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Thread: Mating 2015

  1. #1

    Default Mating 2015

    Like Prince Charles and his plants I can see you playing music to the bees
    You have had a bit of rain recently I see on the weather forecast
    This is what we get http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-33574652
    Not ideal for mating flights LOL!

    I think Gavin must have had that in mind when he put his mating nucs on hills
    Bit like Noah
    Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 19-07-2015 at 12:46 PM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    We had 19c and sunshine today and I saw several queens from apideas on mating flights.
    Has not been great this past few days though.

  3. #3
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Was up the Angus glens this evening finding more heather sites. That flood certainly looked biblical. There was a long stretch of road at Prosen village with the tarmac all ripped up. The estate owner had used a digger to make the road passable again but it must have been scary while it was happening. 4m high water rushing down where there was normally a trickle.
    Last edited by gavin; 21-07-2015 at 07:40 AM.

  4. #4
    Senior Member busybeephilip's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    We had 19c and sunshine today and I saw several queens from apideas on mating flights.
    Has not been great this past few days though.
    Looks like the weather for the remainder of july is a mix of rain /sun and 15 degrees tops here. Means that for the honey producers in Norn Ireland the season is basically over now unless we get a weeks worth of sun which aint going to happen. Not as much honey this year for me, probably just enough to pay for sugar if I just keep the best hives for winter.

    The wee pesky wasps are starting to appear and sniff around the mini nucs, the weak ones will be the first to go.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Plenty of forage. Just need the weather. Time to hunt down those wasp nests.

  6. #6

    Default Breeding

    [QUOTE=The Drone Ranger;30952]How are the bee breeders among us getting on

    Hello all.

    At last I have managed to start rearing queens again after moving house three years ago. I now have 22 nucs (4,5 and 6 frame) set up (http://www.stratfordbeekeepers.org.u...s/July2015.htm) and did some grafting a couple of weeks ago after turning out and cleaning cell cups etc (everything was a bit mouldy, so had a good scrub in soda wash).

    Grafted 22, but only 13 cells produced (the cell raiser was native and my grafting may not have been as good as it used to be!). However, 13 was plenty as some of the nucs have queens that I want to keep. De-queened and split nucs on Wednesday and introduced the cells, protected with hair rollers) on Thursday. On Saturday I checked 3 of them; 2 had hatched and the other was just cutting her way out 11 days after grafting.

    I am certainly glad that I did not start queen rearing earlier this year - so many colonies that swarmed in May have failed to produce a new queen. It has been a disastrous year here and a number of our members are almost wiped out - and many probably do not know that they have been!
    Peter Edwards

  7. #7
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Good year for mating here Peter.
    I had about a dozen queens mated before the end of May in Apideas and about another 100 in June.
    Weather has got more iffy this last week or so but I saw a lot of queens flying from Apideas on Sunday.

  8. #8

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    [QUOTE=Peter;30993]
    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    How are the bee breeders among us getting on

    Hello all.


    I am certainly glad that I did not start queen rearing earlier this year - so many colonies that swarmed in May have failed to produce a new queen. It has been a disastrous year here and a number of our members are almost wiped out - and many probably do not know that they have been!
    Hi Peter
    I was chatting to some else who said much the same thing about losing queens early in the season
    My early keiler minis (June) had 5 mated out of 9 The others missing in action so to speak
    Then a bit later 6 out of 6 made it (July) but in a different spot and settled weather

    That's just as well because back at the hives several of them where I thought "time to check if that new queen has started laying" I found after mating my nice new queen had laid two frames of brood and took off leaving some queen cells

    Must get a grip next year

  9. #9
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    The splits I made in May had poor mating despite a good number of drones in the apiary. Those that make it in poor mating conditions sometimes fail later but unlike DR I haven't seen that (yet) this year. June was better and there were a couple of days in the first few days of July that nudged above 20C but since then it has been cool and damp. As Philip says the forecast for the rest of July is for day maxima of 14-16C. In the west (including Colonsay) they are also having a poor season, maybe worse than here.

    Those who had many virgins out and about in June here have done OK - let's hope August returns to better conditions.

  10. #10
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    The weather in the Warwickshire area was very poor early this season. March and May were notably colder than long term averages* - preventing early season build-up and wrecking a lot of early queen mating. The latter was also hammered by rain … May was ~50% wetter than average. The majority of the OSR was over before the first week of June and was largely missed due to the rain and colonies that weren't at full strength. These figures are for Coventry, but Peter isn't far away. It just shows how dependent we are on the weather for this game …

    I appreciate there are many here who can only dream about the good weather in the balmy Midlands. I think the important point here is that it's "relative to the norm". It feels like it's been a total carp year here because it's usually a whole lot better.

    With my imminent move North I'm looking at honey production possibilities of this puppy …

    bumblebee.jpg

    Bombus polaris, the arctic bumblebee

    * weather data from the excellent Bablake School Weather Station
    Last edited by fatshark; 21-07-2015 at 08:10 AM. Reason: weather link

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