Mating 2015

[fatshark]

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

[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?

[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

[Feckless Drone]

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?

Most of my new Qs never start laying to the schedule in the books and generally its 3-4 weeks after emergence before I see eggs. These Qs are usually raised in vertical splits over a Snelgrove board or in poly-nucs in fairly strong colonies. Problem is that time is lost so I still worry about them. I get optimistic when 1. I see pollen going in AND 2. There are polished cells being kept ready for laying. I relax when 3. there are one or more patches of royal jelly being stored ready for use.

If the colony is not working up a new Q from a frame of eggs then that suggests they are waiting. If you can get a spare Q-cell from someone you could pop that in and see what happens. I guess it would be destroyed or left.

My success rate this year is running at about 2/3. I've staggered rearing over a couple of weeks in early June so as not to have everything dependent on a short weather window. And currently waiting to see outcome of a couple more, but these could not have been timed worse with the dreadful weather last week.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Feckless
I had 20 queen cells on a frame due to hatch on the 11 July
We had friends coming to visit and the timing overlapped so I put hair rollers on early
Bit too early I think because not one hatched --- big hole in queen rearing plan

The snelgroves are a bit more flexible because if you don't get a queen above the board you can bring larva up from below and have another go without much effort
The new queens hatching are all staggered so the weather risk is a bit less problematic

I like the grafting and cupkit queen rearing as well but in my case it can go pear shaped just when I decide I have it sorted

I think your advice to Allan will be right they are sometimes a bit slow to get laying
Have you found sometimes an extra long wait heralds a drone layer ?

[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]

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!

[Peter]

The weather in Coventry can be very different to here in the Alne Hills - very much warmer in the towns and cities.
But mating is not just about temperature. We need good weather the previous autumn to set colonies up for the winter. Then we need good weather for colonies to develop well in the spring and produce well-nurtured drones. After that we need the sort of weather that encourages drones to fly (without the exercise they will be useless for mating). Then finally, we need the right weather for queens and drones to fly and mate - not necessarily hot weather, but high winds and/or rain and/or low temperatures will not result in good mating.
But you knew all that already...