Joseph Clemens
01-09-2010, 10:21 AM
I only raise, at most, a dozen queen cells at a time.
I use a medium depth Nucleus colony made of 1-1/2" thick styrofoam building insulation pieces cut for the bottom, sides, and top. I glue the sides together with hot-melt-glue and fashion a piece of wood which I cut and glue into the tops of the end pieces as a durable frame-rest. The remainder of the inside I cover with aluminum tape, so the bees don't nibble the foam and destroy the Nuc. I place the Nuc on the bottom piece of styrofoam insulation (its bottom board), I use only four frames in the box; two outside frames of honey/pollen and the inner two frames of sealed/emerging brood (which I replace periodically). This leaves room for one to three cell bars (my cell bars are just grooved top bars - or the equivalent), so they hold one row of queen cells each, no multiple layers. After each manipulation I squirt 1.5:1 sugar syrup into most of the empty cells in the outer frames to simulate incoming nectar. I keep fresh pollen substitute patties over the cell bars and use a dish towel to cover the top of the frames, cell-bar(s), and patties, leaving a 1/4" gap on one end to serve as the entrance, then I cover the entire top with another piece of 1-1/2" styrofoam extending over the entrance slot. I place two small stones on either end of the cover to keep a breeze from blowing it off. This Nuc is always jammed full of nurse bees.
I have been continuously raising small batches of queens with this Nuc box beginning April 2009. It has been working very well. But I discovered it is best to keep some open brood in this cell-starter/builder colony, nearly all the time. If there is no other open brood, besides the queen cells, Varroa will attempt to use the queen cells to breed in. My worst scenario was an entire batch of otherwise gorgeous queens, emerging with stunted wings, (probably from mite vectored DWV infections). I don't know if DWV can be transmitted in royal jelly from nurse bees. But this hasn't happened while there was open worker brood in the colony.
Most of my full-size colonies and many of my other Nucs have maintained a few dozen drones each, possibly more. My best source of drones (besides any other wild/domestic colonies in my area), seems to be my twenty-two frame deep horizontal hive. It went into Autumn with about fourteen of the deep frames solid with sealed honey, and two medium supers, also full of honey. Their new queen was continuing to lay a modest brood nest, most of their combs are foundationless (with some areas of drone comb scattered about), and she was also laying drones. Then abruptly she stopped. I became concerned that my most obvious and reliable source of drones might run dry, so checking on them I discovered that they had managed to empty their two medium supers of honey and were starting on the honey in their deep frames, so I gave them some pollen substitute patties and a few quarts of 1.5:1 sugar syrup. Now four weeks later they have brooded up nicely, with six deep frames with the brood nest filling their center areas, including lots and lots of drones.
It is curious, how their queen is Cordovan (entirely a nice golden brown throughout), yet about 2/3 of the drones emerging in this colony are non-cordovan. I wonder if perhaps some of her non-cordovan workers might be laying workers, helping her to produce these non-cordovan drones. This is the first hive, headed by a pure-cordovan queen, where I've seen non-cordovan drones produced by a queen who shouldn't be able to produce any drones other than cordovan ones.
I use a medium depth Nucleus colony made of 1-1/2" thick styrofoam building insulation pieces cut for the bottom, sides, and top. I glue the sides together with hot-melt-glue and fashion a piece of wood which I cut and glue into the tops of the end pieces as a durable frame-rest. The remainder of the inside I cover with aluminum tape, so the bees don't nibble the foam and destroy the Nuc. I place the Nuc on the bottom piece of styrofoam insulation (its bottom board), I use only four frames in the box; two outside frames of honey/pollen and the inner two frames of sealed/emerging brood (which I replace periodically). This leaves room for one to three cell bars (my cell bars are just grooved top bars - or the equivalent), so they hold one row of queen cells each, no multiple layers. After each manipulation I squirt 1.5:1 sugar syrup into most of the empty cells in the outer frames to simulate incoming nectar. I keep fresh pollen substitute patties over the cell bars and use a dish towel to cover the top of the frames, cell-bar(s), and patties, leaving a 1/4" gap on one end to serve as the entrance, then I cover the entire top with another piece of 1-1/2" styrofoam extending over the entrance slot. I place two small stones on either end of the cover to keep a breeze from blowing it off. This Nuc is always jammed full of nurse bees.
I have been continuously raising small batches of queens with this Nuc box beginning April 2009. It has been working very well. But I discovered it is best to keep some open brood in this cell-starter/builder colony, nearly all the time. If there is no other open brood, besides the queen cells, Varroa will attempt to use the queen cells to breed in. My worst scenario was an entire batch of otherwise gorgeous queens, emerging with stunted wings, (probably from mite vectored DWV infections). I don't know if DWV can be transmitted in royal jelly from nurse bees. But this hasn't happened while there was open worker brood in the colony.
Most of my full-size colonies and many of my other Nucs have maintained a few dozen drones each, possibly more. My best source of drones (besides any other wild/domestic colonies in my area), seems to be my twenty-two frame deep horizontal hive. It went into Autumn with about fourteen of the deep frames solid with sealed honey, and two medium supers, also full of honey. Their new queen was continuing to lay a modest brood nest, most of their combs are foundationless (with some areas of drone comb scattered about), and she was also laying drones. Then abruptly she stopped. I became concerned that my most obvious and reliable source of drones might run dry, so checking on them I discovered that they had managed to empty their two medium supers of honey and were starting on the honey in their deep frames, so I gave them some pollen substitute patties and a few quarts of 1.5:1 sugar syrup. Now four weeks later they have brooded up nicely, with six deep frames with the brood nest filling their center areas, including lots and lots of drones.
It is curious, how their queen is Cordovan (entirely a nice golden brown throughout), yet about 2/3 of the drones emerging in this colony are non-cordovan. I wonder if perhaps some of her non-cordovan workers might be laying workers, helping her to produce these non-cordovan drones. This is the first hive, headed by a pure-cordovan queen, where I've seen non-cordovan drones produced by a queen who shouldn't be able to produce any drones other than cordovan ones.