DRUR
11-10-2009, 09:27 AM
I have purchased queens from multiple sources this year and thought I would reflect on these queens. I don't treat with anything except I have used powdered sugar on the one MhygQ colony below.
I purchased 3 Minn. Hygienic queens around first of April. These queens were from a Migratory beek who was preparing to move up north, so I purchased 3 of his breeder queens. I lost one on introduction in a purchased colony which I presume had been africanized (when purchased). A second came up missing so I requeened (I probably accidently killed working bees), and the Third was superceeded. The superceeded queen is doing well, has had my highest varroa counts, but the counts have been reduced since regressing to small cell.
I purchased a BeeWeaver queen to requeen one of the MHyQ above. This queen has been my most productive, no varroa problems so far, I little defensive, but not to much so :thumbsup:. No introduction problems.
Purchased raised queen out of Purvis stock. Darker queen, no varroa problems so far, not the most productive, but fairly gentle.
Purchased 3 Zia queens for making splits end of July. One was killed on introduction, but my fault, I had missed queen cells on a drone frame I didn't check. August was a dearth so these queens didn't start laying until end of August/first of September. Both started out with good patterns, but one faultered and began laying about 50-50% drone worker brood. I originally tried to let them raise there own replacement, but was not successfull. Had a virgin, but she either never got bred or was killed on her mating flight. So, I requeened her in October. The last one has good patterns, fairly gentle bees and seems to have good production.
Purchased 2 of Michael Bush's queens for splits around the middle of September. One has large amounts of brood, excellent patterns and is rapidly expanding more like a typical Italian. The other queen has excellent pattern but maintains a small brood area, appears to be very frugal with honey stores, is increasing in population, but much more slowly. Very gentle. No problems with introduction with any of these queens.:thumbsup:.
Purchased 1 queen from tecumseh a couple of weeks ago to requeen the Zia queen colony which had faultered and was laying 50-50 drones. Tecumseh really helped me out of a bind by providing a queen so late. No problem with introduction, big fat beautiful yellow queen, who is not flighty on the comb who is laying nice pattern so far.:thumbsup:
I purchased 3 Minn. Hygienic queens around first of April. These queens were from a Migratory beek who was preparing to move up north, so I purchased 3 of his breeder queens. I lost one on introduction in a purchased colony which I presume had been africanized (when purchased). A second came up missing so I requeened (I probably accidently killed working bees), and the Third was superceeded. The superceeded queen is doing well, has had my highest varroa counts, but the counts have been reduced since regressing to small cell.
I purchased a BeeWeaver queen to requeen one of the MHyQ above. This queen has been my most productive, no varroa problems so far, I little defensive, but not to much so :thumbsup:. No introduction problems.
Purchased raised queen out of Purvis stock. Darker queen, no varroa problems so far, not the most productive, but fairly gentle.
Purchased 3 Zia queens for making splits end of July. One was killed on introduction, but my fault, I had missed queen cells on a drone frame I didn't check. August was a dearth so these queens didn't start laying until end of August/first of September. Both started out with good patterns, but one faultered and began laying about 50-50% drone worker brood. I originally tried to let them raise there own replacement, but was not successfull. Had a virgin, but she either never got bred or was killed on her mating flight. So, I requeened her in October. The last one has good patterns, fairly gentle bees and seems to have good production.
Purchased 2 of Michael Bush's queens for splits around the middle of September. One has large amounts of brood, excellent patterns and is rapidly expanding more like a typical Italian. The other queen has excellent pattern but maintains a small brood area, appears to be very frugal with honey stores, is increasing in population, but much more slowly. Very gentle. No problems with introduction with any of these queens.:thumbsup:.
Purchased 1 queen from tecumseh a couple of weeks ago to requeen the Zia queen colony which had faultered and was laying 50-50 drones. Tecumseh really helped me out of a bind by providing a queen so late. No problem with introduction, big fat beautiful yellow queen, who is not flighty on the comb who is laying nice pattern so far.:thumbsup: