Queen cell size

[Kate Atchley]

Joe Latshaw makes some worthwhile observations on larvae size in his pdf 'Queen Rearing Basics' I reckon that this is one of those should-read documents for anyone starting raising queens of their own.

Thanks for pointing us to this doc Prakel. I hadn't come across it and Joe Latshaw includes a pic showing the plastic cup full at the base of the queen cell. I hadn't focussed on this before but ... well of course! Will also try candling natural cells (which I do routinely when incubating hens' eggs).

In this pic showing the filled cup beneath the pupae, the wax cell extends down about 2.5 times the depth of the visible part of the plastic cup - i.e. total length is about 3.5 x plastic cup depth or 2cm. Would others regard this as roughly 'standard'? It's smaller than many I've reared and some have been smaller.

Hoping to achieve good mating this year as we've had some good spells of fine weather here in the west.

[prakel]

Manley's thoughts taken from 'Honey Farming' with reference to his own queen right system.

There is one point I'd like to make while dealing with using queen-right colonies in this way. It will often be found that the cells built appear rather small beside those constructed by swarming colonies or by artificial swarms as described below. I think this is caused by the established queen-right cell-building colonies not being in the state that favours heavy secretion of wax, whereas swarms or bees about to swarm, are. The cells look small because they are less massively constructed, and may appear quite diminutive when compared to those built by swarming bees or by artificial swarms made queenless, but virgins from them are usually as good as can be desired. It is not the size of the cell or it's external appearance that matters, but the amount of royal jelly consumed by it's occupant. There are few things more misleading than cell size as a means of judging what sort of queen may be expected to emerge.

[fatshark]

Good find Prakel … yet again Manley comes up with the goods.

[Kate Atchley]

... and the book sits on the shelf beside me! Thanks. I'll take it with me to Colonsay as bedtime reading: off to spend a weekend with Mr Black Bee who hopes soon to provide us with Amm stock for the Ardnamurchan breeding apiary.

[prakel]

Larry Connor's view on the subject of queen size and cell evaluation:

Size Matters. How important is the size of the Queen?

http://www.wicwas.com/sites/default/.../BC2008-08.pdf

A worthwhile read for anyone interested in the subject.