Mating 2015

[gavin]

OK, Radio Scotland are saying 17-18C in parts of the east today.

Just been checking the Met Office site. May was a little cooler than normal but the signals of the weather giving poor mating are not so easy to decipher. With queen mating it is so often right on the boundary of the critical temperature and just a few days are enough to swing it.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/anomact

Hope the preparations for the final move are going OK FS. Let me know if you want help with anything.

If you check 'mean maximum temperature' using 'actual' rather than 'anomaly' you'll see that Belfast has been marginally warmer than around here in May and June.

[alancooper]

In late June I introduced virgin queens into two hives that seemed queen-less (following a hectic period of me dealing with much June swarming preparations across my apiary). Last week I tested each by putting in a frame with eggs but no queen cells were drawn. I am hoping that both hives do have a queen that will start laying soon. The "feel" of the hives, however, is that they are queen-less. Is this familiar to anyone? have I missed something? What are my options?

[mbc]

About half marks so far here, that is, for every two cells I've grafted I get one harvestable queen with a solid pattern and no chalk brood. I lost a whole graft to chalk as none of the daughters made the cut when it came to evaluating the brood.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi AlanC
I think mostly mating will take 7 days plus 10 days to start laying and since they haven't attempted queen cells I would say the signs are good
It would be pretty safe to have a good look through for her and all going well she will be big and easily spotted

[The Drone Ranger]

About half marks so far here, that is, for every two cells I've grafted I get one harvestable queen with a solid pattern and no chalk brood. I lost a whole graft to chalk as none of the daughters made the cut when it came to evaluating the brood.

I sympathise with you there MBC I once requeened half my hives with daughters from my "best" queen and for some reason they were all prone to chalk It took years to sort out because once it starts it infects all the combs
If I had been more careful, like you have been, I would have saved myself a lot of work

[The Drone Ranger]

A good time put a virgin in is when they are expecting one so after a swarm has left and they have ripe queen cells (knock them off)
If you are lucky enough to have a virgin just hatched and captured in a cupkit cage or from a cell on the point of hatching elsewhere you can just walk her down between the outer frames
I found on another that if you have a pooter or similar catcher don't use it because she will smell of past queens you have marked and get attacked right away Doh!

[Jon]

In Belfast there was only one decent mating day in May, Saturday 23rd. I had a load of queens start to lay about 3 days after that.
They just wait for the weather window irrespective of the emergence date.
June was much better and there were at least a couple of days every week when queens could fly and mate.
The first week of July was very good but the weather had now become more changeable.
last Sunday 19th was good and I expect a lot of queens flew and mated that day.

DR. I start off my Apideas with a virgin queen. I turn the apidea upside down and open the floor. The queen gets shaken in out of her roller cage and gets a scoop of wet bees dropped on top of her. The apidea is left closed until the following evening when it is opened at the mating site.
Once that first queen had mated and started to lay I remove her 10-14 days later and put in a queen cell, preferably less than 24 hours from queen emergence.
This allows a check of the brood pattern.
I check the queens in a plunger cage as some which seem to be laying ok have a bit missing, usually part of a leg.

[fatshark]

Thanks Gavin … currently I'm after a 26 hour day and an 8 day week … oh yes, and a bigger van. The numpties in the hire company appear to have mixed up an extra long wheelbase, high top transit, with a fractionally longer, standard height transit.

Or I've got more broods and supers than I thought

Useful map … what's happening with that little bit around Applecross that appears to have been less cold than pretty much anywhere else on the West coast?

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi John.
I have done likewise with the keilers just bung in wet bees and virgin no worries.
Getting one into a full size colony needs a bit more guile
The pooter problem arose because after using the queen from a keiler I had a virgin just hatch and wanted to put her in the now queenless mininuc I transported her in the pooter they attacked straight away though

[Jon]

I have never had great success trying to requeen a full colony with a virgin queen. I generally use a mated queen in an introduction cage and rarely lose one via that method.