Oliverez Queens
I know that Oliverez bought out another queen producer in Hawaii. What will this mean? Can you specifiy where the queens come from?
I hesititate buying queens from Hawaii since they really do not have the mite load that we do here and thought maybe they lack in hygenic behavior.
Any thoughts on this?
California queens I got from them several years back, mite collapsed promptly.
what do you mean Frank?
I got four packages from them in spring 2004, installed them in my jumbo hives. Two built up great, drew out combs and even made a small crop. The other two built up. This picture was taken March 2005, all died out during the winter leaving huge frames solid with honey. I assume from mites.
I ordered 5 NWC Queens from Oliverez this fall, and all five were accepted readily. So far they are doing ok...we will see how they do through the winter. Best wishes to you...
"My child, eat honey, for it is good." (Proverbs 24:13)
odfrank,Originally Posted by odfrank
I got four packages from them in spring 2004, installed them in my jumbo hives. Two built up great, drew out combs and even made a small crop. The other two built up. This picture was taken March 2005, all died out during the winter leaving huge frames solid with honey. I assume from mites.
I'm not saying this to start an argument.
But your first post claimed straight up....mite kill.
Your second post, "assumed" mite kill.
I really think we should all be more careful when judging or making claims against bee breeders.
You don't mention mite levels, counts, treatments used, or anything else. For all we know, it could of been anything. Management, pesticides, etc.
Myself, I have ordered many Olivarez queens. I like the NWC stock. They are one of the few I have found to be on time every year. Its one of the best places to find early queens if you want carni.
Chef,
Their Hawaii operation is totally separate from the California operation. I would not be too concerned about one being fused with the other. The Hawaii operation is a great resource for commercial operators that need mid-winter queens and large numbers of standard stock. The California stock is much better with mite selection and stock that you would be interested with.
Bjorn, your no fun,
Ray's queens are just fine.
BTW, I brokered that HI-CA deal.
Aloha Keith
I have no proof of mite kills. I did not make claim against the breeder, just a comment on the breed.
I have been finding hives empty of bees but full of stores since the mite problem started in the early 90's?. They also always have the telltale sign of scattered dead sealed brood. This proceeds talk of CCD by probably two decades. I definitely have mites, I do not medicate, I keep bees in a residential area and never see total apiary pesticide kills and few pesticide kills at all. I have managed bees the same since 1970.
The bees are in a climate where brooding never stops year round. It is a holiday resort for mites.
These were four Olivarez packages, all in a row, with many other older hives present that did not fade away their first winter. The Strachan queens I bought also faded promptly. Five feet away is an Ontario Buckfast hive now going in it's seventh year, but it will probably not make it through this winter. My feral catches last a few years.
I am not a scientist, I am not a pathologist, I am just an observant experienced beekeeper. In my search for mite resistance I have tried many different kinds of bees, and SC. Promise me mite resisitance and I will try some of your queens.
I do have two ferals that SEEM mite proof. Anyone want to raise queens from them?
Frank: Wehre do you buy your queens from?
Keith: Same question
I havent bought from Strachen but I did visit their operation last year and grafted in the granting room with the crew for a few hours. They showed me their incubator and the queen cells were VERY small.
I bought some packages last year from Ray. They did so so. I might change my managment stratagy for packages in the future. I also put them in a deep and will try putting them in a nuc.
[QUOTE=Chef Isaac;275703]Frank: Wehre do you buy your queens from?
I currently have hives that date back to queens from: Sippy, B Weaver, Davies/Ontario, swarms from these bees, and lots of lured ferals.
I see that I installed BWeaver Allstars on the same day that I installed the Oliveraz bees, and the Weavers did not fade out the first winter.
I stand by my observation that they faded fast, be it mites or something else.
I did not buy any queens this year as I lured in about 20 ferals. I have been buying queens since 1977, and have never been impressed by any commercial California queens. And don't say that I am prejudiced, I am a native Californian.
Chef, I will trade bulk bees for Queens, sell alot of bees to breeders, also will just put in cells.
Keith: do you sell bulk bees? I have a guy about 20 miles away who has a reall real hard time finding bulk bees and always calls for to see if I have them which every year he calls, I do not have enough bees for it.
Would you be interested in selling bulk bees to a couple guys out here?
Are you sure you want a answer to that question?
Key word "bulk"
qeens
This April I got 100 queens from them. Olivarez were very good to do business with. Their queens did good. Some very good others less.
In a large operation it is very difficult to find the quality of queen rearing that you can find in smaller operations. They are forced to mass produce no matter the weather or other conditions. That is the nature of their business, if you want early queens you will get them from good operations like Olivarez. If you are really picky nothing compares with the quality of breading smaller operations can afford to do.
Queen per queen a smaller breeder final product gets mutch more attention and time that the big gays.
We need those big breeders to keep diversity in our operations but the ultimate goal should be the breading of local stack.
Gilman
Well said Gilman
Keith:
Yes, this time I mean bulk.
I'd rather spend the huge amount of time, money for gas for multiple trips, and less that 100 percent win lose score that it costs me to extract a bee tree. I figure I could buy two II queens for what it costs me to get a feral queen, but I figure she is worth three times as much. My success with purchased queens so far has been terable. My swarms and extractions have all done well and have provided the stock for the only survivor hives I had last year. I think we need to go back to some of the old, old bee instruction books and look at some of the advise there, and try to resist the temptation to overcome mother nature. She ain't too bad if you just go along with her a little. Of course I'm too old to think I ever could get rich, and wise enough now to know that beekeeping wouldn't be the way to go, so I have little reason not to pick the slow and steady way.
doug
I've purchased about 400 queens from Ray and Tammy Oliverez. I'm very happy with their stock, I've talked to Ray and very impressed by his business conecpts, I too like the NWC, I like the very dependable service they give and I'm getting next years order in ASAP. Year after year their queens arrive on time while I'm crashing my schedule around other producers we order from.
I have Hives crash from mites and other problems, When this happens I jump in my truck, hustle home, head for the bathroom and take a long hard look in the mirror! Amazingly whenever I do this I can clearly so who is responsible!
Mirror mirror...
Joel:
Nice to see you are still out there. That's the nice thing about mirrors, they never lie.
Jean-Marc
This is not true the major queen producer's in Hawaii all import semen from the mainland, and II their breeder queens. Joe Latshaw, and Sue Coby are some of the people that they get their improvements from. This gives them the best of both world's, they introduce genetics/hygenic behavior traits into their stock, and yet produce queens/drones that have not been exposed to the latest/greatest treatments. I have bought queens from Big Island, Kona, and Hawaiian Queen companies, and have been very pleased with my purchases.
Thank you for the info Pan. I actually do recall Sue mentioning that in her class.
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