EXPERIMENT NUMBER ONE:
INTRODUCTION:
During the 80’s I experimented with horizontal 2-Queen colonies. My average honey production for a 1-Queen colony which had been re-queened the prior late summer/early fall was about 125# (my beeyard was located adjacent to large wooded areas loaded with nectar producing trees, and my pastures planted in crimson clover/hairy vetch and the nearby roadway easements also planted in clovers and wildflowers). My 2-Queen colonies (2-3) averaged over 300# side by side with the singles that produced about 125#. The problem was that these 2-Queen colonies were hard to work and quickly became precipitously high.
CREDIT:
Before I get started I must give proper credit to www.mdasplitter.com for my experiment idea. I have modified their ideas to fit my local environment, as I do not believe that I can have an adequate drone pool available early enough for queen rearing/mating in order to make his system work for me. During the late winter/early spring our weather patterns are generally wet and often cold which would also inhibit proper queen mating. In order for mdasplitter system to work, I must have laying queens by the first of March. In order to do this, my queen rearing would have to start February 1st or earlier and drone rearing to mate these queens probably would have to start the 1st of January. These parameter limitations would present a problem.
BACKGROUND:
Our major honey flow starts in early April with the crimson clover bloom and ends late May/early June. However, all my bees are located on livestock pastures which are grazed, which delays the crimson bloom period by about two weeks, if the livestock is pulled off the clover in early April. Therefore, for me, I want my colonies to reach maximum production populations beginning the middle of April [as opposed to the beginning of April].
MAJOR OBJECTIVES:
1. Produce 5-7 colonies with massive bee populations by mid April in order to fully utilize our nectar flows. These populations should produce enough extra honey to justify the extra labor and cost ($395.00) of 15 early queens. (Sample 1)
2. Produce 4 colonies of normal strength that have reached maximum normal bee populations by mid April for comparison to the massive bee population colonies. (Sample 2)
3. Produce 4 colonies (nucs) from splits for comparison to sample 1 and 2. (Sample 3)
4. Make maximum amount of splits from sample 1, 2, and 3 (hopefully increase to about 40 nucs) about mid June after our major flow is completed. My hope is that these nucs will build up to sufficient populations to make it through next winter without feeding. (Sample 4)
5. Produce 8 colonies for testing for survivability on small cells without treatments [from Australian Italian queens, which should not have exceptional survivability traits]. (Sample 5)
6. Test survivability of non survivor queens on small cell foundation without treatments.
MINOR OBJECTIVES:
5. Have my sample 1-raise queens from my best genetic queen pool; otherwise I will purchase survivor queens mid May for those which don’t raise queens.
6. Increase my genetic queen pool with my mid June splits.
MEASURE OF SUCCESS:
1. Have my sample 1 produce at least 1 extra medium super of honey to cover queen cost and extra labor.
2. Have my sample 1 produce queens from my best current queen genetics.
3. Have most all of my samples successfully survive without treatments.
4. Have non survivor queens survive on small cell foundations without any treatments.
EXPERIMENT DETAILS:
I currently have 8 colonies all on small cells plastic frames. I currently have 1 BeeWeaver queen, 1 queen from Purvis stock, 1 Zia queen, 1 feral (supercedure) queen, 2 of Michael Bush’s queens, and 2 MH queens (one of which has cordovan coloration). I have made arrangements for the purchase of 20 deep frames of brood [from Darrell Rufer] and 15 Italian queens [Taylor made, Australian Italian queens, from BeeWeaver] the first week in March. Note: beginning the first of December I tried to find available queens from U.S.A. (including Hawaii) for my experiment, but none were available that I found.
By the first week in March my current colonies should have reached maximum brood production, but these colonies will not be at maximum bee populations for another 2-4 weeks or so [based upon my prior experience for my area]. I will use these purchased frames of brood and queens [along with brood from my original colonies] to make splits to about 23 nucs, 8 original queens and 15 Italian queens. For those new queens which might not be accepted, I will try to find replacements from whatever available sources, otherwise I will combine any queenless nucs with queen right nucs.
I currently have eight deep boxes and intend to move all my colonies to mediums this year [except my sample 5 which I will eventually sell] by using double mediums for the purchased deep frames until they can be transferred to medium frames. If everything works as planned, by the middle of April all nucs should reach maximum brood and bee populations. I will make my test samples the middle of April as follows:
a). I will leave the best 4 of my original 8 queens intact (Sample 2) for comparison with sample 1.
b). The other 4 original queens I will reduce to 5 frames of brood with bees (Sample 3).
c). I will make (with the best purchased Australian Italian queens) 8/2-3 frame nucs in my deep boxes (Sample 5), which I will use to test for survivability on small cells, and the other Italian queens will be destroyed.
d.) The rest of the bees and brood I will combine into my massive bee populations (ideally about 24 medium frames of brood) in 5-7 colonies (Sample 1).
The third week of April, I will destroy all queen cells in sample 1, and add frames of eggs/larva from what I consider to be my best original queens. I will allow all of my original colonies to raise a frame of drones [each of my original colonies has a drone frame] in order to maintain genetic diversity. When I make my increase splits mid June [after the major nectar flow] I will order the best available survivor queens to further increase genetic diversity within my apiary.
I would appreciate any suggestions and/or critical analysis. Also, if anyone else would like to contribute with their experiments, for simplicity, label your experiment #2, 3, 4, …etc. and feel free to post here.
INTRODUCTION:
During the 80’s I experimented with horizontal 2-Queen colonies. My average honey production for a 1-Queen colony which had been re-queened the prior late summer/early fall was about 125# (my beeyard was located adjacent to large wooded areas loaded with nectar producing trees, and my pastures planted in crimson clover/hairy vetch and the nearby roadway easements also planted in clovers and wildflowers). My 2-Queen colonies (2-3) averaged over 300# side by side with the singles that produced about 125#. The problem was that these 2-Queen colonies were hard to work and quickly became precipitously high.
CREDIT:
Before I get started I must give proper credit to www.mdasplitter.com for my experiment idea. I have modified their ideas to fit my local environment, as I do not believe that I can have an adequate drone pool available early enough for queen rearing/mating in order to make his system work for me. During the late winter/early spring our weather patterns are generally wet and often cold which would also inhibit proper queen mating. In order for mdasplitter system to work, I must have laying queens by the first of March. In order to do this, my queen rearing would have to start February 1st or earlier and drone rearing to mate these queens probably would have to start the 1st of January. These parameter limitations would present a problem.
BACKGROUND:
Our major honey flow starts in early April with the crimson clover bloom and ends late May/early June. However, all my bees are located on livestock pastures which are grazed, which delays the crimson bloom period by about two weeks, if the livestock is pulled off the clover in early April. Therefore, for me, I want my colonies to reach maximum production populations beginning the middle of April [as opposed to the beginning of April].
MAJOR OBJECTIVES:
1. Produce 5-7 colonies with massive bee populations by mid April in order to fully utilize our nectar flows. These populations should produce enough extra honey to justify the extra labor and cost ($395.00) of 15 early queens. (Sample 1)
2. Produce 4 colonies of normal strength that have reached maximum normal bee populations by mid April for comparison to the massive bee population colonies. (Sample 2)
3. Produce 4 colonies (nucs) from splits for comparison to sample 1 and 2. (Sample 3)
4. Make maximum amount of splits from sample 1, 2, and 3 (hopefully increase to about 40 nucs) about mid June after our major flow is completed. My hope is that these nucs will build up to sufficient populations to make it through next winter without feeding. (Sample 4)
5. Produce 8 colonies for testing for survivability on small cells without treatments [from Australian Italian queens, which should not have exceptional survivability traits]. (Sample 5)
6. Test survivability of non survivor queens on small cell foundation without treatments.
MINOR OBJECTIVES:
5. Have my sample 1-raise queens from my best genetic queen pool; otherwise I will purchase survivor queens mid May for those which don’t raise queens.
6. Increase my genetic queen pool with my mid June splits.
MEASURE OF SUCCESS:
1. Have my sample 1 produce at least 1 extra medium super of honey to cover queen cost and extra labor.
2. Have my sample 1 produce queens from my best current queen genetics.
3. Have most all of my samples successfully survive without treatments.
4. Have non survivor queens survive on small cell foundations without any treatments.
EXPERIMENT DETAILS:
I currently have 8 colonies all on small cells plastic frames. I currently have 1 BeeWeaver queen, 1 queen from Purvis stock, 1 Zia queen, 1 feral (supercedure) queen, 2 of Michael Bush’s queens, and 2 MH queens (one of which has cordovan coloration). I have made arrangements for the purchase of 20 deep frames of brood [from Darrell Rufer] and 15 Italian queens [Taylor made, Australian Italian queens, from BeeWeaver] the first week in March. Note: beginning the first of December I tried to find available queens from U.S.A. (including Hawaii) for my experiment, but none were available that I found.
By the first week in March my current colonies should have reached maximum brood production, but these colonies will not be at maximum bee populations for another 2-4 weeks or so [based upon my prior experience for my area]. I will use these purchased frames of brood and queens [along with brood from my original colonies] to make splits to about 23 nucs, 8 original queens and 15 Italian queens. For those new queens which might not be accepted, I will try to find replacements from whatever available sources, otherwise I will combine any queenless nucs with queen right nucs.
I currently have eight deep boxes and intend to move all my colonies to mediums this year [except my sample 5 which I will eventually sell] by using double mediums for the purchased deep frames until they can be transferred to medium frames. If everything works as planned, by the middle of April all nucs should reach maximum brood and bee populations. I will make my test samples the middle of April as follows:
a). I will leave the best 4 of my original 8 queens intact (Sample 2) for comparison with sample 1.
b). The other 4 original queens I will reduce to 5 frames of brood with bees (Sample 3).
c). I will make (with the best purchased Australian Italian queens) 8/2-3 frame nucs in my deep boxes (Sample 5), which I will use to test for survivability on small cells, and the other Italian queens will be destroyed.
d.) The rest of the bees and brood I will combine into my massive bee populations (ideally about 24 medium frames of brood) in 5-7 colonies (Sample 1).
The third week of April, I will destroy all queen cells in sample 1, and add frames of eggs/larva from what I consider to be my best original queens. I will allow all of my original colonies to raise a frame of drones [each of my original colonies has a drone frame] in order to maintain genetic diversity. When I make my increase splits mid June [after the major nectar flow] I will order the best available survivor queens to further increase genetic diversity within my apiary.
I would appreciate any suggestions and/or critical analysis. Also, if anyone else would like to contribute with their experiments, for simplicity, label your experiment #2, 3, 4, …etc. and feel free to post here.