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Never known queens mate so quickly but I can't remember when we last had weather like this.
The queen I grafted from was introduced to a queenless colony in a cage on 17th June and she has 15+ mated daughters on 15th July so that is pretty good going.

Great success Jon. That's a pretty quick turnaround!

I still only have one laying but this better weather should induce a few to take the mating flight.
We put cells into 15 more Apideas last night so now have 40 set out at the apiary.
Late start but we are getting there.

11 from 20 for me from Monday's travelling grafting sesh. No laying Qs in my apideas yet.

Got 45 starts from Sunday's grafting. 45/60 rather than 45/50

Thanks Jon. And Gavin I'll not go too mad this year and only raise a few queens from them.

I checked this evening when we had our queen rearing group and there are at least 20 grafts started.

I think that queen had only been laying in an apidea less than 2 weeks as well

I'll post you some virgin queens at some point Gerry.
There are times in the group when supply exceeds demand so there are spare cells/virgins.

Gav, I am a bit wary about grafting like this as good practice would be to graft from a 2 year old queen you know something about. Thing is, the GBBG has 22 years of selecting from the best breeder queens so you are unlikely to get a complete duffer. Everyone in the area keeps AMM so than chance of a dodgy drone is minimal.

ESBA1 will be a grannie when she's only a year old!

Great stuff Jon! And Gavin I'll be grafting from those virgins you sent me before July is out!

It just can't be natural, all that acceleration of the generations .... there'll be trouble!

I thought it seemed apt for what we've just experienced Trog!

Winterspring - excellent word!

With myself we're probably looking at 6 miles or so as the bee flies to any number of other hives - maybe the odd one dotted in between if they made it through the winterspring. But who's to say there's not going to be a survivor colony in the woods which will fire out a swarm in this weather?! A few years ago a huge swarm of the darkest bees flew in out of nowhere to Knockando Woolmill http://www.knockandowoolmill.org.uk/ which is a few hundred yards from my house. They took up residence in a wall full of ancient combs stuffed with honey and I never managed to get them out. The tragedy is that a few months later some workies killed the lot despite having been told to leavve them alone.

I remember he said they like to be at least a mile from another colony - presumably to do with overlapping forage areas.
That one which came in this afternoon chose a site only 4 feet from the one which arrived earlier in the week.
I must get one or both of Seeley's books.

I have no idea Jon but I'd imagine only a couple of miles max. Does Seeley have something to say about it as I know you've been to a talk of his?

I grafted into a colony whose queen went missing on Friday and they have started 12+ cells so at least I am off the mark for 2013.
I know 3 beekeepers within a mile of me but they all lost their bees over winter.
There is another guy with 2 colonies just under 2 miles away but I heard him say he had marked his queens last week so I don't think they are coming from him.
How far do you think a swarm would travel?

Shame I live in a bit of a bee desert Jon (apart from my own and a couple of others' single colonies). I could do with an Apidea-filling swarm as I've got 10 to make up this week!

I'll have a good look at her some time later but it does look like the remnant of a mark.
If you mark with a posca pen and return her before the paint dries the workers will clean it straight off.

Worst case scenario for any of these swarms they will fill about 25 apideas.

Foragers were bringing in pollen within half an hour. Amazing work rate.