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I am getting ready to make a split using frames from two relatively strong hives using a purchased queen, most likely a Carniolan hybrid. What I have been thinking about is to use a mated or virgin queen?
I can think of pluses and minuses for both and would like to hear your thoughts, here goes...
Mated queen - Positive aspects would include she is ready to start laying and will most likely be accepted by the bees. Whether or not she is a productive queen or not will be seen later. Negatives include that I am in MN and a lot of these queens are coming from much warmer climes, so hardiness is not gauranteed. Another one is cost. While I realize that $25-35 is not all that much, I am on a limited income and have to stretch every dollar my family has, so ...
Virgin queen - I have found one supplier selling them for $10, a bit more reasonable. Other positive traits include the chance for the queen to mate with drones from my survivors, and other local bees, I really like that idea quite a bit. Negatives would include that there is no gaurantee she will successfully mate, and also make it back to the hive. Also, will the bees accept a virgin queen? I have read a few other threads here and it sounds like some folks have had mixed results with virgin queens.
I have successfully done walk away splits, but do not want to loose the time to a completely homemade queen, I just feel that we do not have enough time in MN most years for them to successfully build up their numbers and overwinter. I am still pretty new to all of this and I am just interested in what ya all think. I am not married to either of these ideas yet, but I am going to have to decide what to do pretty soon. Thanks....
I can think of pluses and minuses for both and would like to hear your thoughts, here goes...
Mated queen - Positive aspects would include she is ready to start laying and will most likely be accepted by the bees. Whether or not she is a productive queen or not will be seen later. Negatives include that I am in MN and a lot of these queens are coming from much warmer climes, so hardiness is not gauranteed. Another one is cost. While I realize that $25-35 is not all that much, I am on a limited income and have to stretch every dollar my family has, so ...
Virgin queen - I have found one supplier selling them for $10, a bit more reasonable. Other positive traits include the chance for the queen to mate with drones from my survivors, and other local bees, I really like that idea quite a bit. Negatives would include that there is no gaurantee she will successfully mate, and also make it back to the hive. Also, will the bees accept a virgin queen? I have read a few other threads here and it sounds like some folks have had mixed results with virgin queens.
I have successfully done walk away splits, but do not want to loose the time to a completely homemade queen, I just feel that we do not have enough time in MN most years for them to successfully build up their numbers and overwinter. I am still pretty new to all of this and I am just interested in what ya all think. I am not married to either of these ideas yet, but I am going to have to decide what to do pretty soon. Thanks....