Lifetime egg supply

[steve1958]

If Queens only go on one mating flight and store the collected sperm inside them ready to fertilise the eggs she lays.
There must be a limit to the amount of eggs she can lay in her lifetime.
So
My question

I have a national on single brood box with capped and uncapped brood on 9 of the 11 frames.
The remaining 2 frames contain mostly pollen.
There is no sign (at present) of the bees making Queen cells.

Is it better for me to give the Queen more space (Adding a half brood box), so she can continue to lay more.
Or to restrict her laying by not adding space, thus extending her laying lifespan.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Give her more room. Add a whole brood box not a half.
If you restrict her the bees will probably swarm.

 

[fian]

Have you placed any super on top of the breeding nest?
Do you use queen excluder?

 

[steve1958]

Have you placed any super on top of the breeding nest?
Do you use queen excluder?

Yes, currently queen excluder then 3 supers of drawn foundation which does contain some stores.

 

[simonwig]

As a point of interest, the Queen goes on more than one mating flight, from one of David Evans many great blogs, the typical Queen will make between one and sixteen mating flights (average 5), and mate with an average of 50 drones.

To answer your question, if you want to prolong the life of your Queen, as in to use her as a breeder, you can keep removing brood so in effect she hasn't the resources in the hive to lay to capacity, and therefore prolong her laying life.

But, assuming she is 'just' a Queen for bees and honey, then as per Dani, give her space and let her lay to capacity, add another brood box.

Simon

 

[jarmo henttu]

If Queens only go on one mating flight and store the collected sperm inside them ready to fertilise the eggs she lays.
There must be a limit to the amount of eggs she can lay in her lifetime.
So
My question

I have a national on single brood box with capped and uncapped brood on 9 of the 11 frames.
The remaining 2 frames contain mostly pollen.
There is no sign (at present) of the bees making Queen cells.

Is it better for me to give the Queen more space (Adding a half brood box), so she can continue to lay more.
Or to restrict her laying by not adding space, thus extending her laying lifespan.

A gueen makes several mating flights. It needs 1-3 good days to visit to drone swarm.

Let the queen lay so much as it can. Then for August you may limit its laying.

The queen has its limits. Keep the queen 2 productive years and then change it

 

[fian]

A gueen makes several mating flights. It needs 1-3 good days to visit to drone swarm.

Let the queen lay so much as it can. Then for August you may limit its laying.

The queen has its limits. Keep the queen 2 productive years and then change it

There is some debate in the scientific community about whether the queen is plenipotentiary (there is no laying limit) or she is supervised (it is the workers who establish the laying space based on resources).

 

[fian]

Yes, currently queen excluder then 3 supers of drawn foundation which does contain some stores.

A quick fix would be
Move the queen excluder upwards so that the two supers with the fullest squares are at the top and in August move the excluder back to its current position. If in the super that you have left as an extension of the nest you see brood or pollen, you can place it below the brood nest.

 

[jarmo henttu]

There is some debate in the scientific community about whether the queen is plenipotentiary (there is no laying limit) or she is supervised (it is the workers who establish the laying space based on resources).

World is full on " some debates".
The queen of couse has laying limit.
If the queen lays 1,5 Langstroth boxes, is very good.
That is my opinion after 60 years beekeeping.

If you do not select your queens, most of them lay only one box.

If the hive has 9 langstroth boxes in main yield, it is good. And the hive can have 170 kg honey.

My friend had 12 langstroth boxes but he found 2 laying queens from the hive.

 

[fian]

World is full on " some debates".
The queen of couse has laying limit.
If the queen lays 1,5 Langstroth boxes, is very good.
That is my opinion after 60 years beekeeping.

If you do not select your queens, most of them lay only one box.

If the hive has 9 langstroth boxes in main yield, it is good. And the hive can have 170 kg honey.

My friend had 12 langstroth boxes but he found 2 laying queens from the hive.

The values it provides are not new, Farrar (one of the first entomologists to apply scientific analysis on beekeeping) spoke about all of them. Farrar speaks of maximum laying rates of around 1600, which are much lower than the current ones considered, but in his management he already has towers of 11 boxes with double queens.
When we say that a nest occupies 1.5 Lansgtroth boxes we must understand that not all combs are full of brood since there must be space for pollen and nectar necessary to feed the larvae.
On the other hand, it is evident that more laying does not mean more honey and it is better to invest in healthy and long-lived bees.
Finally, if you have regularly observed hives, it is easy to see that if there is no queen, the workers close the brood nest with honey or pollen from the sides to the middle, or that it is the workers who move the larvae to the cups/cells to raise a new queen, not to mention the famous honey barrier cleverly broken to minimize swarming through a checkerboard arrangement of the brood nest.

 

[jarmo henttu]

On the other hand, it is evident that more laying does not mean more honey and it is better to invest in healthy and long-lived bees.
Finally, if you have regularly observed hives, it is easy to see that if there is no queen,

So Fian, you say that I have sick and short living bees and I have lethal bee nursing methods.

I measure my succes with big yields.
What are our average honey yields, that I know with whom I am debating?

good queens, big hives, good pastures.
This my advice to all beekeepers.

 

[jarmo henttu]

Is it better for me to give the Queen more space

I have given to queens so much space as they can use.

I use 3 Langstroth boxes for brood and no excluder.

The lowest box will be filled with pollen.
That helps that no pollen will be stored into honey boxes.

Many professional beekeeper in Finland have such method that they put an excluder into hives at the beginning of July. Until that queens lay as much as they can. In August queens lay winterbees and the hives will be fer with winter sugar.

 

[fian]

So Fian, you say that I have sick and short living bees and I have lethal bee nursing methods.

I measure my succes with big yields.
What are our average honey yields, that I know with whom I am debating?

good queens, big hives, good pastures.
This my advice to all beekeepers.

I didn't say that you have sick and short-lived bees. You yourself admit that of your 3 drawers, only one contains brood (pollen below and honey above for wintering). It is curious but the bees are adapted to a fixed space which in your case and due to the external conditions in Finland are 3 Lansgtroth boxes.

 

[jarmo henttu]

I didn't say that you have sick and short-lived bees. You yourself admit that of your 3 drawers, only one contains brood (pollen below and honey above for wintering). It is curious but the bees are adapted to a fixed space which in your case and due to the external conditions in Finland are 3 Lansgtroth boxes.

I told that my hives have 8 boxes.
3 for brood and 5 honey boxes.
I am not Finland. I do what I do.

Seemingly everything what I try to say, do not go into your skull.

I cannot talk with you. A huge gap between us. Perhaps you have nursed bees 5 years. So odd are your opinions.

One thing more. I do not breed bees or queens. I buy from professionals mother queens and multiply them for my needs.

 

[jarmo henttu]

Now I understand why we do not understand each other with Fian. Espana