Looking for a new queen for this weekend
Hi all,
Im still looking for a new queen to add a bit of genetic diversity into my apairy. As it happens I checked my hives today and one of my hives that was united recently has become queenless.
Im therefore in the position of re-queening so it would be perfect if anyone had a queen of good stock to sell, for me to put in the hive this weekend. I have a queen of my own I can use I'd just rather mix up the genetics a bit.
Hope someone can help.
Looking for a new queen for this weekend
Jon ... I've been asked for more queens in the last fortnight or so than the entire season. No-one in our BKA appears to have any 'spares' this year. I suspect DR is spot on about 'colonies appearing queenless' ... firstly there is little forage about and they stop laying (and were slowing down anyway), the lack of flow can make them tetchy and - if using Apiguard - they often pretty much stop laying AND get bad tempered. Two of my own colonies were unpleasant this weekend ... sufficiently bad that had it been mid-season they would have been re-queened pronto. Both had the same queens they started the year with.
I did requeen a colony recently that was borderline psychotic ... far worse than you get when populating mini-nucs in the squally rain in April and only exceeded when someone dropped a full brood box in the association apiary (which, with half a dozen beginners about, was a real spectacle ;) ). I can't imagine what they'd have been like this late in the season.
Looking for a new queen for this weekend
14 months? D'oh! Bl@@dy Tapatalk shows the date yy-mm-dd and I'm easily confused.
As an aside ... only on a beekeeping forum could you get away with a thread title like this. Fnarr, Fnarr
Looking for a new queen for this weekend
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jon
I also have a load of queens in apideas but I like to try and overwinter a few and if past years are anything to go by there will be people looking queens well into October..
can you overwinter in an apidea or will you transfer to a nuc?
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