I had a couple of queens emerge today in apideas.
24 hours early, must be the heat as they were grafted from small larvae.
First cells hatched 2012
I had a couple of queens emerge today in apideas.
24 hours early, must be the heat as they were grafted from small larvae.
Well done, all my attempts have been fruitless so far. Just single queens in my (whatever you call it when you put three frames of bees and brood in a new box). Gone up from 7 to 21 colonies so far, so not too bad..
Just back in from our queen rearing group meeting.
We have about 35 members now.
Tonight I demonstrated how to do an artificial swarm on a colony I found queen cells in two days ago.
No point in people taking home fancy dan queens if they don't know how to prevent them leaving in a swarm.
We also put rollers on over 60 grafted cells which are due to hatch on Sunday.
I want to put the cells in apideas either Friday night or Saturday morning at the latest.
There were about 25 apideas loaded with bees dropped off.
I have about 20 of my own still to fill so there will be no problem getting rid of all the cells.
Hope to graft a load more this weekend, time permitting.
It is great to see new season queens again. I have hatched cells from natural queen cells, a fine sight. Will start grafting this weekend so that we can have a show and tell on 16th June at the association meeting.
Last edited by gavin; 31-05-2012 at 10:50 PM.
Yes it is very rewarding when you graft 20 larvae and get most of them started as queens and even better when you check the apideas and find the queens have emerged successfully. An even bigger kick when you find they have mated and started laying. Plenty of setbacks as well so you have to make the most of it when things are looking good.
queen cells after queen emerged.jpg
Hi guys what are you doing with all these queens you only need one per hive
I just keep stuffing mine in the front door until the hive can't take any more ....
.... naw, requeening the nastier stocks, the swarmier stocks, the less productive stocks, and the less native-looking stocks is my aspiration.
Last edited by gavin; 31-05-2012 at 11:13 PM.
I am putting my spare ones in aviation fuel to manipulate the earth's climate.Hi guys what are you doing with all these queens you only need one per hive
Ha Ha Jon - what a waste. Flog 'em and use the dosh to pay for the aviation fuel - or even the car stuff for that matter!
Got 15 out of 20 due to be put in apidea's on Sunday. Reasonable result, but my earlier ones are varying from mated and laying nicely to crawling around the backyard clearly not at all right - bummer - the bees at the time or have they been spryed or what? Those ones would have been grafted late April just after the convention when admittedly it was somewhat chilly but they hatched out and looked alright. Sigh. No knowing with bees.
Meg
There is a stage in development where the wings are very easily damaged by chilling. There were people tonight who wanted to put cells in their apideas, 3 days before emergence but I think it is better to use rollers and try and move the cells to the apideas about 24 hours before emergence when the queens are fully formed.
Cars are overrated if you can get someone to give you a lift from time to time.
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