[marshmasterpat]

Moderators - if this is out of place in this slot please move it. But it is related to bee breeding.

I am curious, if I am interested in introducing some hygience traits into my bees, but do not want to switch to completely HY Queens will this method work. I like my feral mutt hybrid ladies so far.

If I introduce one or two HY queens into my hives early this fall just before or during the goldenrod flow they should start raising brood and drones. Then I was thinking of start culling drones cells hard from my other hives during this period. This would help reduce any mite issues that might be there currently in my hives. It would also add some HY drones to the mating feral swarms in the area as well as increase the chance that any queens I would have at that time might get mated with a HY drone.

Or is this idea really not going to produce anything that seriously helps my situation.

Thanks

 

[drlonzo]

Looking over your proposal here and what i'm seeing that would possibly be a problem is timing. Introduction of the HY Queens so late in the season will probably only get you worker brood. It takes 35 days after the egg is layed to have a viable drone for breeding. Goldenrod starts around Aug to Sep in most areas. Basically speaking by the time a drone would be mature enough to breed, the queens would start slowing down on production. That's not to mention that the queens you may have emerging in that time frame would probably pick the most mature drones they could find.

If I were in your shoes planning to give your girls a boost of HY, I would plan to NOT have any queens breeding this fall that I wanted HY in. Instead, Plan the same action you have in your mind, minus the culling of drone cells this fall. Wait till spring to plan for any new queens having HY in them, and do the culling of drones then from the other hives. If you really plan to give yourself a good boost of HY in your queens, place a DRONE frame in the center of your HY Queen hives in FEB of next year. Move said frame to outside of brood nest after it is capped. This will give you MAX Drone flooding in your area in EARLY Spring.

 

[Michael Bush]

You have healthy feral bees. Why mess that up?

 

[marshmasterpat]

You have healthy feral bees. Why mess that up?

Not sure if they are healthy feral bees. They are feral, but there are a lot of commercial hives moving in and out of this area. Lots more than I realized. So I know we have feral hives existing and swarming but I don't know whether my bees just swarmed from a commercial hive and I found them, or if they are several generations out.

So far they are healthy, but was thinking it might help them. But I see your point. Guess I will let these babies run for a while and see what they do. It is cheaper that way.

P.S. - Regressed 2 hives more or less by accident and the third one is going that way. I love the little bees, but man even though I have never raised bees before, it is shocking seeing the little girls compared to their monster cousins.

 

[Michael Bush]

>it is shocking seeing the little girls compared to their monster cousins.

It is pretty amazing how small they are...