Dr.P Stoffen queens

[piggy]

I would be very interested in the experiences of anyone that has purchased these German queens. Thanks in advance.

 

[BMH]

I had one of their selected breeder queens delivered on Saturday.

Took a while arrive.

First one ended up in France?

Apart from the the delivery issues, I hear they have a good reputation

I would also be interested in hearing anybody else's personal experiences on temperament, prolificacy, disease resistance etc

 

[B+.]

I would be very interested in the experiences of anyone that has purchased these German queens. Thanks in advance.

It was actually Peter Stofens Buckfasts that I used in a side-by-side test some years ago. There was 5 sisters in each group on adjacent stands. There was a Buckfast group, a island mated carnica group (Neuwerk) and a mountain mated carnica group (Torfhaus).
One of the Buckfasts was exceptional (until it swarmed) but the other 4 were no better than either the mountain-mated or island mated carnica. Comparing the carnica groups, the island-mated group were more consistently well-behaved.
The lesson I learned from this comparison was that you can get an occasional dazzler that is very impressive....but...you have to put a LOT more management time into it. If you only have a handful of colonies, it might be worth taking a punt with Buckfast but, if you have any number of colonies to look after, there aren't enough hours in the day (ie. you have to manage each hive as an individual and can't manage at the apiary level). They are just too inconsistent!

 

[Beefriendly]

I They are just too inconsistent!

If your carnica where all consistent how would you ever know which ones to breed?

Regarding Stoffen queens I've had his station and open mated. All have been very good, but I would say the batches we had were not as calm as some of the other breeders, not nasty or aggressive but a bit more pro-active. Plenty of honey, all colonies producing upwards of 140lB+ per hive, the best over 200lbs...a nice inconsistency to have LOL.

 

[SDM]

4 is a rather small snapshot, but even if we take it as indicative, I find it a strange to criticise them by saying 75% are as good as the best Carnica and 25% are better( eventually swarming aside).

 

[Jimmy]

If your carnica where all consistent how would you ever know which ones to breed?

Regarding Stoffen queens I've had his station and open mated. All have been very good, but I would say the batches we had were not as calm as some of the other breeders, not nasty or aggressive but a bit more pro-active. Plenty of honey, all colonies producing upwards of 140lB+ per hive, the best over 200lbs...a nice inconsistency to have LOL.

Which other breeders have you compared them to?
Not tried any direct from overseas but have had buckfasts from (in performance order) Ged Marshall, BS Honeybees and Denrosa Apiaries.
Cost of a minimum order 3 Peter Stöfen economy queens + P&P works out very similar to Ged Marshall.

 

[Beefriendly]

Which other breeders have you compared them to?.

Several over the years. Some suppliers have provided very poor queens compared to proper breeders like Peter. Keld and HM etc. That is not to say they weren't bad queens, they wiped the floor in comparison to the local mongrels in my area, but queens from decent breeders are in a different league.
Buying queens you will always get a few under-performers so I bear this in mind as well, one mediocre queen does not a bad breeder make. All mediocre. and I don't go back....that is most of the wholesale merchants. Ged uses Keld's queens (or he did) so not surprised they are good. These are what I use for most of my queen rearing but now have some F1's of Peters that are bursting out oif their nuc's so they look promising.
I think the Denrosa queens, of which I hear good things, are mainly Carniolan. But I've had too many bad experiences with Carnies in the past so not really bothered to try them again. But I am looking for a reputable Italian queen breeder as I'd like to compare them with what I currently use.

 

[Jimmy]

Thanks BF.

Murray McGregor/Denrosa sells Italian sourced buckfasts alongside his carniolan (IIRC) derived Jolanta line of queens. I've tried both, would happily have both again in preference to locals.

 

[BMH]

Well my breeder queen turned up on saturday (first one was lost in france) and she looked very weary with 3 dead attendants.

I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt and placed her in her sealed cage into a hopelessly queen less nuc on Saturday morning.

Went to pop the cage on Monday and she was dead! How annoying is that!

They understandably wont send a third and are refunding the purchase but it means I'm stuck for rearing from a breeder queen this year! So frustrating

Does anybody know of any UK F0 Breeder queens available for sale? Happy to consider any races!

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

 

[madasafish]

Well my breeder queen turned up on saturday (first one was lost in france) and she looked very weary with 3 dead attendants.

I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt and placed her in her sealed cage into a hopelessly queen less nuc on Saturday morning.

Went to pop the cage on Monday and she was dead! How annoying is that!

They understandably wont send a third and are refunding the purchase but it means I'm stuck for rearing from a breeder queen this year! So frustrating

Does anybody know of any UK F0 Breeder queens available for sale? Happy to consider any races!

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Hivemaker sells them..Exmoor bees

 

[BMH]

Hivemaker sells them..Exmoor bees

Thanks

I'll take a look

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[B+.]

If your carnica where all consistent how would you ever know which ones to breed?
.

I use the breeding values as a guide but there will usually be a little variation between full-sib groups. The variation in the group I tested from Freidrichskoog was far beyond that (one had almost twice the number of boxes that the others had). That one colony needed more of my time than all the others combined.

 

[B+.]

4 is a rather small snapshot, but even if we take it as indicative, I find it a strange to criticise them by saying 75% are as good as the best Carnica and 25% are better( eventually swarming aside).

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. There were 15 colonies in total - 3 groups of 5.
That one is what Prof Ruttner called a "blinder". It is very impressive but is a statistical outlier.
As you increase the number of colonies you keep, the thing you look for is uniformity. Otherwise, you have to cater individually for every single colony and the management input (costs) sky-rocket.That way, when one colony needs an extra super, they all will.

 

[MartinL]

Surely we should be considering the full package here?

If the infrastructure can't get a fresh & healthy Queen delivered then it makes no difference what level quality was when dispatched or what the productivity of "a good one" might be when there's only a slim chance of actually getting it on time?????

Eastern Europe can get theirs to my door on time, (@18 hours). All very well packed, live & ready to go.
Any lesser service must affect longer term health & efficiency.

Beekeeping is my hobby, a hobby that I do in my spare time.
Limited-spare time that does not readily allow for time slips where dodgy couriers put everything back a couple of days here & there.

 

[Repwoc]

Well my breeder queen turned up on saturday (first one was lost in france) and she looked very weary with 3 dead attendants.

I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt and placed her in her sealed cage into a hopelessly queen less nuc on Saturday morning.

Went to pop the cage on Monday and she was dead! How annoying is that!

They understandably wont send a third and are refunding the purchase but it means I'm stuck for rearing from a breeder queen this year! So frustrating

Does anybody know of any UK F0 Breeder queens available for sale? Happy to consider any races!

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

My Peter Stofen queen also arrived on Saturday after spending 5 days in the post - 3 days between Germany and UK apparently. She and all attendants were alive and very active. I placed her into a nuc on Saturday evening with the plastic cap still intact on the cage. I removed the cap on Sunday. Will check if she is released this evening after work.

 

[mbc]

My Peter Stofen queen also arrived on Saturday after spending 5 days in the post - 3 days between Germany and UK apparently. She and all attendants were alive and very active. I placed her into a nuc on Saturday evening with the plastic cap still intact on the cage. I removed the cap on Sunday. Will check if she is released this evening after work.

I like to leave a colony a minimum of four or five days after they've released the queen, common wisdom suggests any earlier cam result in them rejecting their new queen, is this a myth in any of your experience?

 

[B+.]

I like to leave a colony a minimum of four or five days after they've released the queen, common wisdom suggests any earlier cam result in them rejecting their new queen, is this a myth in any of your experience?

IMHO it depends on what they have to replace her with.
If you make the receiving nuc with brood in all stages, they have the means to replace her. If you make the nuc with brood that has been above a queen excluder for 9 or 10 days, they have no open brood so can't replace her. This is how I make all my nucs.

 

[Repwoc]

Surely we should be considering the full package here?

If the infrastructure can't get a fresh & healthy Queen delivered then it makes no difference what level quality was when dispatched or what the productivity of "a good one" might be when there's only a slim chance of actually getting it on time?????

Eastern Europe can get theirs to my door on time, (@18 hours). All very well packed, live & ready to go.
Any lesser service must affect longer term health & efficiency.

Beekeeping is my hobby, a hobby that I do in my spare time.
Limited-spare time that does not readily allow for time slips where dodgy couriers put everything back a couple of days here & there.

Peter Stofen claims that DHL Express and other couriers won't accept live animals including bees any more, which concurs with DHL's terms on their UK website. I know other queen suppliers use / have used DHL; maybe DHL in Germany stick more closely to their rules.

 

[B+.]

Peter Stofen claims that DHL Express and other couriers won't accept live animals including bees any more, which concurs with DHL's terms on their UK website. I know other queen suppliers use / have used DHL; maybe DHL in Germany stick more closely to their rules.

Except I received 2 queens from Germany last week. DHL do accept honeybee shipments from Germany to the UK (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-dgUK9XYAAPFYl.jpg:large ). This was using the overnight service that costs an extra 50 euros though.

 

[BMH]

Surely we should be considering the full package here?

If the infrastructure can't get a fresh & healthy Queen delivered then it makes no difference what level quality was when dispatched or what the productivity of "a good one" might be when there's only a slim chance of actually getting it on time?????

Eastern Europe can get theirs to my door on time, (@18 hours). All very well packed, live & ready to go.
Any lesser service must affect longer term health & efficiency.

Beekeeping is my hobby, a hobby that I do in my spare time.
Limited-spare time that does not readily allow for time slips where dodgy couriers put everything back a couple of days here & there.

Not sure this is indicative of their normal service.

Others seem to have got their queens with no issues.