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Thread: todays news

  1. #2961
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    For most folk though the mini nuc is staying in the home apiary so it doesn't matter
    Because they don't think about that folk get all worried about including a few stray drones for no reason
    I wonder whether there's also a positive aspect to the general well-being of the nucs if they've got a few drones onboard (even if that means adding select drones from chosen lines)? It certainly mimics, better, the real life of the bee and ultimately I think that's what we should be doing.

    That said, exclusion of energetic burly drones, determined to get out, might be a positive thing if the boxes are going to be stored for any length of time before release...
    Last edited by prakel; 20-11-2015 at 11:53 AM.

  2. #2962
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    A nice surprise to click on here and have pages of interesting posts to read, top work!

    One trick worth mentioning regarding bees drifting back at the same apiary is that bees left queenless for a bit tend not to drift when split. I use this when dividing overwintered multiple brood box mini plus hives for their first cells of the season, by harvesting the laying queen a day or so before the split the bees almost all stick to the brood frames they've been put into a new box on, with very few returning to their original site. I'm not sure exactly why it works, but it does and it enables me to spread the brood frames and bees very thinly, starting some new nucs off with just the tiniest patch of brood and adhering bees.

  3. #2963
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    I wonder whether there's also a positive aspect to the general well-being of the nucs if they've got a few drones onboard
    Apideas which are made up without drones attract a permanent drone population very quickly.
    I have seen loads of apideas which have maybe 50 drones in them after a week which were started with none.
    They sniff out those virgin queens very quickly.

    You need to make sure to get them out if you are using an excluder after the queen has mated or the apidea gets clogged up with dead drones.
    Last edited by Jon; 20-11-2015 at 01:00 PM.

  4. #2964
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mbc View Post

    One trick worth mentioning regarding bees drifting back at the same apiary is that bees left queenless for a bit tend not to drift when split.
    Never knew that. I'll be giving that a go next year.
    Last edited by Jon; 20-11-2015 at 03:41 PM. Reason: kkk

  5. #2965
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Apideas which are made up without drones attract a permanent drone population very quickly.
    Which of course shows that there's little point in the initial exclusion unless it's to reduce stress during confinement.

    There could be a component of mating control implied in the instructions but that suggests that we're taking the trouble to move them to a select site for mating; in which case I imagine that we'd have enough common sense not to need need to be told to keep undesirable drones out. Anyway isn't that better achieved by the glass sided EWK nucs such as BBP uses?

  6. #2966

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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    Which of course shows that there's little point in the initial exclusion unless it's to reduce stress during confinement.
    But that's a pretty big point. Overexcited drones are a PITA. Never mind them dying against the small screened areas, they can also void inside the box and if there is a touch of nosema in the gut it will not do the unit any good. Want to buy a queen with an elevated risk (even if marginally) of carrying nosema?

    So you have it made up with as few stressed drones as possible, and taking bees from above excluders is reasonably effective at selecting both relatively drone free bees of the right age for establishing the boxes. Even if working in the same apiary. In that scenario it has no impact on the genetics most likely, but its still not best practice.

    Jon's point about them pretty soon not being drone free is not really a negative issue, as by the time they start moving in sniffing out a chance the nuc is open and in situ for mating, so these drones come from the drone pool you are targeting anyway, and its just the same if you are mating at source or at a remote selected site.
    Last edited by Calluna4u; 21-11-2015 at 01:25 PM.

  7. #2967

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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    I imagine that we'd have enough common sense not to need need to be told to keep undesirable drones out.
    Hi Prakel
    I think it is in the instructions for people making up mini nucs to be taken to somewhere like Lęsų island in Denmark
    So if you have an island mating site or something similar then it makes good sense
    Elsewhere you can read posts insisting on how absolutely essential this is not to include drones (on occasion they can get a bit aerated)

    http://bibba.com/laesoe-2004/
    That's just a link to some info about Lęsų I'm not sure of the correct spelling as BIBBA have spelled it differently

  8. #2968
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    But that's a pretty big point.
    I don't think that there's any deate about that, not from here at any rate. This chain of thought stemmed from a DR's post querying the standard instructions and their relevance if the mating nucs are staying on site.

    Our mini-plus boxes often start with drones already on board at the time when the first cells are introduced; but of course, other than a rare move to another local site there's never any need to close those boxes (or to put an excluder at the entrance post mating) so it's a very different game plan to what many seem to be playing.
    Last edited by prakel; 21-11-2015 at 04:50 PM.

  9. #2969
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Hi Prakel
    I think it is in the instructions for people making up mini nucs to be taken to somewhere like Lęsų island in Denmark.....
    Hi DR, nice link, thanks .

  10. #2970
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Slight tangent here, I see that abelo are launching a national poly hive (again!) The interesting point is that it's been designed so that the brood chamber can be split into two nucs -possibly the same set up as the lyson mini-plus.

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