caged virgins in queenright stock

[betterbee]

what effect if any does hatching and storing queens in a queen right colony ?

 

[Norton]

 

[Suzi Q]

Betterbee, since the experienced Q breeder is still rolling on the floor laughing here is an inexperienced one-queen (hopefully that is) rearer. I believe mated queens can be stored, but not virgins. They need to get out and do the business, other wise they go stale, and will not be fit for purpose.

 

[Mellifera397]

Betterbee, since the experienced Q breeder is still rolling on the floor laughing here is an inexperienced one-queen (hopefully that is) rearer. I believe mated queens can be stored, but not virgins. They need to get out and do the business, other wise they go stale, and will not be fit for purpose.

Yep thats what i've heard. Mate them then put them in a nuc, there is some debateon the effect of 'banking' queens I think. As with most things dave cushman has a page on it.

M

 

[Norton]

If you have a queen right colony where the queen is laying and her pheromones are all over the hive you cannot put other queens in the colony - the bees will kill them whether they are virgins or laying queens. Logical really when you think about it.

 

[Mellifera397]

There is a technique called 'banking' queens. Here's the link.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/queenbanking.html

 

[Finman]

.
Only way is to make a nuc to the queen. A queen cannot be many days in the cage.

Take a frame of emerging bees
make a nuc over a big hive that it get heat from hive. Contstrict the room with dummy board.

continued here

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=23766

 

[Finman]

If you have reared many queens, you have in a hurry to make to them mating nucs.
You cannot store them in cages, even if the the hive is queenless.
Bees start to ball and kill 3 days old virgins in a cage.

It is better to split that rearing hive to nucs and carry them to 3 km distance.

Problem is not only to rear queens. In early summer it is often difficult get enough bees to queen nucs.
And bees are away from bigger hives.


.

 

[Mellifera397]

Dave cushman suggest putting queens in the honey super above the queen excluder, but i've never tried it myself

M

 

[Finman]

There is a technique called 'banking' queens. Here's the link.

Nice word but you cannot not avoid to make nucs.

If you sell queen, you allready know what you do.

 

[Finman]

Dave cushman suggest putting queens in the honey super above the queen excluder, but i've never tried it myself

M

It works if the hive has reared the queens. But they must be taken away in 2 days.

 

[mbc]

It works if the hive has reared the queens. But they must be taken away in 2 days.

its quite common to allow cells in a queenright top box, such as when using a Cloak board, to hatch out into hair roller cages. Its best to leave a smear of honey on the bottom of the cage so the newly hatched virgins can feed themselves immediately as they can be ignored by the bees if left to beg for their first meal.

 

[Finman]

.
Caging virgins is one danger. Sometimes all goes fine and sometimes several queen may die into a cage or just in emerging.

 

[betterbee]

thanks mbc i use a morris board and found caging the queen cells did not give as good results as moving to apidea boxes so was just wondering why the difference in success.Most of the time i try to be courteous and helpful and i am delighted to have provided a moment of myrth to norton ,but mystfied as to what was so funny,thanks all for constructive replies

 

[Philip]

noted post #14 after posting lol

 

[Hombre]

I can understand Norton's mirth. It may not have been too helpful to the OP, but humour is often at the expense of the feelings of others.

He knew that someone would be along to spell it out sooner rather than later.

 

[mbc]

Disaster ! I didnt follow my own advice and neglected to put feed in the cages before the queens hatched. Result; all the hatched virgins looked perfectly formed but were dead in the bottom of the cages. 4 beautiful corpses, oops
All was not lost as the majority of cells had been put out to hatch in their nucs on friday, but it still irks as its a waste of some good looking virgins. Damn being busy all weekend !

 

[bees4u]

Dave cushman suggest putting queens in the honey super above the queen excluder, but i've never tried it myself

M

I've stored queens many times in queen right hives above the q/excluder. I've also used this method for swarm control too, put queen 2nd super up & leave one open q/cell etc. 75% of queens are still alive when a new queen starts to lay below. I forgot a queen once & she was there for 4 weeks. Used her in a nuc and she got laying very quickly.

 

[Norton]

What happens when a virgin emerges from a wild queen cell in a finisher or a virgin emerges early from a graft? The virgin is killed by the workers when she is a few hours old - usually after she has culled all the other cells in the chamber. This indicates that virgins in a queen right hive do not get the best attention, even if they are not killed. Balling and biting through the mesh on the cage. Amputations, poor nutrition etc etc. Hardly the best treatment for a queen.

Maybe the damage is not visible to us, but it is there.

 

[betterbee]

thanks norton ,question answered,,,,thanks