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Is it time to mail order a mated queen?

2K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Oldtimer 
My experience has been that you will run critically low on bees by the time you raise a queen and first brood hatches. First hatch in around 50 days.
When I order a queen. Roughly a week to get her, a few days for her to be released, then sometimes another week for her to start laying.
Overall it will gain you about a week over raising your own. My experience is your home raised queen will probably outperform the bought queen.

When I have this happen( and it happens) ill give them a frame of capped brood every 10 days or so to keep the population up.
If you don't have brood to give them then I adjust their box size down as the population declines. They may be in a nuc by the time brood starts hatching but will usually build up fast.
Woody Roberts
 
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