http://www.beesource.com/forums/ en Mon, 20 May 2013 01:00:09 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.beesource.com/forums/images/misc/rss.png http://www.beesource.com/forums/ http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283123-Placement-of-JZBZ-cell-cups-How-many-What-spacing-What-position&goto=newpost Sun, 19 May 2013 17:32:31 GMT I'm interested in the specifics of where you place your cups and how many.

• How do you space your cups on a cell bar? Do you butt them right up against each other, or do you need to have a certain space between them? I have seen both - what are your thoughts?

• Where within the frame, do you place your cell bars, and how many do you use? I have seen two and three? Are the ones at the top favored over lower ones? It seems that I have seen a lot of photos with more cells on the upper bars, but sometimes I've seen lots of cells on three - what is your experience?

• Is there are ration of bees/resources in a cell builder to the number of queens it can produce? How do you know how many grafts a cell builder can handle? Or is it just a trial and error thing?

Thanks,

Adam ]]> Adam Foster Collins http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283123-Placement-of-JZBZ-cell-cups-How-many-What-spacing-What-position http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283068-Small-scale-nuc-amp-queen-production&goto=newpost Sat, 18 May 2013 16:44:38 GMT I have been beekeepig for about five years and grafting queen for two and I was toying wit the idea of building up my apiary this year to try and... I have been beekeepig for about five years and grafting queen for two and I was toying wit the idea of building up my apiary this year to try and sell 20-30 nucs next spring. I would do it without going south to Ga so here in western NC it would be middle of May or June before they were ready, but it appears the demand is out there.

So, does any one have a suggestion as to how big my apiary needs to be and for 20 ish nucs?

Thanks
Devlin ]]> Wildeman http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283068-Small-scale-nuc-amp-queen-production http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283017-Two-Queen-questions&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 19:34:07 GMT Both these hives are in my backyard so I can monitor as often as I want. Hive 1--new queen in a split that got attacked by bull ants out at my... Both these hives are in my backyard so I can monitor as often as I want.

Hive 1--new queen in a split that got attacked by bull ants out at my country apiary. It was a small split, 5 medium frames. By the time I rescued and moved to my back yard they were down to 2 seams of bees. Same happened in another split which went down to about 1 seam of bees and lost the queen so I combined about 5 days ago. Thing is, queen didn't get released for over 2 weeks. She's been out for only 3 days. I checked on them this morning which is the first I knew she was ok. I ended up fully opening the candy plug for her to get out (3 days ago). This morning, saw her and things looked good other than I found an open queen cell with larvae and bees attending it. I took it out.
Do I need to check weekly for any new supercedure cells, or do I let them work it out on their own? It is a Rossman queen, which I've heard are very good queens.

Hive 2--Walk away split from March hive that was overcrowded and one of my best producers with fairly gentle bees. I went through it today and saw queen, but what concerned me was the brood pattern. They are in a 10 frame deep and have 7 drawn frames. Brood on 5 frames but all except one frame were spotty. Only one frame had a nice solid pattern. I'm talking capped brood, I didn't look carefully enough at the open brood pattern which I should have.
With her being pretty young yet, does this mean she is not a strong queen (as she was an emergency queen, best of 5+ queen cells)? Should I consider taking her out and combining, possibly with hive 1? There is plenty of nectar in all the hives right now.

Thanks! ]]> http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283017-Two-Queen-questions http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283011-queen-cells-or-caged-virgin-queens-for-nucs&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:19 GMT I’m attempting to raise my own queens. I made my own wax cups mounted them on a bar attached to a frame. My plan is to cut the queen cells just... I’m attempting to raise my own queens. I made my own wax cups mounted them on a bar attached to a frame. My plan is to cut the queen cells just before they hatch and put them in nucs. I’m not able to mount cages around the cells to protect them from other queens that may hatch early. But I’ve been reading that people put queen cells in an incubator. I have an incubator that would work and have cages that I could put around the queen cells. I’m thinking my cages will work lying down in the incubator and not inside the hive because there is nothing to attach them to. So my question is; is it better to put queen cells in a nuc or a virgin queen in a cage that I hatched in an incubator? ]]> louborges http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283011-queen-cells-or-caged-virgin-queens-for-nucs http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283010-A-frame-of-brood&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 18:28:54 GMT I've read here many times, dealing with a queenless or laying worker hive, the 'frame of brood for 3 weeks' as a solution. Tried that last summer with one hive, didn't work so well, never did get a queen cell. The hive next door, from which I was stealing the brood frames, was just booming. Then I tried something different in mid/late June. When pulling up a frame, hunting for a good frame with brood and eggs, I spotted the queen on one of them. I just moved that whole frame over into the troublesome hive. A week later, it had multiple frames of open larvae, and it did a great job recovering. That got me to wondering about a bunch of questions, and, I'm interested in thoughts from folks with more experience.

a) Why would I want a weak hive to raise a new queen, when the strong hive next door will almost certainly do a better job of it ?

b) I put the frame with the queen, right beside the dwindling nest, with one empty frame of comb between it and the rest of the bees. Within a day they had all moved over, were working on the frame with the queen and some fresh brood, and had virtually abandoned the frames of spotty drone brood. Within a few of days, that empty frame of comb was chocker block full of eggs, with larvae hatching in the center. What did I miss in terms of possible acceptance problems ?

c) After the emergency cells were capped in the strong hive, I stole a couple frames of bees, and a frame with a cell, into a nuc, for insurance. Had I done this right from the start, instead of wasting weeks and multiple brood frames on the drone layer hive, I would have been much farther ahead, and could have used brood frames from the nuc to replenish the other hives? Am I missing something with this logic ?

d) Thru sheer luck / accident, I ended up taking the queen from a very strong hive, a week before the start of our main flow. They packed on 3x as much honey as any of the other hives in the same spot. In hindsight, I got what amounts to the benefits of a cut-down split.

the other caveat to add to this story, every time I stole a frame of brood or bees from the strong hive, I replaced it with a frame of empty comb from the dwindling hive, so, I wasn't robbing them of space to work in the brood nest, just exchanging full for empty. The one time I did check, queen in the strong hive had laid the empty comb full within 3 days of placing the frame.

So, where all this leads, a couple more questions. I know the standard answer here for a queenless hive is 'frame of brood with eggs', but I'm wondering if 'frame with a queen' isn't indeed a better solution, particularily if the donor hive is strong to begin with ? Everything I've read suggests, if the hive is truely queenless, then a laying queen, on comb, has a much better chance of being accepted than a queen in a cage ? Am I mistaken thinking this is the case ? ]]> grozzie2 http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?283010-A-frame-of-brood http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282990-Observation-on-virgins-vs-planted-cells&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 12:46:55 GMT In my recent batch of queens, I took some and planted the cells into the nucs, the other group were allowed to emerge in a queen bank. What I'm seeing (I think) is that the ones that emerged in the bank are larger than those that emerged in the nucs from the planted cells. I really didn't try to separate based on size of the cells - it was more of a random selection. Assuming this is a true observation, which it may not, is it possible that the banked virgins are fed better and as a result are larger. If so, what impact would this have on their development? I suspect that the smaller queens (in the nucs) would have better ability to fly and therefore success in mating?

Has anyone else seen this size difference? ]]> AstroBee http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282990-Observation-on-virgins-vs-planted-cells http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282961-Are-drones-regularly-produced-from-laying-worker-laid-eggs&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 00:31:21 GMT I've been regularly and routinely raising many queens that are homozygous for the cordovan trait. Despite genetics, which says that a queen, homozygous for the recessive cordovan trait can only produce drones that carry the cordovan trait, many, but not all, of these colonies still seem to produce a large number of non-cordovan drones.

I am guessing that these non-cordovan drones are likely being generated by eggs laid by laying workers.

I wonder if any research has been done to prove or disprove this hypothesis. ]]> Joseph Clemens http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282961-Are-drones-regularly-produced-from-laying-worker-laid-eggs http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282958-Jenter-system-question&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 00:05:08 GMT I caged a queen today & expect to loose her tomorrow.

Is there anything wrong with putting this cage in a queenless cell starter until the eggs hatch, then pull cups & attach to bar, & re-insert in cell starter? ]]> lakebilly http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282958-Jenter-system-question http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282956-What-is-the-season-for-grafting-breeding-queens&goto=newpost Thu, 16 May 2013 23:23:21 GMT So I am in nw oregon and I understand that as soo as drones fly you can start to graft/breed queens. How long can you continue? All the way until... So I am in nw oregon and I understand that as soo as drones fly you can start to graft/breed queens. How long can you continue? All the way until they get kicked out in the fall? ]]> Steves1967 http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282956-What-is-the-season-for-grafting-breeding-queens http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282924-Carniolan-breeder-queens&goto=newpost Thu, 16 May 2013 14:47:11 GMT Anyone have any suggestions on where to get a good II Carni breeder queen? I know Strachen sells New World Carni but it says they get there breeders... Anyone have any suggestions on where to get a good II Carni breeder queen? I know Strachen sells New World Carni but it says they get there breeders from Sue Coby. Does she sell to other people?

Thanks, Johnny ]]> Broke-T http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282924-Carniolan-breeder-queens http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282900-Lab-recommendations-for-DNA-testing-California&goto=newpost Thu, 16 May 2013 03:59:16 GMT I'm shopping around for a DNA testing lab that would be willing to perform a long term study on the hybridization of Africanized bee populations in Southern California. The potential study would collect samples from various feral bee colonies in numerous zip codes in the Los Angeles area to determine to what degree AHB's have hybridized their genetics with local populations since introduction in the mid 90's. The aim of the study is to assess the timeline for total integration of Africanized genetics into local populations to the point that Africanized traits are nullified.

This study isn't funded at this point, I'm looking for willing and impartial labs to process material according a collection regimen.

Your suggestions and advice are welcome.

~Tyson ]]> Tyson Kaiser http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282900-Lab-recommendations-for-DNA-testing-California http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282879-1st-Time-grafting-cloake-board-method&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 22:22:59 GMT Got my cloake board on yesterday,today I took all the brood out of the top box,put the metal cover in over the queen excluder and opened the bottom... Got my cloake board on yesterday,today I took all the brood out of the top box,put the metal cover in over the queen excluder and opened the bottom entrance back up. So tomorrow I will be putting my grafts in. This being the first time I have ever grafted I was wondering if anyone had any really good pics of larva that is of the perfect size for grafting? Some pics I could refer back on while grafting would be great. ]]> Mountain Bee http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282879-1st-Time-grafting-cloake-board-method http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282859-Introducing-Virgin-Queens&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 17:26:14 GMT Hello all, I am wondering if you can introduce a virgin queen to a hive without a period of waiting while caged for introduction. Has anyone had... Hello all,
I am wondering if you can introduce a virgin queen to a hive without a period of waiting while caged for introduction. Has anyone had experience with this? Please input. Thanks! ]]> westernbeekeeper http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282859-Introducing-Virgin-Queens http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282847-How-to-remove-Incubator-odor&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 13:30:07 GMT We recently built a cell incubator, we coated the inside with polyurethane, as directed, but it has a strong polyurethane odor, and I am concerned... We recently built a cell incubator, we coated the inside with polyurethane, as directed, but it has a strong polyurethane odor, and I am concerned about putting any cells in it until the odor dissipates. We have run it quite a bit with the heat on, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Does anyone have any suggestions or know if the odor will harm the virgins in the cells, or once they emerge? ]]> Bizykatbird http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282847-How-to-remove-Incubator-odor http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282827-Reuse-JZBZ-cell-cups&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 01:57:05 GMT I've got a pile of used once jzbz cells cups cluttering up my desk. Does anyone ever reuse these cups? If so, what's the procedure? ]]> AstroBee http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?282827-Reuse-JZBZ-cell-cups