latest apidea mating

newportbuzz · Aug 27, 2011

hi.
i am fairly new to this so please be tolerant. i have done some grafting more as an experiment than anything else. i have had some sucess and have helped out some freinds in need in the process. so i did my last set of grafts on the 15th and they all hatched this morning in my incubator. so i have made up some strong apideas 3 (8 frame + internal feeder ) and 1 (5 frame + top feeder)
i made them this strong incase the wasps get to be a problem as they have not been very active here yet. it will also hopefully help with overwintering them aswell.
i have made them up with 800mls of bees and 600 mls of bees respectivly from my grafting stock(now gone) i have assumed 100mls of bees per frame.
all are being feed fondant but i hope to get them onto syrup on the next feed.
The bees in my locality are mainly amm (about 16 stocks known about within 3 miles + my 4 at home) and the stocks i grafted from are definatly amm. the queen cells had a good 1 cm of uneatten royal jelly in the base so i am fairly sure the queens are strong and all looked good.
i have seen drone brood still and my hives have still got their drones. i have also seen a few hives superceding lately one on 25th with an open cell.

so finaly to my question
How late have you been fairly sucessfull in mating using apideas?

Also does anyone see anything they would have done diferently other than the lateness?

Hivemaker. · Aug 27, 2011

newportbuzz said:
How late have you been fairly sucessfull in mating using apideas?

Right to the end of september or even early october,that is providing the weather is good,and still plenty of drones around. But that is here in the south.
So pray for some hot,dry,sunny weather in about two weeks time.

newportbuzz · Aug 27, 2011

grand i havnt left it to late so.
thanks i shall sleep well tonight with this knowlege do you think the 8 frames is overkill?

newportbuzz · Aug 27, 2011

can i ask how you mouse proof the apidea doors for overwintering ?

Hivemaker. · Aug 27, 2011

newportbuzz said:
can i ask how you mouse proof the apidea doors for overwintering ?

Queen exclude the entrance would do,but need to make sure it stays clear,but i don't as i keep them on top of 4ft high posts,with a plywood platform which is screwed onto the top of the post,then the mating nuc sits on this,held in place by strong rubber bands cut from old inner tubes,never had any mouse problems doing it this way,had some badger problems though with any that have been on shorter posts.

Nic Rhodes · Aug 27, 2011

I put a rescue Queen in an Apidea the other day, and she started laying much to our surprize!! Obviously not a prime one as they are now going through superceedure on her in the Apidea. I think you are still fine until end of sept / early oct.

beebreeder · Aug 27, 2011

The question is how many of you go into winter with a clipped and marked queen only to find a unclipped and unmarked queen next spring, late autumn supercedure is more common than you would think. At this time of year the bees definitely know best and after all you have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Overwintering small boxes is another challege, we do it and it works as HM says queens get mated late and weather permitting you could have some good queens next spring.

newportbuzz · Sep 24, 2011

just a quick update i went through the apideas yesterday and so far none have mated i reckon they all failed but i will give them another week or two and if one has mated unite the rest with that one. no high hopes here tho.

newportbuzz · Oct 19, 2011

another update so far two of the apidea have eggs one of which is definitly mated the other i am waiting on cell cappings to be sure. the one mated queen went into a freinds hive today to try and save it. so from 5 apidea so far i have one def mated one eggs and 3 nothing yet.

susbees · Oct 19, 2011

We brought the last batch of apideas back here from the remote mating site our group uses (VQs taken up first week August). These were then kept with QEs across until the queens were proven and distributed...not a speedy process. This left two with good sized queens running around which capped as DLQ end of September and second week October. Micro science but interesting.