Time in Apidea

[Kate Atchley]

Thanks Jon and Dark Bee.

I've been describing the very first of the brood laid. Certainly I expect some getting into the swing of it for new queens but how long do you reckon it usually takes for a queen to be in 'full lay' and therefore to demonstrate a brood pattern typical of what will continue follow?

There is some pollen in cells within areas of comb cleared for or laid in ... in line with your comment about native bees, Dark Bee. This might account for some of the blanks.

There is some inbreeding here ... the brood patterns usually show more blanks than for beekeepers in the areas where bees can be swapped around more ... ie have Varroa! Am seeking to bring some fresh bees this season but the options are limited. The bees are hybridised and vary from around 45 to 80% Amm.

[Kate Atchley]

.... she should be out 24-48 hours after the tab is opened. leave alone for a week before pulling frames and looking for the queen and don't try to mark and/or clip until she has been laying for a couple of weeks. .....
They can be a bit nervous with a new queen and could kill her if disturbed too much.
been there done that with a queen just started to lay and you feel pretty stupid when you find a box full of emergency queen cells a week later.

So Jon you don't recommend marking the queens when you cage them but once they've been laying in full-framed nuc for 2 weeks or so? It's so tempting to mark when they are so accessible in the Apidea!

[Jon]

A lot of people mark queens when still in apideas so it is just personal choice in my case.
the Galtee queens we got recently were all marked but not clipped yet.
With new queens I usually mark them after a couple of weeks and then clip the following spring.

[Jon]

Thanks ... I have a number of laying queens approaching 28-35 days of age and had planned to unite some directly from their Apideas but I will not risk that having read your comments, Jon.

Hi Kate.
Just to add to my previous comments about uniting via removing the floor of the apidea:
I had a meeting with a couple of guys from the Native Irish Honeybee Society on Wednesday.
We are organising a queen rearing event in August and were discussing what we are going to demonstrate, standardising things and best practice.
The topic of queen introduction came up and the other guys say they have had very successful results simply uniting with a queenless colony via Apidea so maybe it is just me who is reluctant to do it this way. Each to their own I guess.

[Dark Bee]

So Jon you don't recommend marking the queens when you cage them but once they've been laying in full-framed nuc for 2 weeks or so? It's so tempting to mark when they are so accessible in the Apidea!

I know a commercial beekeeper who refuses to mark unmated queens, as he believes that would make them more vulnerable to attack by swallows and other birds. He uses tippex for marking - so that may be the cause of the problem!
My personal concern is having a strange scent on the queen and causing her to be balled. Mr Posco is perhaps kinder in this regard than the little glass bottles with the prong under the stopper

[Kate Atchley]

I know a commercial beekeeper who refuses to mark unmated queens, as he believes that would make them more vulnerable to attack by swallows and other birds. He uses tippex for marking - so that may be the cause of the problem!
My personal concern is having a strange scent on the queen and causing her to be balled. Mr Posco is perhaps kinder in this regard than the little glass bottles with the prong under the stopper

The earliest I might mark the queen would be when she had laid satisfactorily in the mating nuc and was being moved on. And I don't touch them for reasons of scent. I usually use a press-in crown thingy (is that your Mr Posco?) and sometimes, if I need to move the queen for any other reason at the same time, a cage with plunger and soft sponge.

[Dark Bee]

O dear, the good Mr Posco is a marking pen or more correctly is a pen used for marking
Inevitably it is made in the Far East.

[The Drone Ranger]

Here's my cautionary tale
The year is 2005 so I have a nice blue marker I'm dyeing (sic) to use
Anyway nice big fat new queen above a Snelgrove board is mated,laying and in my sights
Beautiful job nice neat blue mark in the centre of the thorax
Couple of days later found her dead shoved out the door lying on the ground
I just leave them alone now even if it was the following Spring
however if its a breeding program I might be more concerned with her lineage so marking would be important

[Dark Bee]

It is difficult to beat those wee coloured disks with numbers, if you really need to keep in track of the relatives. They are a must for I.I.

[Jon]

Here's my cautionary tale
The year is 2005 so I have a nice blue marker I'm dyeing (sic) to use
Anyway nice big fat new queen above a Snelgrove board is mated,laying and in my sights
Beautiful job nice neat blue mark in the centre of the thorax
Couple of days later found her dead shoved out the door lying on the ground
I just leave them alone now even if it was the following Spring
however if its a breeding program I might be more concerned with her lineage so marking would be important

DR. I have had similar happen and I also usually leave marking and clipping until the following spring. No rush to mark and clip with new queens at this stage of the season as they should not be swarming.

Speaking of which, other than the grafting, I have not had a single queen cell produced this season