cool weather mating

[JBJ]

I have read that queens will not mate below 69f, however I have lots of proof that they can mate at lower temps from my own experience. Anyone have observations/experience with cool weather matings and if so what are the temp ranges?
JBJ

[Hillbillynursery]

Well I made a few "early" splits. I normally get a day or 10 above 65 when making these early splits and so far no problems. I think number of drones is your only real concern with flying weather.

[James Burke]

I grafted my first set of queens four days ago. I'm about a month and a half earlier than I've ever been. I too, am hoping on a few nice days for mating flights.

Like Hillbillynursery said, it's the drone factor that may put things in a bind.

I live an a heavily wooded area and I would like to think there are some early drones waiting for a conjugal encounter with the new arrivals. Only time will tell.

The way I figure it, what is there to lose? I could sit around and wish for queens or do something and possibly get some early queens.

In Southern Lower Michigan,

Jim

[Fusion_power]

JB, You could always have someone ship you a few hundred drones. Its not a pretty way to do the job but it is effective.

Fusion

[JBJ]

I have mountains of drones, been feeding protein since december, and a month in the almonds really boosts drone production. I found eggs in mating nucs today, and I dont think we have had any day near 69 since I put the cells out. I read something by Lusby that said dark drones are favored for cool weather.
JBJ

[Fusion_power]

I've read somewhere that the damage from cool weather mating is much more insidious. Queens will often mate but when they do its with just a few drones which does not give enough sperm to last the queen's lifetime. A queen usually flies on 2 or 3 mating flights and mates with about 17 drones total. This varies obviously! If the queen only gets one mating flight in, its reasonable that she will have mated with fewer drones than would normally be expected.

About 10 years ago, I had a colony that superseded in late November. The warmest day we had hit exactly 50 degrees. That queen was an outstanding producer the next year. One thing I do remember is that she was jet black! Whether that makes a difference I don't know. I have also seen queens that failed to mate even in 60 degree weather. At the time, I chalked it up to lack of drones.

I saw the article in ABJ that mentioned you and your operation!

Re the drones, I was referring to Jim Burke's post above.

Fusion

[Michael Bush]

Dee Lusby calls early and late matings "stress" matings but recommends them if you want to get dark bees or cold weather bees. Since the darker bees (and cold climate bees) tend to raise drones earlier and later than the yellower bees (and warm climate bees).

I have not tried it, but if I get the time, I'd like to. I do worry that they may not be well mated enough to last as long, but if they give me some purer blood to breed from it could be helpful to a breeding program.

[JBJ]

Fusion where did your November mating occur? Around here the drones have all gotten the boot after our first hard frost, usually in late October.
I will be keeping a close eye on the brood pattern on these early queens. The queens in the bigger nucs seemed to be very large and had a nice solid brood pattern. We had weather in the mid sixties yesterday, hopefully some queens got some action. Long range forcast calls for lots of rain, with a couple of days in the upper sixties mid week next week, One can only hope...An instramnetal insemination set up would be nice to play with on these wet days. I did take a couple of swarm calls last month, maybe Oregon queens have webbed feet. I guess the bottom line is the bees are getting enough forage to build up and want to cast reproductive swarms, depite recent wet conditions.
JBJ

[Fusion_power]

jbj, I,m in North Alabama. The bees I use are Buckfast which tend to keep just a few drones around even through the middle of the winter. My weather conditions are not normally conducive to mating in November but, as in the instance I described, there are exceptions.

Fusion