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Thread: Rainbow mini

  1. #41

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    Ah yes - the the risks at every stage of Q rearing (20% each stage - at best) combined with (as I know myself) beekeeper gaffs and wet/windy weather (sod's law) - surely do make a roller-coaster of cliff hangers. And yes, you do learn a lot, especially by the mistakes - but sure, the sheer pleasure of it keeps me a bee keeper.

    So - in mid-May I harvested two Q cells for Apideas - one vQ was killed by the workers on the outside of the ventilation grill ("could not fly"?, returned to the wrong Apidea?) - I am unsure if the second was mated or whether laying is just delayed. A week later, a Cloake Board hive I had prepared for grafting was ready and I had a 8/14 grafts take, a 7/8 hatched (in an incubator), one was 2 days, one was a day early and 5 were on time - large dark beauties. Transfer to Apideas was successful and then before the vQs were ready to mate, the weather broke to wet, cool and windy...........???

  2. #42
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    Update Four queens successfully emerged. The fifth Queen I killed as was curious to see inside cell she was alive but not developed enough. Two did not emerge at all. So three queens in APideas one in Queen cage ready to move to new owner and three dead one my fault others nature took its course. Now I need good weather and Luck.
    Put cupkit back in for bees to clean up and I will try grafting next week if weather improves.

  3. #43

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    Update Four queens successfully emerged. The fifth Queen I killed as was curious to see inside cell she was alive but not developed enough. Two did not emerge at all. So three queens in APideas one in Queen cage ready to move to new owner and three dead one my fault others nature took its course. Now I need good weather and Luck.
    Put cupkit back in for bees to clean up and I will try grafting next week if weather improves.
    Not bad going they would have cost £20 each unmated from some suppliers
    As mated queens 4 @ £35 would be £150
    pretty easy once you get started GG
    weather expected to be ok on Thursday

    Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

  4. #44
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    From my first try,I only managed 5 viable QCs and only 2 emerged. I decided that I was not adding enough bees . A ground frost did not help.
    Decided to increase the number of bees by 50% to 1.5 cups Just inspected my last batch in my collection of min nucs. Out of 11 QCs, 8 emerged. No frosts this time but 5C one night.

    Slowly getting there but it's like teeth pulling.

  5. #45

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    Quote Originally Posted by madasafish View Post
    .
    From my first try,I only managed 5 viable QCs and only 2 emerged. I decided that I was not adding enough bees . A ground frost did not help.
    Decided to increase the number of bees by 50% to 1.5 cups Just inspected my last batch in my collection of min nucs. Out of 11 QCs, 8 emerged. No frosts this time but 5C one night.

    Slowly getting there but it's like teeth pulling.
    Hi madasafish
    There are a couple of advantages to having the queens hatch into roller cages (in the cell raiser)
    You only need make up the number of mininucs to match the hatched queens
    You still need a couple of days of shut in for the mini nuc but that should be enough
    having said that your existing system seems pretty good

    Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

  6. #46
    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    Three queens mated and laying now to transfer teem to Nucs Suggestions please easiest way.

  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greengage View Post
    Three queens mated and laying now to transfer teem to Nucs Suggestions please easiest way.
    I just put them with attendants in an introduction cage and check after 4 days to see if released. If not, I release them.

    (In bad tempered cases, i make wire cage which fits over foundation and allows queen free movement..)

    So far so good.

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