made my first queens cells and they have hatched. i am so exited everyday i want to go see if they are laying in there nucs yet. before i make this i a daily habbit can you handle them to much.
a very experenced beekeeper told me he never would open a fresh nuc for at least 30 days so the queen gets going without getting killed. the more you disturb them decreases the new queens chance of survival.
I check most of mine nearly every day. I give little credence to the "hands-off" crowd. If you're like me, then your reason for being a beekeeper is so you can observe the intricate workings inside the beehive, whenever. If it were possible to do this too much, then I would likely not have any remaining live honey bees in my care.
By checking in on them you will get experince and learn what you see. I did that a lot the first year of queen breeding, now I mainly leave them alone just because I kind of know what is going on just by keeping track of the weather and counting days. However there might be a difference if they have hatched in the nuc och hatched in a cage and been introduced.
You do have to look at them and learn. Once you have seen and learned..not so much looking. One thing I have had happen while checking a 3 way mating nuc was the bees began balling the new queen in the first section. I was unsuccessful in breaking it up, so closed it and went on to #2...the same thing happened in #2 and also #3. Don't know what it was that day but I lost all 3 queen....another learning experience...if it happens again, I will close them up and go away. There are costs involved with our education....this lesson......tuition was 3 queens.
I have to look at them a lot and never have much of a problem. Reason being I cant remember well! I am like Joe a quick look will not hurt except during robbing season. (dearth)
Conditions, conditions, conditions. Bees can be fickle during the mating process. What you may get by with one year might cause problems the next. In large yards of bees queen mating problems often happen in pockets which has always told me that the whim to kill a virgin can spread from one hive to the next (think Arab Spring). Established beekeeping practice, and one I won't argue with, is to keep hands off during this time frame which would be at least two weeks from the time any cell might hatch.
I read somewhere that if you disturb the colony when they have a new queen. The colony may see the new queen as the cause of the stress and kill her. waiting two weeks until she should be laying was what I have seen recommended. Other than checking back on the queen being released this is also what I read about installing a package.
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