So in the spirt of initiating the discussion, I will start.

I am shooting for around 40 Queens, 30 to keep 10 to cull, IMO all cannot be "great" so I plan to lop off the lowest 1/4
most will be E queens as I intend to target some specific hives. In Past these did not swarm.

I will pull the old queen, place in a NUC, let the old hive make some cells, resplit it, with a goal of from 1 hive to 3 hive splits.

I also intent to pursuit some forsed swarm cell making.

Hope everyone's favorite type of queen making goes well.

GG

 

I am shooting to end up with around 60+ new queens. I will try grafting again, because when I tried in the past my starters were not ready/set up correct.
I also plan on doing the same as you,

I will pull the old queen, place in a NUC, let the old hive make some cells, resplit it, with a goal of from 1 hive to 3 hive splits.

Hopping to go into next winter with 100 hives for honey and 50 nuc's to over winter for sale or replacements for dead out's.
I have also ordered 10 virgin Queen's from Cory Stevens to bring in some new blood line's.
I am also thinking about not setting up 30+ swarm traps this year and only set a few close to my apiaries to catch any swarms I might miss.

 

Hoping for a first round of around 10 queens. We’ll be grafting, not so much out of necessity, but more for the experience. If all goes reasonably well on the first round, we’ll do another a month and a half or so later to catch the very end of the flow and aim for 10-15 in that round. Once again with grafting.

 

I plan to raise 6-12 queens. Some using Snelgrove boards, some putting queen cells in nucs perhaps, and then rudimentary grafting. I've never raised any queens, so it will be a learning experience for me

 

I've never raised any queens, so it will be a learning experience for me

It can be addicting.
once you get a few to work, its like sure I can do this.

GG

 

I will be setting a few traps at home. I don't have any hives at home because of the Honey House build. ( woops I haven't updated that thread in a wile)
But I do get a lot of nice dark, calm bees at home when I set out empty buckets. They show up even on 45* mornings. They are feral bees because I live in the nat. forest and there are no bee keepers with in 10 miles of us.

 

Please update your HH build thread. Since you started, I have started on my HH. I will start a thread about it too.

 

Forced swarm cells.
Pretty sure now I can do it in a controlled fashion.
20-ish would be good for my scale.

 

If you can,, kindly post a pic,, of what YOU consider a good queen, and why. (this years queen) or even a bad queen and why.
Some new queen rearing folks perhaps can use some enlightenment.

Outside of an obvious runt queen, most any queen can be good enough.
No particular reason to be obsessed with the size of the queen.

A good queen for me is the one makes thru her first winter and demonstrates good properties.

With good probability some of the fresh queens not even laying that well until the next season.
For me it takes a winter to see the good queens - until then it is just an unknown.

The queen includes the drone material she contains - it may be good drone material OR it could be crappy drone material (thus rendering a beautiful looking, a record layer queen into total crap - OR otherwise).

 

Nothing written in stone yet, but plans at this time are to build my one good hive to 3 boxes or more, leave queen in place in a box of sealed brood, and then equalize and move the other 2 boxes each to a stand of it's own to make a queen each. Build the three hives up and split off each hives queens to a single box around first to second week in August. Then in November first, pinch 3 queens and join every thing back to three hives for over winter. Plans to be modified as needed.

 

Nothing written in stone yet,

same here - plans are for ~150 virgins. Grafting method with starter/finisher. Around Half of them as ripen QC will be taken by my friends - side liners ( 3 of them), rest will be used in my own operation ~ 50 mated laying queens. Rest will be distributed to members of our Club (these in need). More interesingly - this year I will start my adventure with Instrumental Insemination. Plans already made and in progress.

 

@ RayMarler..LOL. You got that right, "nothing written in stone" - its too hard to erase.

Hopefully we'll/they'll make 'enough' queens, but having too many can also be ok. We'll find them a home. We try to shoot for a dozen or so.

Early splits/starts/Nucs from all winter survivors using OTS/Doolittle queen rearing methods that have kept us in bees for a while.

Even one survivor can become many if not too concerned about honey.

 

My plan is Learning............. which I started 2 months ago on Queen rearing.
Bought stuff to do it on.

My, long term goal, is to buy a bunch of pkg bees, split them into small nucs and requeen them. Since most are of Italian strains for pkgs. This all depends on what I buy for a farm this Spring.
I will also be getting Queens from Cory Stevens but I also want Carni and Buckfast strains too.

This Year I hope to make 5+ queens.
I won't cull a live queen, maybe a off cell but not an alive queen. 1- you never know if a few don't come back from mating flights. 2- like Greg said, you won't know for a while. Plus she may serve a purpose and I'll explain at the end why I think that. 3- she could just be a place holder to see how the line you are grafting from is- as in the Median results from your line.

Reason for #2 .... I had 2 tiny nucs go into Winter in Nov 2022 in a double nuc box with a box on top of mostly stores. #1 from a TINY, fit in my hands, swarm & #2 from a Bad nuc I bought. That #2 had a Italian queen with a Poor laying pattern but was laying. The Tiny swarm was just so small that there were not enough bees to warm enough brood to get them going. I gave #1 a frame from #2 and #1 got going but still a nuc size going into Winter. Drought.
I was just in the boxes yesterday because it was almost 50º out. #1 is good and in the bottom box. #2 has an almost tennis ball cluster around the Queen ON the inner cover.
I am bring in #2 inside hopes to get it through the rest of the Winter... why ? Because it is Italian and they do brood well. So I am hoping that maybe last year was a bad year for this queen and the person that made the nuc just gave me spotty frames. Maybe she will lay up come Spring due to full empty frames and I can use that brood .
It's all iffy but I am not loosing out on anything. I have an extra nuc box, extra sugar bricks and even honey comb. It will be inside with the entrance out the window. If she makes it great, if not, Meh... I only have these 2 now so..

 

Great post GG!

This year (after selling some whole colonies) I’m not going to raise any queens but let the girls naturally raise their own new queens via big, beautiful and naturally created swarm cells.

I’ll put a couple drone frames (no foundation) in all and flood the area with drones and swarms. I haven’t pursued this plan before~at least, not intentionally. I’m in reduction mode so if a couple of virgins/newly mated queens don’t return that’ll be just fine. Also, it runs the risk of a colony swarming itself out but then maybe those are not the genetics I want to retain.

This photo I screenshot from a video of one of my queens in the process of laying eggs.

 

If you can,, kindly post a pic,, of what YOU consider a good queen, and why. (this years queen) or even a bad queen and why.
Some new queen rearing folks perhaps can use some enlightenment.
GG

Here's a queen I've thought was close to perfect. Liking the size of her abdomen and the cleft on her thorax.
Her hairy legs are pretty awesome as well...I do love hairy legs.

 

Here's a queen I've thought was close to perfect. Liking the size of her abdomen and the cleft on her thorax.
Her hairy legs are pretty awesome as well...I do love hairy legs.


View attachment 72824

thanks MP
some of us are at the "beginner place" on the trail, and as we look at our new queens, we really cannot know from experience if she is good, bad or excellent.
I recently started (3 years ago) using the side by side NUC set up you show in some of your earlier Utubes.
Thanks BTW for those informative Utubes.
The side by sides are such fun I cannot see me not have a few all the time.

Glad you like this queen "Matilda", Hope your spring goes well.

GG

 

We raise about 1200 queens each summer. 350+ get used for establishing nucleus colonies, 100+ for requeening production colonies, and the rest are sold to beekeepers all over the country. I find I can certainly judge the queens' performance in the first season. Acceptance...345/350 accepted in new nuclei. Performance...Queens mated in late June or early July show the traits I'm looking for in a queen. Large queens, excellent patterns, absence of brood disease...ie. Chalkbrood. The bees don't staple my socks to my ankles. Come spring, wintering success is easily measured. The best nuclei are used to replace deadouts, boost cell builders, make increase, or sell. The nuclei that aren't good enough to use are built up and then split up (old queen is eliminated) into nuclei when new queen are ready for use. The process is repeated, year after year after year.

 

I am co operating with a couple of fellows who are 2 years into beekeeping. We will be playing with the different common methods of no grafting queen rearing and also let them have a go at grafting. I have a couple of new boxes of Dadant Blatt depth frames that I want to populate. Will probably put Snelgrove divison boards into my double deep colonies. They can raise and mate several queens each without interfering too much with honey production.

Last year I brought in some Buckfast queens from Ferguson's Apiaries so I want to spread that genetics around and split those queens off into smaller colonies so they wont wear out as quick. They seem to mix well with my Tibor Szabo's bees. I really value bees that can be worked in short sleaves and a veil.

 

If everything goes well, I will make two, by pinching my 2021 queen and equally splitting her colony. Then two 2023 queens and one 2022 queen will go into the next winter.

 

Sitting at 13 hives currently, and not wanting to go above 16, I will use the same method I hace used the past 2 years. Towards the end of our VERY SHORT flow, in late May/ early June, I will pull queens inti nuc boxes, and allow the hives to requeen while still in the late stages of our pitiful(sc) flow. Old queens can overwinter as a nuc, or go back into a hive that fails to requeen.

 

Virgins

I usually try for about 100 mated queens using my single deep "do all" system

 

You guys and your porn queens!

 

~10 queens to learn Hopkins Method.

 

after culling and selling some, i would like to take 40-50 fresh queens into winter. i will hatch and release more virgins this year, being more picky about them also.

Method is grafting into starter/finisher, likely spacing out grafts 3-4 weeks apart and set up a new builder each time for 3 or 4 rounds. depends on resources available come march and how many overwintered nucs get sold.

i also want to get better at tracking colonies. 1st year overwintered queens are run for honey production, second year for evaluation and brood production for splits, and the few that overwinter three times are grafted from. all the while queens are culled for the ussual reasons. after that third winter i equalize and keep them tight in singles and graft from those that remain strongest without swarm preps. i want to track better exactly how many supers of honey are made from each queen by the time i need to select when they are older. previosly i have just been pinching the losers that didnt keep up. honey average has gone from 50-60 pounds to 2020-103#s, 2021-106#s, and 2022-152#s, so i almost have enough data to say that something is working. oh and i run some saskatraz hybrid drone mother colonies in addition to some drone input from the 2nd overwintered colonies. and after that third winter i never let the grafting queens to make drones.

 

I'm hoping to produce many hundred cells from my almost 3 yr old inseminated Buckfast breeder. I've doubled the number of mating nucs I have for each round of mated queens. and have another Buckfast breeder to arrive summer of this year. Going into my first year with the Penn State EPIQ queen rearing program and hope to be selected for the instrumental insemination training with Sue Coby. Also secured some of Michael Palmers mated queens in 2022 so will be propagating those as well. Can't wait to see how well they do for the drone portion against a Buckfast virgin cross. MP's bees so far are absolute gentle bees that really like our Virginia winters. My preference is grafting into an 8 frame starter-finisher that is always kept going by adding capped/emerging brood so this colony doesn't see any open brood except for the grafted cells. No more than 25 cells at a time. As soon as they are capped, they are moved over to the incubator.

 

Ruthie…. “MP's bees so far are absolute gentle bees that really like our Virginia winters…”

“Last year I brought in some Buckfast queens from Ferguson's Apiaries so I want to spread that genetics around and split those queens off into smaller colonies so they wont wear out as quick. They seem to mix well with my Tibor Szabo's bees. I really value bees that can be worked in short sleaves and a veil.”

[/QUOTE]
A guy in a Club we attended in Norwich went up to Fergusons for queens a few years ago maybe 2014, I bought 3, I think I gave one away, anyway, when they crossed with my bees here very nasty hives were created. I still have one hive with those genetics that I leave to inspect last; they do good with the mites. At that time I was still buying southern packages so not sure of genetics. I stopped buying bees in 2016. Now it’s Mike Palmers queens which I like, hairy legs and all. 🙂 As Ruthie mentioned they winter very well here in the cold Catskills, some with a small cluster which is nice, and gentle and polite believe it or not. I had one for 3+ years.

 

Ruthie…. “MP's bees so far are absolute gentle bees that really like our Virginia winters…”

“Last year I brought in some Buckfast queens from Ferguson's Apiaries so I want to spread that genetics around and split those queens off into smaller colonies so they wont wear out as quick. They seem to mix well with my Tibor Szabo's bees. I really value bees that can be worked in short sleaves and a veil.”

A guy in a Club we attended in Norwich went up to Fergusons for queens a few years ago maybe 2014, I bought 3, I think I gave one away, anyway, when they crossed with my bees here very nasty hives were created. I still have one hive with those genetics that I leave to inspect last; they do good with the mites. At that time I was still buying southern packages so not sure of genetics. I stopped buying bees in 2016. Now it’s Mike Palmers queens which I like, hairy legs and all. 🙂 As Ruthie mentioned they winter very well here in the cold Catskills, some with a small cluster which is nice, and gentle and polite believe it or not. I had one for 3+ years.
[/QUOTE]
My Buckies come from Jason at New River Honeybees. I guess at some point his stock came out of Ferguson or one of the Canadian suppliers, but he's been doing his own insemination with them since the boarder is closed. I've run his since 2016, virgins and now a breeder queen (and another on the way). So far, even into the 4th generation, their personality is still good (very unlike the nasty Texas Buckfast, that give the line a bad name). Univ of Guelph is doing some work with the Buckfast for low varroa growth. I am interested to see how that goes. Jason is also working with his population for better varroa control, so I'm anxious to see how this year's breeder is with the mites. I've also increased the different lines that I have in my yard with Cory Stevens, Michael Palmer and the original pol-line bees, so all of them will be used for the drone side of the equation in different mating yards.

 

@ Ruthiesbees;

I have 4 Buckfast queens from Fergusons and their offspring are mild as can be. I also HAD one Buckfast queen which is an import from a breeder in Italy and her bees were so mean I gave the colony away to a fellow who has aggressive bees anyways. He said she is a teriffic producer and has split her twice! Some other queens from the same shipment are known to be quite mild! I think it might take a fairly large sample size to assess the typical behavior of bees from a given breeder.
In watching some of UOG video I do see them scraping off a few stingers from their arms but do work them with minimal protection.

Long term, I dont know how stable the Buckfasts will be since they are a product of hybridization, at least in their original recipe.

 

.
In watching some of UOG video I do see them scraping off a few stingers from their arms but do work them with minimal protection.

Long term, I dont know how stable the Buckfasts will be since they are a product of hybridization, at least in their original recipe.

I think what happens in UoG is a rouge bee ta kinda happens I all colonies at some point.
But he usually doesn't even wear veil. And if the hive is not gentle they requeen.

I know Beeks in Canada are trying to open he boarder up again to ship out. I'm hoping to get queen from them if it does And Cory's too.

 

I've been looking into OTS method of making queens. Do some of you use that method?

 

I do.

https://www.mdasplitter.com/docs/OTS.pdf

https://www.mdasplitter.com/docs/NucManagement.pdf

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbung_macht_den_Meister

 

Typical year I would be planning to do 50 to 100 queens. 2023 will not be a typical year here, plans include various trips around the province such that my queen rearing schedule just doesn't fit in. Any queens we raise this year will simply be colonies that supercede on their own.

 

I will be doing roughly 50 Fly Back splits starting the last week of February. Will let the parent/queenless hive raise emergency cells. Once capped, I will harvest frames with capped queen cells and place them in individual nucs with supporting bees and frames. I will leave one cell on one frame in the parent/queenless colony. This should leave me with 50 parent/queenless colonies attempting to requeen + 50 split (full sized) colonies with a queen and foragers + roughly 2 dozen nucs. Could have more nucs, but I will run out of equipment by then.

I generally get roughly 70% successful mated, requeened colony.