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Thread: Grafting / Queen rearing 2019

  1. #1
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    Default Grafting / Queen rearing 2019

    Morning all !

    How are everyones preps for queen raising this year ?

    Plenty drones about already in most hives and brood levels show hives will be exploding in a week or so with young bees.

    I'm thinking about preparing a few raiser / finisher colonies soon and finalising what queens to graft from.

  2. #2
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    I've got one queen that:
    a) I will not be grafting from (and I'm busy killing off the drones in that box)
    b) I'll be replacing ASAP with one of my own
    The queen has an Aderdonian accent and her daughters are always spoiling for a fight

    More seriously, I've got splits on already and some nicely maturing queen cells.

    Interesting range of development in the colonies. Many are really doing well with second super already and double brood. Others are slow to start.

    Overwintering losses were 10% - one drowning, one DLQ - but I also found a hive with no eggs, no sign of the Q and no sign of swarming yesterday. There was a smattering of sealed worker brood, so she was there a few weeks ago. I plonked a test frame in.

    Still coolish so when it warms up properly it'll be 'sick' as my kids say

  3. #3
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    One drowning, Fatshark?
    Kitta

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    Ha ha - yes please replace that queen before repatriating it fatshark !

    I had plenty DLQs this year and seems like i'm not the only one. At least 15% of my overwintered hives. Development is mixed across my sites but so is the OSR so I've shuffled them about to try match up OSR development with bee power.

    Cold spell incoming so might curb the swarming in the ones that were thinking about it.

  5. #5
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Drowning ... lid + bricks blown away, crownboard ditto followed by three days of torrential rain. I was away. They limped on for a few weeks but I suspect they were queenless.

    Hived my first swarm yesterday evening. Waist height in a small conifer. I even had a skep and sheet in the car ... it would have been rude not to

    I use the term my to indicate that it is now, but it might not have been originally

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    Well blizzards and freezing temps have put paid to grafting for now !

    A city hive had eggs in QC today so will convert to raiser next week if temps increase.

  7. #7
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Checked the swarm and they're lovely and calm bees with a nicely laying queen (so I know which hive they didn't come from GG ). Needless to say, with the weather we're now having, I'm feeding them.

    Drove over Rannoch on Monday morning through quite a bit of snow.

    Where has the spring gone?

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    Bit of a forced hand now.

    Couldn't get into a hive for two weeks and inevitably when I checked it there are swarm cells all over the place ! No sign of clipped queen but hive still strong so I suspect attempted swarm then bees went back in leaving HM to die outside somewhere

    So I have now filled four apideas with very ripe QCs. So ripe in fact one hatched as I was watching. Lets see if anything comes of them. At least it will prime the apideas for the season

  9. #9
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    I use the term my to indicate that it is now, but it might not have been originally
    Wasn't mine originally ... checked the colonies briefly on Friday and there are laying queens in all of them

    Apivar strips now in as we've seen high mite levels in some colonies this spring.

  10. #10
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    Demarees all over the place.

    Last year I removed all laying queens to nucs and allowed hives to raise new ones but I noticed some colonies just stopped honey production as soon as queen was removed. I'm doing half and half this year.

    Two more apideas filled last night.

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