Bee Breeding

[ainsie]

Hi Rooftops, thanks for the info not heard of placing a sealed q/cell in a queen right colony but will try this next year.Do the bees treat the cell as a supercedure.Many thanks .Ainsie

 

[Poly Hive]

I have said this many times and say it again. with no offence to Mr Bush his climate, management style and bees are very different to ours.

Eastern Europe has very hot summers akin to America so the techniques may well cross over there comfortably.

Raising a queen is indeed easy enough. raising a GOOD queen is another matter.

Given you are just starting out and both limited knowledge and experience I would seriously suggest you buy a queen from one of the well known suppliers in the UK. I point you here to Peter Kemble for instance. KBS

With a bit more experience then have fun grafting and so on but for now one step at a time.

PH

 

[RoofTops]

Ainsie, I think it is an Australian or NZ technique but I know a UK bee farmer who also does this. You can buy purpose made cell protectors, curled wire and plastic but masking tape or foil can also be used.

The protected cell is introduced into an established colony with the old queen still alive and kicking in there. The bees cannot tear down the cell due to the protection but the queen can emerge through the unprotected tip. She kills the old queen and then mates and starts laying. The reported success rate is very high but to have any sort of control over the type of queens produced you need plenty of your own drones in the area.

Dave Cushman, as always, has some words on the method and also describes the introduction of virgin queens directly into queen-right colonies. However, the race of bee may be a signficant factor as another report I found of trials done in South America* showed a near zero success rate for introducing protected queens cells. The Cushman link is: http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/inducedsupercedure.html

*But that report described putting the queen cell at the edge of the brood nest whereas others describe putting it in the middle.

 

[ainsie]

Hi Rooftops, many thanks for the link and explanation.Ainsie