Queen raising 2014

[greengumbo]

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.

Nice work Gav. It was rather a full house on Saturday morn ! Went out to look at the sea cliffs puffins later in the afternoon....managed not to lose kids over the edge.

Anyway good to see 7 of them took ! Its a start I will be grafting again from this lot as soon as the mating nuc queens are moved on. I've also bodged up another 2 mating nucs bringing me up to 5 units.

Off to check everything today if this overcast threatening cloud buggers off.

[greengumbo]

Nice work Gav. It was rather a full house on Saturday morn ! Went out to look at the sea cliffs puffins later in the afternoon....managed not to lose kids over the edge.

Anyway good to see 7 of them took ! Its a start I will be grafting again from this lot as soon as the mating nuc queens are moved on. I've also bodged up another 2 mating nucs bringing me up to 5 units.

Off to check everything today if this overcast threatening cloud buggers off.

Three mating nucs checked.....three laying queens

Next lot going in friday. Supers filling up again already although god knows what they are finding at the moment.

[Jon]

god knows what they are finding at the moment.

bramble is out
clover as well
saw willowherb in flower
lime trees
himalayan balsam has started
I have a 30 acre field of spring sown oil seed rape just come into flower as well.

Nice one re. the 3 queens.

[Black Comb]

Big boxes startling to lay 5 weeks after A/S.
Apideas some have filled 3 frames with brood in the meantime.
Both started roughly the same time.
Still a dearth of nectar here. Bramble just starting to open.

[Jon]

Bugger!
Just had a virgin tear down a frame of 16 good cells.
My own fault. I missed a queen cell at the bottom of a frame of drone brood.
I found the open cell but not the virgin.

[fatshark]

I've been caught out a couple of times with queen cells being produced at the very edge of a three-quarters drawn foundationless frame of drone brood. Both times I've caught them in time. Both times I'd scanned the frame thinking something like "Hmmm … what lovely white wax. Lots of drone brood here. Actually it's all drone brood. Great … I'll cut this out when it's capped."

Then … as I gently slide it back into the brood box ...

"Whoa … what's that at the edge?"

Haven't lost any grafted cells due to rampant virgins this year, but have had one lot totally entombed in a huge slab of brace comb totally filled with nectar. Work commitments prevented me getting the roller cages on in time. The bramble and clover (can't imagine what else, the HB is still some way off here) is awesome at the moment with a better flow than the OSR produced.

[Jon]

I have been grafting a lot and I have another frame of 15 or so just 2 days behind this one so will have enough cells, but bugger, there were some really good ones on that frame.
I moved a different batch of cells to the incubator this afternoon and these ones were due out on Saturday. I had a quick look earlier this evening and two were out in the rollers already and most of the rest of them wriggling in the cells. I got 7 of the cells into apideas and will sort out the virgin queens tomorrow. I only have 2 empty apideas left now.

[greengumbo]

Grrrr. Queen I introduced was dead in cage when I went to release her today. 2nd time this has happened in this hive. Any thoughts ? Is candy okay to seal queen cages or is it too dry and they could have too little water ? Really annoying.

[gavin]

You're making me nervous, having recently committed some treasured queens to stocks that are a bit tetchy and definitely hungry.

- How long was the queen laying for before you moved her? I thought that they were best left for a full cycle but I know queens are usually moved pretty smartly.

- Did you leave attendents with her?

- According to Wedmore bees are in the best state to receive a new Q 6-12 hrs or a week or more after being dequeened.

- The nuc method is most successful at this time of year. Wedmore says use emerging brood if you can in the nuc.

- Jon has mentioned leaving the tab on (if its a plastic cage), or leaving the entrance to the Q cage covered somehow, until the workers seem well disposed to her.

It strikes me that introduction might be the tricky bit.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[Adam]

Grrrr. Queen I introduced was dead in cage when I went to release her today. 2nd time this has happened in this hive. Any thoughts ? Is candy okay to seal queen cages or is it too dry and they could have too little water ? Really annoying.

Hard candy will delay the opening which is no bad thing. The queen is supposed to be fed when in the cage... You don't have laying workers in there do you?
A large colony is not so easy to requeen. I introduced queens into colonies last year using just smoke - no cage at all. They were ALL accepted.