[burns375]

Hi Everyone,

Swarm cells I moved into nucs started to hatch today, looks like some of the cells were ended. 2 queens are very nice super happy, hope they mate well. However in one nuc the queen is a bit smaller than i'de like, the smallest i've seen thus far. The nurse bees do pay attention to her. There are still 2 more cells in the small queen nuc that have not hatched and are not ended ,nurses are licking the cells and the bottoms are thining. Probably will hatch tonight.

Im wondering what you guys would do. I went ahead and put her in a small mating nuc and seperated out the remaining swarm cells to hatch. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, but the queen looks very similar to the one is fatbee mans video, perhaps a bit smaller. Suprising how I even saw here, sneaky little beast.

http://youtu.be/jWjSbj_OKkY

 

[Slow Drone]

I'm don't worry about size only performance.I'll give them all a chance to prove themselves first.I've seen small queens that gained size after mating and laying which is normal.It seems to me the smaller ones are mated more successfully.Unless there is an obvious defect give her a chance.That's what I do.Some would cull her but in beekeeping everyone has their own methods and ideas sometimes it works sometimes you learn from the experience win win situation in my world.

 

[Oldtimer]

Agree. Now you've done all the separating etc just wait & see how it pans out, sometimes small queens can surprise.

 

[burns375]

thanks guys! we'll see how she does.

I don't think my grafts made it thru the cold weather. They had copius amounts of jelly during the first few days. Then a cold snap hit when the cells were to be capped, lows below freezing for 2 days and high one day of 45. They're on day 6 from graft and I don't see any pupae or jelly when looking thru the JZBZ cells. The girls are still clusted on the cells, but I think they are all dead larva in the bottom ;-<. Heading out this morning to do round 2.