Our Ardnamurchan Amm bees are doing well and we hope to welcome a further 12 queens from Colonsay later this year. Meanwhile I'm planning the queen rearing for this year with the 5 colonies we have so far. Would those of you who've done lots of queen rearing with native bees please share your wisdom/experience re the following:
  • is it important to use different colonies for providing larvae for queens and drones for mating (broader gene pool expected next year)?
  • drone flooding – best to use frames filled with drone foundation or will wired foundation for supers fitted into brood frame do?
  • drone flooding – how many 'drone' frames (of whichever kind you recommend) per colony?
  • mini-nuc numbers: how many queens to be mated from mini-nucs at any one time, with these 5 colonies?
  • any other suggestions?

Lots of beekeepers out there so bracing myself for even more different strategies!