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Thread: Q rearing by numbers

  1. #161
    Senior Member Kate Atchley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    They should be ok Kate. The bees often build brace comb around the cells in the cell bar. I cut away as much as I can then push the roller carefully over the cell. The cells look rough but the queen usually emerges in the normal way.
    Jon you were right ... they're fine! (Jon was answering my query re cells surrounded in brace comb ... would they be okay?)

    Yesterday some of these cells went into mating nucs with lots of dark pigment showing through the thin parts of the cell covering (the cells were apparently embedded in comb before they were fully covered with wax so it was patchy).

    I didn't have access to sufficient bees to make up enough mating nucs for them all. So made up some more nucs this morning and the last 3 queens walked gracefully down into Apideas through the cover holes. They'd emerged overnight (day 16).

    Hoping the glorious weather of today and yesterday will not vanish for weeks after tomorrow's rain.

    IMG_1105.jpg

  2. #162
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    All the brace comb can be a bit of a nuisance but the cells are generally ok.
    Mine are still starting cells. I did a graft yesterday and most of them are started.
    I reckon it is worth grafting at least to the end of August. You might get nothing if September weather is dire but you could end up with a load of extra queens.
    Some colonies I opened up last week would still have had 1000+ drones and some sealed drone brood.

    That's a nice looking queen going into the apidea.
    Last edited by Jon; 18-08-2015 at 09:00 PM.

  3. #163
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    Am I out of time to try queen rearing now or should i leave it until next season, would it be any harm to try anyway for the experience, if i made up the mini nuc say Friday,graft on Saturday an dsee how it goes.

  4. #164
    Senior Member busybeephilip's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    Am I out of time to try queen rearing now or should i leave it until next season, would it be any harm to try anyway for the experience, if i made up the mini nuc say Friday,graft on Saturday an dsee how it goes.
    If you need a queen then give it a go, but it is getting late to start setting up starters/finishers/ benharden or what ever method you are thinking of, i suppose it depends how strong your hives are but populations are dropping fast now, also wasps might wipe out your apideas in the blink of an eye at this time of year and dont forget you should be treating now for varroa (thymol based) - a bit of advice dont use MAQS or you will be looking to buy queens, also bayvarol/apistan are no use any more

  5. #165
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    If you graft into a starter colony on Saturday the time to set up the mini nucs would be ten or eleven days after that.
    A grafted larva should produce a queen 12 days after the graft.

  6. #166
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    OK tks for that maybe I will do a bit more study on the process over the winter and give it a go next spring, I have treated for Varroa using Apiguard I will put on second pack this weekend, i did sugar roll test and got 3% on the other two hives beside each other in a different apiary one hive had no mites and the other was 3% so i assume ill treat both as they could cross contaminate, thats off the topic of breeding maybe i should post it somewhere else, tks again.

  7. #167
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    3% or less is not bad but still merits treatment. I had colonies sampled by Keith Browne at NUIG last month and some of them had a much higher infestation level than that.
    My Apiguard treatment started about 2 weeks ago.

  8. #168
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    Apiguard website tells me it is ok to feed so long as you are not taking honey off other beekeepers tell me dont feed when using apiguard wheather your taking honey or not so i havent fed in two weeks but stores look good and weather has not been too bad this week. So i dont know feed or not.

  9. #169

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    Apiguard website tells me it is ok to feed so long as you are not taking honey off other beekeepers tell me dont feed when using apiguard wheather your taking honey or not so i havent fed in two weeks but stores look good and weather has not been too bad this week. So i dont know feed or not.
    Hi Greengage its ok to feed but sometimes the bees wont take food from a feeder while thymol is being applied
    If they are taking down syrup then you can carry on feeding

  10. #170
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Mine usually take feed ok during apiguard treatment, if it is needed. If they don't, it often means there is some sort of a problem such as nosema.

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