Dusty's bees.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Hi Kaz.

I've PM'd you.

Adam is a paramedic. Does night shifts regularly.

No rain here in Greece. Too hot to sleep; 38 degrees tomorrow.....

Dusty

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Adam is a paramedic. Does night shifts regularly.

Dusty

My apologies

 

[Obee1]

No rain here in Greece. Too hot to sleep; 38 degrees tomorrow.....

Dusty

That's God's punishment for going somewhere hot and sunny whilst it pees down on us back here. Looks like thunder and heavy rain all day here in rainy Wales but I have nucs that need checking.

 

[B+.]

Looks like thunder and heavy rain all day here in rainy Wales but I have nucs that need checking.

Not just in Wales: thunder storms in Bedfordshire too. I got soaked but had queens that had emerged and had to go into nucs

 

[Obee1]

Not just in Wales: thunder storms in Bedfordshire too. I got soaked but had queens that had emerged and had to go into nucs

So you get them mated from nucs? What size nucs do you use and how do you introduce the virgins?
Having a few problems getting from virgin in apidea to queen laying in colony!

 

[B+.]

So you get them mated from nucs? What size nucs do you use and how do you introduce the virgins?
Having a few problems getting from virgin in apidea to queen laying in colony!

I use both Apdea and 5-frame Langstroth nucs.
My queen cells emerge in Nicot cages in an incubator and I mark them with numbered plastic disks (opilath plates). Then, they go to the Nuc....if they are to be instrumentally inseminated, they go into Apidea....if they are to be open mated, they go into 5 frame nucs (ideally, I would like 5 frame nucs for II queens too but I just haven't got around to building some with queen excluder entrances on).
Introducing the virgin to the nuc requires patience. If they have been in the Nicot cage for a while, they are slow to leave it (particularly in the nasty weather we had yesterday). You can drop her into some honey so she is sticky or into some tepid water - the purpose of this is to slow her movements down so the bees in the nuc accept her.
Once the queen is mated and producing sealed worker brood (an important confirmation that she is properly mated), I catch the queen (1a) and introduce her under a push-in cage if she has come from an Apidea or just transfer the whole frame if she has come from a 5-frame Nuc. The open mated queens will be used for drone production (1b) the next year so they will come from good tested queens (4a) but unrelated to the mother of the virgins(2a).

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

My apologies

Not at all.

Don't mention it.

D

 

[kazmcc]

Is he a student?

Haha I bet that gave Dusty a giggle.

Reports are back, all is well. It would seem I did all the right things, more by accident than anything else, and we have a brand new queen! Can't wait to see her.

Dusty, have you marked her yet?

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[Dusty Rhodes]

Yes, all is well.

Thank you to Kaz for looking after them.

Sorry you didn't get chance to do more, Kaz, because of the weather.
To compensate, whilst out in Greece I invested in a little enterprise.
I wonder if you would mind babysitting these for me, Kaz?

 

[B+.]

To compensate, whilst out in Greece I invested in a little enterprise.

I hope you've had a fantastic time Dusty.
Please bring some sun back with you

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

I hope you've had a fantastic time Dusty.
Please bring some sun back with you

Sorry. I decided to collect up all the rain that they wanted in Greece, and give it to our pour (geddit?) southerners.

Dusty.

 

[kazmcc]

Yes, all is well.

Thank you to Kaz for looking after them.

Sorry you didn't get chance to do more, Kaz, because of the weather.
To compensate, whilst out in Greece I invested in a little enterprise.
I wonder if you would mind babysitting these for me, Kaz?

:O you are never going on holiday again lol

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