Queen raising 2014

[greengumbo]

GG there are people around here also reporting less than usually successful queen mating. I checked 8 yesterday, none of which had a laying Q yet (though there was evidence the Q had emerged) and some of which had no Q present. I'd expected them all to be laying by now. The weather has been all over the place, with relatively few days conducive to mating. There's also the neonics ban … perhaps we've selected for bees that need neonics?

Seriously, I'd assume there was something wrong with the first Q. They might have added the burr comb afterwards, rather than entombed her. They often rip down the cell from which the Q emerged. In the boxes I checked (2+ weeks after adding a cell in a Nicot cup) the only thing remaining was the cup and holder.

There's thunder as I'm writing this, so not good for mating today either.

Could it be that I'm trying to give strongly AMM queens to italian / buckfasty filled mating nucs ?

Will start some new grafts this week. I was annoyed at the entombed queen so I "ran in" a virgin through the entrance with a big puff of smoke. Will be interested to see what happens.

[Jon]

Could it be that I'm trying to give strongly AMM queens to italian / buckfasty filled mating nucs ?

That should make no difference.

[fatshark]

Cell raising in 2014 is going brilliantly …
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… but queen mating is dreadful. Two or three out of eight in three frame nucs in the last but one batch. Many are going queenless. We've had some terrific thunderstorms in the afternoons and I suspect a lot are drowning. I've never done so many inspections in the rain.

PS The box in the background has a Horsley board in place … again, now suspected queenless after she emerged successfully.

[Jon]

Weather here has been ok.
I got another 23 cells into my apideas today and now have about 75 set out.
Don't want to tempt fate but mating so far has been ok and I have about 20 queens laying.
Today was a perfect day for mating and it got up to about 22c so a few more likely flew this afternoon.

I also have about 25 cells to put into the apideas of the queen rearing group members by tomorrow afternoon.

[fatshark]

Timing is everything … I've had some great weather when cells are being raised, but it's been chucking it down the rest of the time. I'm beginning to think the full time job is getting in the way a bit.

Here are some of our beginners on our queen rearing course in the association apiary … 5.30pm, totally filthy weather, soaked.

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[greengumbo]

Updates: My smoke run in virgin had eggs a week ago so will wait and see what they look like this week. The other two queens were still present and heaps of pollen going in so hopefully when I look this week there will be eggs.

Helped a pal on here in his AMM breeding efforts this weekend Cut outs and a fat queen cell donated to the cause. Learned a lot about reading a comb and clipping queens. Need to sort that particular hive out before they swarm !

Hope you got some useful material from the cut outs. There will be plenty more if you want a repeat attempt.

[gavin]

Updates: My smoke run in virgin had eggs a week ago so will wait and see what they look like this week. The other two queens were still present and heaps of pollen going in so hopefully when I look this week there will be eggs.

Helped a pal on here in his AMM breeding efforts this weekend Cut outs and a fat queen cell donated to the cause. Learned a lot about reading a comb and clipping queens. Need to sort that particular hive out before they swarm !

Hope you got some useful material from the cut outs. There will be plenty more if you want a repeat attempt.

Thanks pal! Great to see your place, the wee nippers and all the others Chez GG on a Saturday. Managed all the way back to the Longforgan area for the association meet-up with 1 min to spare. Given that most of the larvae were a bit on the large side and that this was my first grafting session of the season, a take of seven out of twenty was pleasing. They'll go into Apideas in about 7 days, two days before the predicted hatch time. From your comments, the wee test you ran and the comments of the previous owner Emma (thanks too!), these should be very useful stock for the isolated breeding we're getting underway.

I still have some eggs literally kicking about in the back of the car and may have a peek to see if they're worth trying fixing to a top bar even now.

The Apidea with the Q cell is still in the shade at the back of the shed and these are the grafts at lunchtime today.

G.

[drumgerry]

Quick question guys. Do you protect a queen cell (with foil or something) being given to mating nuc that's had it's queen taken out?

[fatshark]

Hi DG … I have done in the past, but stopped doing so some time ago … without any noticeable difference in success.

[Jon]

The need for a cell protector is one of the biggest myths in queen rearing!
I took out 10 queens yesterday and put ten ripe queen cells straight in. Most of the queens had emerged this morning.
Best thing is to do it right away. If you wait a couple of days they will start their own queen cell from a larva in the apidea and they may kill the queen from your added queen cell if they fancy their own more. But I have also noticed a few times that the virgin from the cell you add can coexist with a sealed queen cell they have made themselves. Not sure why the virgin does not tear it down. It is worth checking for these queen cells once you have added the second cell to an apidea with brood in it. Plenty of time as it will be at least 12 days before anything emerges from a cell made after a queen has been removed from an apidea.