at last!

[birdsandbees]

having been a bit out of action recently due to an Operation I finally managed to get some grafts done from one of my new amm queens.

I did 20 got ten initially accepted but sadly one fell off, still, nine nice looking cells were taken off at the weekend, just got to wait and see now how many emerge and mate.
looking forward to next season when it will be full steam ahead with most colonies having at least an F1 open mated for Drones and queens from a different one of the F0's

 

[Eyeman]

Been an excellent season so far for queen mating- 30 apideas and 29 mated so far.

 

[birdsandbees]

Been an excellent season so far for queen mating- 30 apideas and 29 mated so far.

certainly had good weather for it, I've had a few abscond from the mating Nucs, stupid things! those that didn't have all mated and been laying within a couple of weeks.
if the weather holds a bit longer hopefully these ones will be good too, especially as they are for my amm project.

 

[masterBK]

Ditto. Only got 5 laying queens from 15 Apidea (Most years in the past would have got at least 12). So not a good year to use Apideas in my case. With the sweltering weather these last few weeks I think they overheated (they were bearding even with just a cup full of bees) and didn't look after the cells (several queens had died within their cells) or absconded with the queen once she emerged. They werre sited in the shade but temps hit 30 C several days in a row. However got 14 laying queens from 15 standard frame nuclei during the same time frame so maybe they were better able to control the temperature within the hive better (Assuming that was the problem with the mini nucs)

 

[Stiffy]

Ditto. Only got 5 laying queens from 15 Apidea (Most years in the past would have got at least 12). So not a good year to use Apideas in my case. With the sweltering weather these last few weeks I think they overheated (they were bearding even with just a cup full of bees) and didn't look after the cells (several queens had died within their cells) or absconded with the queen once she emerged. They werre sited in the shade but temps hit 30 C several days in a row. However got 14 laying queens from 15 standard frame nuclei during the same time frame so maybe they were better able to control the temperature within the hive better (Assuming that was the problem with the mini nucs)

I've had rotten results so far this year, first batch were badly mated and I scrapped them all bar 1. Second lot failed to mate at all, very unusual and I can only think the weather has been too hot. Going to try a 3rd batch in next couple of weeks to give me some queens to over winter, hopefully have better luck.
Cracking crop of honey though, so always a silver lining
S

 

[birdsandbees]

And the first AMm Princess makes an appearance

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rgvgbkdylfdp25p/AAAVNCS0CHnUcnrtJ6pYFnE-a?dl=0

 

[Walrus]

And the first AMm Princess makes an appearance

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rgvgbkdylfdp25p/AAAVNCS0CHnUcnrtJ6pYFnE-a?dl=0

she looks lovely

 

[birdsandbees]

she looks lovely

thanks! fantastically dark isn't she, I hope her sisters all make it, though I must admit finding jet black queens in among dark workers and drones is hard work, I shall be using numbered fluorescent marking discs on them from now on.

 

[Swarm]

Now she is lovely! First of many
My mate uses the discs on L'Oreal queens (ones who are worth it) he says they are much easier to see.

 

[Beefriendly]

And the first AMm Princess makes an appearance

Nice one. Good looking princess there.