Comments on: Honey Bee Queen Rearing http://doorgarden.com/02/honey-bee-queen-rearing Helping You Get the Most Out of Your Garden Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:13:21 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Kate Stryker http://doorgarden.com/02/honey-bee-queen-rearing#comment-12176 Kate Stryker Tue, 22 Mar 2011 07:12:53 +0000 http://doorgarden.com/?p=1289#comment-12176 We are buying a small piece of land and have always dreamed of bee keeping. Thank you for your informative, interesting, and humble posts! My daughter Carolyn is fluent in German. I can ask her to listen to these tapes. She is a straight A college student who takes her studies very seriously, so I am not sure how much time she could take to translate, but if she wants to talk them through to me, I can try to capture the essence in print. Warmly, Kate Stryker :) We are buying a small piece of land and have always dreamed of bee keeping. Thank you for your informative, interesting, and humble posts!
My daughter Carolyn is fluent in German. I can ask her to listen to these tapes. She is a straight A college student who takes her studies very seriously, so I am not sure how much time she could take to translate, but if she wants to talk them through to me, I can try to capture the essence in print. Warmly, Kate Stryker :)

]]> By: David LaFerney http://doorgarden.com/02/honey-bee-queen-rearing#comment-12140 David LaFerney Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:03:00 +0000 http://doorgarden.com/?p=1289#comment-12140 A batch every ten days is about as few as you can do while continuously maintaining a starter/finisher hive. So - every ten days grafts go in the starter/finisher and cells come out to go into mating nucs. I'm going to run 3 sets of mating nucs so 30 days later queens that have been laying for about 3 weeks come out of those - and the cycle starts over. I'm using 8 frame mediums divided into 2 3 frame (4 if you squeeze them in) mating nucs each. I hope that I will be able to keep that up all season and it will give me a good bit of experience, and an idea of how many mating nucs I can manage. I'm pretty confident that I will be better at it after several cycles than I was last year. For now I'm not going to be too concerned about the genetics - I just want to learn to raise nice fat healthy queens - I'm just going to graft from the best I already have. Until (if ever) I know what I'm doing and feel like I'm producing a good product I'm not going to really try to sell any - What I don't use myself or give away will probably go into swarm lure. However If I'm successful It should be possible to scale this up to as many as 20 queens per batch - still using just one starter finisher. A batch every ten days is about as few as you can do while continuously maintaining a starter/finisher hive. So – every ten days grafts go in the starter/finisher and cells come out to go into mating nucs. I’m going to run 3 sets of mating nucs so 30 days later queens that have been laying for about 3 weeks come out of those – and the cycle starts over. I’m using 8 frame mediums divided into 2 3 frame (4 if you squeeze them in) mating nucs each.

I hope that I will be able to keep that up all season and it will give me a good bit of experience, and an idea of how many mating nucs I can manage. I’m pretty confident that I will be better at it after several cycles than I was last year.

For now I’m not going to be too concerned about the genetics – I just want to learn to raise nice fat healthy queens – I’m just going to graft from the best I already have.

Until (if ever) I know what I’m doing and feel like I’m producing a good product I’m not going to really try to sell any – What I don’t use myself or give away will probably go into swarm lure.

However If I’m successful It should be possible to scale this up to as many as 20 queens per batch – still using just one starter finisher.

]]> By: Chris http://doorgarden.com/02/honey-bee-queen-rearing#comment-12137 Chris Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:57:36 +0000 http://doorgarden.com/?p=1289#comment-12137 Well done David, thats fantastic, In that case I am at least but hopefully only a year behind you. I have heard mention of the German method of sending queens to drone islands and it sounds fascinating. In that case 5 frames nucs I will be used by me. I intend to queen raise this year like what you did last. Get some queens raised in one batch and assess how it goes, make notes and perfect the method. I had never thought about raising queens every 6-10 days but I assume you must be thinking about selling queens on a regular basis, good luck with it. that for me could be next years project. Chris Well done David, thats fantastic, In that case I am at least but hopefully only a year behind you. I have heard mention of the German method of sending queens to drone islands and it sounds fascinating. In that case 5 frames nucs I will be used by me. I intend to queen raise this year like what you did last. Get some queens raised in one batch and assess how it goes, make notes and perfect the method. I had never thought about raising queens every 6-10 days but I assume you must be thinking about selling queens on a regular basis, good luck with it. that for me could be next years project.

Chris

]]> By: David LaFerney http://doorgarden.com/02/honey-bee-queen-rearing#comment-12134 David LaFerney Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:14:07 +0000 http://doorgarden.com/?p=1289#comment-12134 I've learned a bit more about this, and I now realize that this style of mating nuc is mostly used when virgin queens are being shipped to an isolated area to be mated - usually an island - by pedigreed drones. Then the observation hives allow the beekeeper at the mating yard to verify that the queen is mated and is laying so that she can be shipped back to the producer. I'm guessing those aren't $15 queens. Pretty cool, and much better than instrumental insemination IMHO. I actually dabbled a bit in queen rearing last summer - took a seminar and did a lot of reading - raised just a few queens. None of them went to waste I must say. This coming season (coming soon!) I plan to raise queens on a continuous cycle like a "real" queen producer - although on a very small scale - just to get some experience. Hopefully 3-6 every 10 days. I've documented my earlier adventures, but I think that I have enough of a grasp on it now to produce something of actual informational value. So, stay tuned. I’ve learned a bit more about this, and I now realize that this style of mating nuc is mostly used when virgin queens are being shipped to an isolated area to be mated – usually an island – by pedigreed drones. Then the observation hives allow the beekeeper at the mating yard to verify that the queen is mated and is laying so that she can be shipped back to the producer. I’m guessing those aren’t $15 queens. Pretty cool, and much better than instrumental insemination IMHO.

I actually dabbled a bit in queen rearing last summer – took a seminar and did a lot of reading – raised just a few queens. None of them went to waste I must say.

This coming season (coming soon!) I plan to raise queens on a continuous cycle like a “real” queen producer – although on a very small scale – just to get some experience. Hopefully 3-6 every 10 days.

I’ve documented my earlier adventures, but I think that I have enough of a grasp on it now to produce something of actual informational value. So, stay tuned.

]]> By: Chris http://doorgarden.com/02/honey-bee-queen-rearing#comment-12133 Chris Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:38:37 +0000 http://doorgarden.com/?p=1289#comment-12133 Thanks David for posting on beesource about my blog and issues. I dont think I can sort them as it is built in to the template of the site that designs my website but fingers crossed it gets tweaked. I will say your blog is excellent. I have been reading this post and found it very interesting. I am in the same boat as you, I have not raised any of my own queens yet but I intend to do so this year bee's permitting (or have your bred queens this year yet?). I am also looking at the size of mating nuc I need and dont know what to do for the best. I like the German EWK's but would have to source some, I think I will end up making national 5 frame nucs and using these. good luck in your bee keeping endeavours Chris Thanks David for posting on beesource about my blog and issues. I dont think I can sort them as it is built in to the template of the site that designs my website but fingers crossed it gets tweaked.

I will say your blog is excellent. I have been reading this post and found it very interesting. I am in the same boat as you, I have not raised any of my own queens yet but I intend to do so this year bee’s permitting (or have your bred queens this year yet?). I am also looking at the size of mating nuc I need and dont know what to do for the best. I like the German EWK’s but would have to source some, I think I will end up making national 5 frame nucs and using these. good luck in your bee keeping endeavours

Chris

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