How soon to clip

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Nuc

New Bee
Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
71
Reaction score
0
Location
Peak District
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
3
How soon after starting to lay can I clip and mark a new queen? I have managed to get 3 nucs mated and laying and would like to re queen a large colony with a nuc. I would rather try to find and identify hm prior to combining. Many thanks, nuc
 
I would mark her once the first sealed brood is complete ie check not drone layer.
Clipping I normally carryout in the spring "April" ready for the new season, a new queen should not swarm with what remains of this season.

Colin
 
How soon after starting to lay can I clip and mark a new queen? I have managed to get 3 nucs mated and laying and would like to re queen a large colony with a nuc. I would rather try to find and identify hm prior to combining. Many thanks, nuc

The following spring.
 
Why the following spring? As some new queens when bought have the option of being clipped.
 
Why the following spring? As some new queens when bought have the option of being clipped.

Possible supercedure in the Autumn, as the queen is perceived to be damaged.

A new queen is unlikely to swarm in the remainder of the year she is mated.

The option is available when queens are bought and maybe some will say in their experience it doesn't cause supercedure and it saves them another job. If I have spent good money on a queen I wouldn't want to have her superseded perhaps due to being clipped so leaving her wings in tact reduces that risk.

In spring when the colonies are checked through, my queens are marked and clipped as a matter of routine, some may have been late supercedure anyway.

All IMHO of course.
 
Thanks for the info I have not clipped mine yet, but may consider it next year
 
I was thankful that my queens were clipped as a few colonies between inspection had attempted to swarm, queen was lost but the bees remained.
 
Possible supercedure in the Autumn, as the queen is perceived to be damaged.

A new queen is unlikely to swarm in the remainder of the year she is mated.

The option is available when queens are bought and maybe some will say in their experience it doesn't cause supercedure and it saves them another job. If I have spent good money on a queen I wouldn't want to have her superseded perhaps due to being clipped so leaving her wings in tact reduces that risk.

In spring when the colonies are checked through, my queens are marked and clipped as a matter of routine, some may have been late supercedure anyway.

All IMHO of course.


Totally agree new queen should not swarm.
 
I was thankful that my queens were clipped as a few colonies between inspection had attempted to swarm, queen was lost but the bees remained.

Yes but that won't stop them taking off with the first available virgin, occaisionally they wait until the first virgin hatches anyway before they go, it allows them to set up home and get a first round of eggs laid while the virgin is mated, then old hm gets the chop anyway.
Which is why you may occaisionally see a swarm have a brood gap.
A virgin queen has to feed herself for the first 7 days anyway, the bees wont take any notice of her until she starts giving of pheromones.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top