Author Topic: Virgin Queens  (Read 3368 times)

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Offline crazy8days

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Virgin Queens
« on: July 11, 2015, 10:17:43 pm »
I want to start making winter nucs.  The guy I buy my bees from has only virgin queens.  He is selling 1/2 price of mated queens.  Should I go with the virgin queens and let them mate with my drones?  Success rate? Or should I look for another local supplier that has mated?  This guy has really good bees and is known in the area for his method of wintering nucs.
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Offline capt44

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2015, 10:47:09 pm »
After the Virgin Queen is accepted in the hive she will wander around the hive for a couple of days then go on a mating flight.
I can take 11-14 days for her to start laying.
If she survives the mating flight.
She probably will but will take a bit to start laying.
Rule of thumb from the time that egg is laid until you have a mated Queen is around 29 days.
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2015, 11:11:49 pm »
mix of both maybe crazy? virgin and mated? 
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Offline Perry

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2015, 08:02:29 am »
I agree with Riverbee, hedge your bets and try both.
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Offline crazy8days

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2015, 08:46:10 am »
He doesn't have any mated queens right now..
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2015, 05:38:30 pm »
I have found that I lose 10 to 20% of virgin queens on mating flights, so prepare accordingly..    Where your at the percentage of loss may be very different, but it wont hurt to be prepared.  Buy extra and make up extra nucs, then recombine those that fail to produce a queen.
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Offline tefer2

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2015, 08:36:21 am »
We like to have our over wintered nucs made up by the 4th of July up here.
We use mated queens that we raised in June.
Normally takes 30 days for a virgin to get going.
You want them to have a couple rounds of brood before everything slows down.
Full of young bees and stores is what makes them work for us.

Offline riverbee

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Re: Virgin Queens
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2015, 11:05:49 am »
" Or should I look for another local supplier that has mated? "

........... :yes:
(virgins from the beek you like and mated from another supplier)
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