Mating of queens??

[Tdod]

Hi my question is this, I have a colony on double brood that I am going to split when the time is right and the bees are ready, and make some nucs with queen cells, I am going to remove the queen and put her in a nuc so the main colony make the cells then share them out into the new nucs..
Just wondering I live in a town and I know of other beekeepers in the area so there are drones from other colonys in the area, if I move my nucs with the queen cells to my new out apiary where I am unsure there are any other colonys in the area as it is more remote would there possibly be a problem with No drones to mate with or do bees fly quite a way to mate.
many thanks and look forward to your input.

 

[Heather]

Drones will congregate together from quite a wide area. And you may be surprised how many other bee keepers in your area. Don't worry. She will be fine.

 

[alanf]

Register the apiary in the NBU Beebase. There you can check the number of registered apiaries within 10 km.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes....you will be surprised how many there are

 

[oliver90owner]

At this time of the year your problem is not drones. It is getting the queen mated fully. It should now be reasonably certain that she will get mated, but if she needs to fly over two days and the weather turns cool, tough. She will only last as long as the initial sperm load.

You are far better inducing supercedure cells by demaree than them creating emergency cells. Fewer will mean better and with your queen cells being produced over a longer period (if you only require a small number) will spread the risk of poorly mated queens.

Remember, the house bees not only have to draw those many emergency cells in a rush, but also need to continue to feed umpteen worker larvae as well. As some on here will claim the queens are just as good as supercedure, you need to decide whether you wish to risk later supercedure (due to incomplete mating) and/or smaller queens.

Give them the best chance and demaree for good queen cells is my advice. Think quality. You don't want them all lower quality than you can achieve by doing it the 'easiest' way. Yes, think quality.

RAB

 

[Amari]

At this time of the year your problem is not drones. It is getting the queen mated fully. It should now be reasonably certain that she will get mated, but if she needs to fly over two days and the weather turns cool, tough. She will only last as long as the initial sperm load.

You are far better inducing supercedure cells by demaree than them creating emergency cells. Fewer will mean better and with your queen cells being produced over a longer period (if you only require a small number) will spread the risk of poorly mated queens.

Remember, the house bees not only have to draw those many emergency cells in a rush, but also need to continue to feed umpteen worker larvae as well. As some on here will claim the queens are just as good as supercedure, you need to decide whether you wish to risk later supercedure (due to incomplete mating) and/or smaller queens.

Give them the best chance and demaree for good queen cells is my advice. Think quality. You don't want them all lower quality than you can achieve by doing it the 'easiest' way. Yes, think quality.

RAB

Grateful if you could explain further for the slow-witted like me. I assume you put Queen on one frame of BIAS in bottom bb with foundation/drawn comb, QEx, supers, then old bb with all the brood on top. Is there a division board under the top bb? I assume the supercedure cells are built in the top bb. Why are these supercedure cells rather than emergency cells?
Thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

Generally a simple Q/E under the top box, unless a new queen is to be fully developed as a separate colony while that box remains on top.

They are developed as supercedure cells for the simple reason that there is still a queen in the colony. It really is that simple. They don't need to develop lots of cells like in an emergency situation (with no queen). The reason they draw supercedure cells is because the brood has been removed from the area where queen pheromones, which normally block supercedure impulses, are concentrated, indicating to those bees at the top of the hive that the queen is old and likely to fail. Hence an apparent orderly move from old queen to a replacement.

Hope that helps.

 

[Amari]

Yes, thanks

 

[beeno]

Am I missing something? Surely, they will still be emergency cells albeit good quality emergency cells if Q/E is in place? Unless one believes in workers moving eggs which I don't.

 

[oliver90owner]

As usual. You are missing something. Quite a lot, I think.

 

[Eyeman]

Yes they are emergency Queens from eggs / larvae within worker comb. My understanding is a supercedure or swarm cell starts with an egg in a queen cup.
My preference would be to wait for swarm cells in a double brood or try and induce them with overcrowding defore doing a demaree rather than splitting the colony and inducing emergence cells.
Alec

 

[Erichalfbee]

My understanding is a supercedure or swarm cell starts with an egg in a queen cup

Surely what defines a queen cell is the impetus for it being built rather than its situation?