breeder queen

[rober]

i was gifted a VSH hygienic queen. she's been in hive for close to a month & has laid nary an egg. i talked to the breeder today & she' says she is done for the year but has a proven Mn hygienic breeder queen i can have so i accepted the offer. what exactly is a breeder queen?

in the morning i'll put the non laying queen into a 2 frame nuc with some brood. i'll also add brood to the hive i'm putting the new queen in. the new queen arrives on wedneday morning.

[The15thMember]

A breeder queen is a queen that is being used as a mother in a queen rearing operation.  It's the mother of the new virgins the beekeeper is breeding. 

[Jen]

Hi rober, I did find this. But I'm not sure if I understand it any more than you do:

A breeder queen is a special queen for use in raising more daughter queens. She is especially suited for this purpose because she has been bred to express certain beneficial traits such as disease resistance, productivity and gentleness.

I'm visualizing: So you have a queen that has all the traits that you want her to have. Then she lays eggs and the nurse bees will make queens out of those eggs... and then...
 

[The15thMember]

Hi rober, I did find this. But I'm not sure if I understand it any more than you do:

A breeder queen is a special queen for use in raising more daughter queens. She is especially suited for this purpose because she has been bred to express certain beneficial traits such as disease resistance, productivity and gentleness.

I'm visualizing: So you have a queen that has all the traits that you want her to have. Then she lays eggs and the nurse bees will make queens out of those eggs... and then...
 

Then you hopefully have passed on her good genetics to her daughters, which you can then use in other hives of your own or sell.  It's no different than trying to breed any animal for specific traits; you are selecting parents with traits you like to produce hopefully similar offspring, and preventing individuals with undesirable traits from reproducing to attempt to improve the breed as a whole.  Selective breeding is how we have all sorts of different dog breeds, and cows that produce 10 gallons of milk a day, and even plants that are disease resistant.   

[Jen]

Fascinating! Two of my hives have genetics that I just love! Most peaceful bees ever. I'm very careful and watch them closely, as to not letting them swarm and have any new queens breed with unknown drones in the area. We can't always maintain that kind of care perfectly, but so far so good with a 4 year old colony 

[iddee]

Also, if I'm buying her, she is AI, so the drones are known. My opinion, no breeder queen should be open mated.

[RAST]

Also, if I'm buying her, she is AI, so the drones are known. My opinion, no breeder queen should be open mated.

Most assuredly, hence the high price they command.

[rober]

since i plan on using her to rear queens i'm putting a queen excluder under the hive & i'm thinking about clipping her wings but i'm a little nervous about doing that.