"Natural" queens from eggs

[Sharkey]

Okay.... a commercial beekeeper I know says that when you put eggs in a hive for the girls to raise a queen, you should go back in about 3 days later and destroy the queen cells they have made and put in another sheet of eggs.

His reasoning was that puts the bees in the "royal jelly producing mode" and the queens will be better than the first batch.

Any comments on this ??

Can I split hives any time besides early spring ??

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It's Not The Destination, It's The Journey. We Cannot Change The Wind, But We CAN Trim The Sails.

[Michael Bush]

I've heard the theory. I've never done it. If they are wanting to raise a queen I don't want to interfere or set them back another three days.

I have heard of destroying any capped cells at four days because the larvae were too old when they started.

Worst case is the queen isn't perfect but they supercede her. In the meantime there is a queen laying while they do that.

Best case is the bees get a queen sooner.

[Terri]

I don't know what your climate is like in that part of Florida, but I suspect that you could do splits quite late and have tham take.

The gent who taught me-in Kansas- did splits in August.

He gave them store-bought queens, and he fed the dickens out of them. In October he took a weak hive and divided the bees between the nucs that he had made. Some of the nucs were a little light on groceries, so he gave them honey from the hive that he had torn down. He says he rarely looses an August split, done that way.

I think, that as long as the bees go into winter with enough bees and enough feed that they will be fine.

[Scot Mc Pherson]

SHarkey,
Where abouts in florida is it that you live? I live in Sarasota FL which is an hours drive south of Tampa Bay.



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Scot Mc Pherson
Foundationless Small Cell Top Bar Hives
BeeWiki: http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/beewiki/

[Sharkey]

Hi Scot,
I live in a very small community called Milligan. It is near Crestview, up in the Northwest Panhandle area. About 25 miles north of Ft. Walton, or about 35 miles east of Pensacola. I work at Eglin AFB as an electronics tech for the 46th Test Wing.

My wife's parent's live in Daytona, which of course is due east of you. hehe

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It's Not The Destination, It's The Journey. We Cannot Change The Wind, But We CAN Trim The Sails.