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Offline Jen

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Jen's Queens
« on: September 23, 2020, 04:54:37 pm »
I'm interested in learning how to produce my own queens each season.

Our spring season, is a long and treacherous one, we were still building a morning fire until the end of June. My thoughts are that I would be able to provide queens for sale more into June or even later.

Our club gets our nucs, packages, and queens towards the end of April, but they are raised and mated further down in southern Calif where the spring season is more dependable. These queens are a hybrid of Carni, Italian, and some Russian. They are very nice queens, friendly and can survive cold winters.

But some of us really love those Italians!

Two seasons ago, when the nucs and queens arrived in April... the queen bank attendee took the queen bank home and about a week later they were found dead in that bank. It was very sad and costly, but we all agreed that poo poo happens.

Mean while it's spring and people need queens! So I took it upon myself to order 20 queens from https://jackieparkburrisqueens.com/ and over the summer sold all of them. I have always loved the queens but that summer sold it for me to try and make my own queens.

I expect this thread to get packed with info for me, so go for it!  ;D


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Offline RAST

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2020, 08:35:43 pm »
How early do you see drones and are there any other drone sources in flying distance of your proposed mating yard. Plentiful, quality drones are a necessary component for good queens.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2020, 02:11:11 am »
Hi Rast, within a two mile radius of my home which is where my apiary is, there are 3 other backyard apiaries in which there are usually around 10 more hives. All of our hives combined will produce mutt queens. I run anywhere from 2-5 hives of my own.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2020, 04:27:00 am »
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2020, 12:40:01 am »
https://www.outyard.net/queens.html

   I still cell punch, though I hope.. IF.. I ever get my new building done that I can start attempting to graft and get back into the game.
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Offline CBT

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2020, 07:09:52 am »
Think about where you can house new queens for mating. Queen castles may be your lowest cost. To produce around 10 mated queens a week you will need about 4 to 6 times that in places to house them depending on how long you proof them.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2020, 09:23:09 am »
Using 1-2 day old eggs would rear better quality queens over Day 4 larvae.  They would be better fed.  Just my opinion. I'm sure I'll see some different opinions posted.

The power point presentation on Maintaining a Healthy Hive is pretty good.  Although, I think the "scholars" have decided that using powdered sugar to control mites has little or no effect.  I haven't had time to watch all of that video.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2020, 10:13:24 am »
If you meant 1-2 day old larva, I agree. If you graft eggs, they will remove them and not make cells.
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“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2020, 12:55:26 pm »
Quote from: iddee on September 29, 2020, 10:13:24 am
If you meant 1-2 day old larva, I agree. If you graft eggs, they will remove them and not make cells.

Your right.  I don't know what I was thinking of.  Not enough coffee when I wrote that. :laugh:
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Offline RAST

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2020, 08:40:54 pm »
 Jen this is for you, just put you a tarp down and do it.
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2020, 09:54:38 am »
Only experience I’ve had is OTS and the nicot method.  I’ve had success with both.

How many queens do you hope to raise in a year? Don’t forget you’ll also need mating nucs for them as well...
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Offline neillsayers

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2020, 10:24:15 pm »
 Thought i'd pull up a chair to hear more as this thread develops. All I've ever done is OTS and it worked pretty well. Also made splits with swarm cells and that work out but I've yet to trying grafting. Maybe next year.....
 I've had a rough year and the bees have been on their own mostly. Sold way down but hope to build back up next year. :)
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Offline Jen

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #12 on: October 24, 2020, 10:44:37 pm »
Neil! Hi There! Glad you pulled up a chair :) I'm going to learn as much as I can this winter about rearing my own queens. I think I would like to raise about 20 queens. This is about how many I sell in our area. I buy them from a bee friend about half an hour down the highway. I buy them for $25 and sell for $35, so I can make a few bucks to keep up with beekeeping expenses. Problem is that by the end of the season, I have lost maybe 5 queens that simply die in their little wooden cages. Natural selection I guess. I've learned a lot buy doing just this method of buy queens and selling them. Observing them for the most part.
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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #13 on: October 28, 2020, 09:16:39 am »
Quote from: Zweefer on October 06, 2020, 09:54:38 am
How many queens do you hope to raise in a year? Don’t forget you’ll also need mating nucs for them as well...



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Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2020, 11:11:22 am »
I have attended a couple of queen rearing classes.  They were cram courses and I know my eyes glazed over and my head was spinning.  I bought this about a week ago and hope I understand the process better after I have read it.  http://wicwas.com/project/queen-rearing-essentials-second-edition-25-00/  I always like reference material that I can go back and double check myself.  If I am successful, it will have cost less than a queen sells for in this part of the country.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Jen's Queens
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2020, 05:20:54 pm »
Larry Conner is good reference for queen raising. Study the book well.
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“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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