Apidea question

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MJBee

Drone Bee
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
1,812
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Location
Dordogne 24360 France
Hive Type
Commercial
Number of Hives
16 a mix of Commercial, National, 14 x 12, Dadant and a Warre
4 of the 6 queen cells I had in the incubator produced beautiful queens this morning good news.

No apideas ready - bad news. The weather was not good +9c overcast with a moderate breeze, but needs must and I shook two supers of young bees into a box and loaded the apideas with a cup full each. that was at 1430, at 1730 they were roaring and in a total panic so I ran a virgin into each, after 5 minutes they had quietened down so hopefully the queens have been accepted.

I plan to leave them shut in until Wednesday am is this long enough/too long? any advice will be gratefully accepted - my first go with apideas.
:cheers2: Mike
 
This is going to sound critical but...

When one starts queen rearing there is a time table which on day "X" has virgins emerging.

Working to that day "X" in the ideal world in which of course we all live there will be mini nucs ready and waiting for the queens.

I like mine to be stood over night, the following day they get their queen and they stand for a further 48 hours before being set out.

PH
 
Point taken PH. These cells were cut out from a colony that was artificially swarmed. although I cut them out as carefully as possible, knowing how fragile they are at that stage I was not expecting 66% success.

My wrists and ankles (yes they got down my wellies) are reminding me to be better prepared in future.

Back to my original question you say 48 hours my plan makes it about 38 will that do? The weather is garbage for the next few days which doesn't help.:beatdeadhorse5: Mike
 
Should do. Check my tag.

"Bees do nothing......."

PH
 
Should be fine Mike,i leave them in a cool dark place for two sometimes three days,made up 31 mini nuc's on sat, in the rain,they will be going out onto there stands tomorrow evening.
 
Thanks both, I will spread them out round the garden with an obvious feature close by to aid orientation then pray for some decent weather - currently +5C with a bitterly cold northerly wind - most unseasonal.
 
First queen of season in mini nuc appears to of mated,will know more in 7 days time,with regards to if she has mated properly.
 
I put one of my first queen cells into a nuc,3 frames of polished cells and a ton of pollen going in,fingers crossed.

Another nuc had a virgin in on Saturday so she should be out flying soon.

Need to check a couple of apidias soon that I took hatched out queen cells from,never looked at the time (Friday)at the bees,I just took the queen cells/holder out to check them and shut up.
 
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