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Thread: First queens emerged 2015

  1. #101

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    Jon,
    Excuse my ignorance im trying to get my head around this, Am I correct in thinking the following.
    Day 1 egg.
    Day 8 cells sealed.
    Day 12 transfer to incubator. move worker bees to Apedia and keep sealed in until queen hatches.
    Day 15 transfer cell to Apedia
    Day 16 cell hatches new queen.
    Day 19 open apedia allow bees to fly
    Day 22 queen mated.
    Day 27 approx queen laying.
    I know it might sound easy to you when you know what your doing, but im trying to get my head around the process for next season.
    Hi greengage
    I think Jon has pointed out that the shut in for 3 days after emergence is too long and a day will do
    Usually Queens will make their mating flight about 7 days after emergence
    They will have a few practice fly arounds first to build wing power and orient themselves
    That activity can cause a bit of commotion round the mini or nuc
    About 10 days after the mating flight the queen will be laying
    Sometimes the mating is quicker often the laying starts earlier but that would be a bonus

  2. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Usually Queens will make their mating flight about 7 days after emergence
    If only, mine rarely do.
    I have learnt from experience that it's not worth my while checking for laying until three weeks from emergence or it just means having to check them again later. I have to try and make my time count so I need to be quite disciplined with the queen rearing side of things because I enjoy it so much it could be quite possible for me to while away most of my time fiddling about doing unnecessary stuff, there's lots to do and only so many hours in the day, apparently the family like to see me occasionally during the summer too.

  3. #103
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    The incubator is optional. I use it for convenience so I don't have to run up to an apiary to collect cells. I like to have some handy at alltimes.

    That aside, forget about eggs as you graft with a small larva. The queen should be emerging 12 days later.
    I find it useful to keep that 12 day period in my head. If you graft on a Thursday the queens will be emerging on a Tuesday.

    There are two main ways to do this (a) putting a ripe queen cell into an apidea, (b) putting a virgin queen into an apidea.
    Both methods work fine.

    (a)With a ripe queen cell I fill the apidea with bees, insert the cell and open when the queen has emerged from the cell.
    You can check if the queen has emerged by removing the cell from the hole in the inner cover of the apidea.
    I put thecell in as late as possible before emergence which avoids any risk of chilling.

    (b) With a virgin queen, the routine is slightly different. The virgin could be a few hours old up to several days old so that part is flexible.
    You have your virgin queen ready in a roller cage and also a scoop of wet bees which you have prepared earlier Blue Peter style.
    The virgin is shaken into the apidea and 2 seconds later the scoop of wet bees is dumped on top of her.
    Apideas are filled through the floor which slides out.
    The apidea is opened on the evening of the next day.

    The queen can take a mating flight 6 days from emergence but depending upon the weather it could be 25 days from emergence.
    There may be more than one mating flight, on the same day or over several days.
    Egg laying usually starts 2-3 days after the last mating flight.

    DR, I assume you mean 10 days from emergence not 10 days from the mating flight.

    Cells from which a queen has emerged look like this:
    emerged-cell-cap.jpg queen cells after queen emerged.jpg
    Last edited by Jon; 04-09-2015 at 10:55 AM.

  4. #104
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    The incubator is optional. I use it for convenience so I don't have to run up to an apiary to collect cells. I like to have some handy at alltimes.

    That aside, forget about eggs as you graft with a small larva. The queen should be emerging 12 days later.
    I find it useful to keep that 12 day period in my head. If you graft on a Thursday the queens will be emerging on a Tuesday.

    There are two main ways to do this (a) putting a ripe queen cell into an apidea, (b) putting a virgin queen into an apidea.
    Both methods work fine.

    (a)With a ripe queen cell I fill the apidea with bees, insert the cell and open when the queen has emerged from the cell.
    You can check if the queen has emerged by removing the cell from the hole in the inner cover of the apidea.
    I put thecell in as late as possible before emergence which avoids any risk of chilling.

    (b) With a virgin queen, the routine is slightly different. The virgin could be a few hours old up to several days old so that part is flexible.
    You have your virgin queen ready in a roller cage and also a scoop of wet bees which you have prepared earlier Blue Peter style.
    The virgin is shaken into the apidea and 2 seconds later the scoop of wet bees is dumped on top of her.
    Apideas are filled through the floor which slides out.
    The apidea is opened on the evening of the next day.

    The queen can take a mating flight 6 days from emergence but depending upon the weather it could be 25 days from emergence.
    There may be more than one mating flight, on the same day or over several days.
    Egg laying usually starts 2-3 days after the last mating flight.

    DR, I assume you mean 10 days from emergence not 10 days from the mating flight.
    Good summary.
    I must get myself an incubator, it sounds like it adds a bit of flexibility.

  5. #105
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Black Comb View Post
    The first QR course I attended was run by Terry Claire, past president of BIBBA.
    If I remember correctly, he advised to confine the bees in the apidea for 2-3 days as it reduces the risk of absconding. (bees in apideas are liable to abscond)
    I disagree with Terry on that one. Absconding is caused by overfilling, overheating or leaving the queen in the apidea for too long. Nothing to do with closing in for 3 days at the start. (well I guess it guarantees they cant abscond for those 3 days!)

  6. #106
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    Tks for the info, looks like i can do a bit of experimenting, facinating subject, looks like its all about the timing and good weather for mating flight and a whole lot of other variables.

  7. #107
    Senior Member busybeephilip's Avatar
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    Yes I would reccommend 3 days as max otherwise later than this the nuc gets stale and bees get very lethargic with swollen abdomens

    Timing is the important part, knowing when the cells are going to hatch then poping them in an apidea makes this a lot easier. Sometimes waiting for cells to hatch can result in some queens not being accepted by the mating nucs

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