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Thread: Queen Rearing pdfs

  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Beefever View Post
    Thanks for that info DR and Prakel. I do graft when queen rearing and after a lot of heart ache have become more proficient at it but that Fat Bee Man vid seems so simple that I think I’ll have a go next year just to see what happens. I wonder if that’s his idea?
    Hi beefever

    Cell punching is another method
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxjOMApFUJI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGbbAsAuNOw
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1qI17v29jc
    The last one using the stainless steel rings you just leave the ring round the cell and push it into wax on a bar like the fat beeman made
    or into cell cup holders like the cupkit white type
    Attachment 1907 Attachment 1908
    The first punch is a bit crude
    The second is better
    The third is best but I would say that wouldn't I

  2. #12
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Black Comb View Post
    A couple of very experienced beeks near me say it is "best" to mate queens in nucs if you can. I.e. Make up nuc and place your cell in at the same time.
    So, next year I want to run 3 more colonies. I have the hives, the nucs and the Apideas. Which way to go once I have the sealed cells ready to emerge?
    For what it's worth, in your position I'd be getting the apideas going, lots of useful apidea advice on this forum -and access to the Irish apidea guru for back up. Then, once I was happy with the queens I'd be stocking the nuc boxes and introducing the queens to them -keep the bulk bees working in their hive (whether it's a case of honey or comb building) for as long as possible.

  3. #13

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    Thanks.
    That to me seems logical and is my plan, but thought I'd ask as local consensus seems to be to go direct into nucs.

  4. #14
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    I hate to contradict anyone but for me mini-nucs are good for producing cheap queens but nucs are easier for producing colonies.

  5. #15
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    I use both nucs and mini-nucs.
    Nucs:-I usually sell (just) a few nucs so I tend to put some early queencells in nucs for that purpose. As I don't make promises I can't keep, I only call the purchaser after the brood is sealed and it isn't drone so by the time the nuc is inspected and collected the queen has been laying for 3 weeks or so and can be seen to be good.

    Mini-nucs: I tend to use these for my own needs and (reluctantly) accept that I will get the odd absconding from them. But where do they go?

  6. #16

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    Best of both worlds just use a Snelgrove board
    You still have a full size productive colony with built in swarm control
    and in the top box you can introduce a favourite queen cell
    Plus no pulling the hive apart for about a month or more
    Whats not to like

  7. #17
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rosie View Post
    I hate to contradict anyone but for me mini-nucs are good for producing cheap queens but nucs are easier for producing colonies.
    Cheap is one way to look at it, economical is another good word! I don't think that we're really at odds with each other on this one. However in Black Comb's situation, having those apideas to hand already, I'd be making them work for their keep.

  8. #18
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    I have lots of five and six frame nucs, brood boxes with dividers to make two nucs and various division boards of different designs, all of which have been sidelined for mating purposes as mini nucs are so much more cost effective or economical for getting virgin queens mated.
    Even considering the roughly one in ten queens which are lost on introduction, I find it better to take mated queens from mini nucs and introduce them to full size frame nucs for sale and/or increase, rather than 'wasting' all the resources in a big nuc while waiting for a virgin to 'may/or may not' mate successfully.
    Last edited by mbc; 29-11-2013 at 10:57 AM.

  9. #19
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mbc View Post
    I have lots of five and six frame nucs, brood boxes with dividers to make two nucs and various division boards of different designs, all of which have been sidelined for mating purposes as mini nucs are so much more cost effective or economical for getting virgin queens mated.
    Similar here, maybe exaggerated by the fact that my split boxes are md deeps so there's a big cost if they're allowed to go backwards while trying to do a job which a miniplus can do very well. On a slightly different angle, I think that a great use of these boxes is to use them for overwintering smallish, but otherwise good colonies instead of uniting them -a suggestion made by CC Miller in his book 50 Years Among the Bees back at the turn of the twentieth century.

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    Similar here, maybe exaggerated by the fact that my split boxes are md deeps so there's a big cost if they're allowed to go backwards while trying to do a job which a miniplus can do very well. On a slightly different angle, I think that a great use of these boxes is to use them for overwintering smallish, but otherwise good colonies instead of uniting them -a suggestion made by CC Miller in his book 50 Years Among the Bees back at the turn of the twentieth century.
    I also use the split boxes for overwintering small colonies, but with the advent of poly nucs I certainly wont be making any more split boxes as the poly nucs are just as effective for overwintering small colonies and are much more convenient for utilising the colonies in the Spring.

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