[Michael Palmer]

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

That would be "Martha". 😂

 

[msl]

Virgins

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

 

[crofter]

You guys and your porn queens!

 

[jtgoral]

~10 queens to learn Hopkins Method.

 

[AR1]

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.
GG

Pretty much this. I have 2 hives alive now. Assuming survival, both will be split in May with the queens going into 5-frame nucs. Queen cells resulting will be evenly split to make more nucs. I have taken this too far in the past and ended up with too many, too small colonies, so don't want to get excessive with splits. But, thoughts may change.

 

[COAL REAPER]

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.

 

[StefanS]

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.

 

[ruthiesbees]

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.

 

[Cloverdale]

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.

 

[ruthiesbees]

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.

 

[jtgoral]

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.

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.

I missed your answer to the subject's question. Did you miss it too?

 

[ruthiesbees]

I missed your answer to the subject's question. Did you miss it too?

Jtgoral, are you asking me? My answer to the OP is post #28

 

[crofter]

@ 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.

 

[Tigger19687]

.
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.

 

[grozzie2]

Here's a queen I've thought was close to perfect. Liking the size of her abdomen and the cleft on her thorax.

Just a wild guess, her name is Martha.....

edit....

Ooops, I see you already posted that before I clicked 'reply'.

 

[Knoxville1]

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

 

[grozzie2]

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.

 

[jtgoral]

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

 

[psm1212]

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.

 

[psm1212]

That would be "Martha". 😂

Never gets old!