BILL.HEARD
House Bee
I'm concerned with the increasing number of threads where beekeepers are trying to make early increase. you can't make good nucs unless you have plenty of material to work with, by that I mean having at least two brood chambers full of brood and a large supply of fertile drones.
There are exceptions but most colonies around here are just about filling 7/8 frames of brood and the first drones have just started to fly, hardly a large drone congregation area yet.
Most of the problems this spring arise from the number of scrub queens that are now starting to fail due to incomplete fertilisation last summer, we will be perpetuating this problem unless we take more care in the rearing and mating of our queens this year.
There are exceptions but most colonies around here are just about filling 7/8 frames of brood and the first drones have just started to fly, hardly a large drone congregation area yet.
Most of the problems this spring arise from the number of scrub queens that are now starting to fail due to incomplete fertilisation last summer, we will be perpetuating this problem unless we take more care in the rearing and mating of our queens this year.