langstroth hives for extras next season.
Capt44

Offline Perry

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2015, 06:44:11 am »
"I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, I just do what works."
Sometimes we make things harder than they need to be. :yes:

"I've got 38 boxes built so far (4 mating nucs to the box).
But total I've also got to build 1,100 frames to go in the nucs.
That's 1,100 top bars, 1,100 bottom bars and 2,200 end bars.
Plus I'm building 25 langstroth hives for extras next season."

And despite your best efforts, you will be short of gear. :laugh:
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."      
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Offline lazy shooter

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2015, 07:47:34 am »
Won't a hive with laying workers eventually die out?  They are not producing any foragers and nurse bees, or am I missing something?  Don't answer the "am I missing something?"  :) 

Offline Perry

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2015, 08:15:42 am »
I think you're missing something LS. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2015, 09:21:07 am »
I have heard of and know of one guy up hear that does this. In a hive that has gone queenless so that there are laying workers and all the brood being produced are small drones. and if the worker bees and small drones emerge in the fall, the worker bees these drones have the same success of survival as a queen right colony. because they are queenless the drones don't get expelled from the hive. So in theory you hare mature drones ready to mate in early spring.
In the follow up study done after proving that small drones can be over wintered and used to open mate queens, they found that the amount of sperm from them was greatly reduces from that of normal drones. The supersedure rate (Queen Failure) was quite high for queens bred in this way.
From what I have read I would not bred queens this way.
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Offline efmesch

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2015, 01:39:02 pm »
Capt44:   It's not hard to raise drones.

Apis:  I have read that small drones are inferior when it comes to getting the job done.

Ef: If you give a mated queen, in a queenright hive, DRONE-SIZED cells, she'll lay unfertilized eggs and they'll produce FULL-SIZED drones.  You can easily produce frames with drone cells by giving the hive drone cell foundation or let them build their combs foundationless in an upper super.  If you work this way, preparing in advance to provide drone cells for the queen to lay drone brood, you'll get plent of big, superior drones for your queen mating.

Offline apisbees

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2015, 02:56:23 pm »
Ef the problem is that in the spring of the year the queen starts to lay when the weather breaks and the natural pollen and nectar flows. A beekeeper can graft and have queens ready to mate 3 weeks following this. The problem is it takes drones 45 days to mature and be ready to mate. And you can't even count the 45 days to plan for mating cause the bees will commit the first good round of brood to replacing the aging worker population. so in reality the chances of getting proper matting on a queen is 2 months after your first mini spring flow which is cat willow and maple tree where I am. Even this is dependent on the weather and conditions. I would error on the side that the drones will take even longer to be ready.
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Offline capt44

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Re: Getting ready for Queen Rearing for next Spring.
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2015, 03:33:05 pm »
"I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, I just do what works."
Sometimes we make things harder than they need to be. :yes:

"I've got 38 boxes built so far (4 mating nucs to the box).
But total I've also got to build 1,100 frames to go in the nucs.
That's 1,100 top bars, 1,100 bottom bars and 2,200 end bars.
Plus I'm building 25 langstroth hives for extras next season."

And despite your best efforts, you will be short of gear. :laugh:
No matter how many hives I build for spring I always wind up short.
Capt44