Newly hatched queens.... feeding

[For want of a better word]

Befuddled by the Great Book of Beekeepering Myths & Legends wondered what the great and unwashed do?

Should a newly hatched ( in an Incubator ) queen be fed?

One book says no need... another honey.. another a drip of water... another only attendant bees will feed her and another she will only accept food after being digested and regurgitated by a nurse bee......

My past experiments with honey have resulted in a sticky honey smothered queen.. I now give a thumbnail of fondant

What do you do||??

 

[Hivemaker.]

What do you do

Run/introduce them into a mating nuc as soon as they emerge.

 

[beebreeder]

If they have to spend any time in the incubator they get a little of my own honey in the recess in the bottom of a roller cage, and they do feed themselves, but as HM says into a mini with bees is best

 

[susbees]

What humidity are you using?

 

[newportbuzz]

when you put the honey in the recess make sure to turn the cage with the virgin on its side. otherwise she has to keep jumping or possibly die on the sticky floor. seen a few good queens die that way not nice.

 

[jimmybee]

Get them out of the incubator asap because I have left a few for too long (only a few hours) and they died fast I also give them a drop of water and then in to a mating nuc.

 

[For want of a better word]

What humidity are you using?

60 ~ 65 RH and at 33 degrees centigrade +/- 0.5 ( or is it Celcius?) 305 K??

 

[beebreeder]

What humidity are you using?

The tray that came with the incubator full up at all times, don't know the RH but it works for me KIS

 

[DorsetB]

The virgin queens I pulled recently (4 in a row) were all starving and put their head straight down into an open nectar cell for ages.

I usually put a small ball of fondant at the bottom of the queen cage when in an incubator, as honey can cause problems, especially if wings get stuck to it.

Don't believe the books when they tell you about needing attendants for feeding, at least when they first emerge!

 

[jeffdavies]

Dorset Bee, I second that! I deliberately uncapped a Queen cell yesterday and the Queen on emerging immediately drank her fill of nectar from a nearby cell! An amazing sight to see and like always at times like this, I didn't have a video camera to hand :0(

 

[Poly Hive]

I put a small bit of queen cage candy in the cage, by small think Qtip size and it reduced the death rate considerably.

PH

 

[Finman]

.

Bees feed queens through the mesh. I do not put food to hached queens.

.

 

[susbees]

The tray that came with the incubator full up at all times, don't know the RH but it works for me KIS

Thanks bb and icanhopit

 

[For want of a better word]

how long can an unmated queen be kept in an incubator..???

had a bit of a mishap with a table saw and missed the only dry hour of the day whilst finger was being sewn back on

typing with one finger is not easy... opening mini nucs impossible !

 

[Poly Hive]

Not too many feeding attendants in an incubator.

When I was rearing a fair few I prefered to use a strong colony as a hatchery.

The losses were greater but I put it down to better selection by the bees than I could cull myself. Better to lose the rubbish cheaply than lose a good colony with a poor queen.

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

Not too many feeding attendants in an incubator.

When I was rearing a fair few I prefered to use a strong colony as a hatchery.

The losses were greater but I put it down to better selection by the bees than I could cull myself. Better to lose the rubbish cheaply than lose a good colony with a poor queen.

PH

PH do you use the cell raising Q- colony to bring on the hatched queens and fit cages around the cells, or move them to another Q- colony.

I use the bottom brood Q+ a qe then a Q- Brood then a super filling with stores.
I read somewhere that a super with frames can be added between the Q+ and Q- broods to make the queen more "remote"

I leave the crown board feed hole open enough to allow drones to escape through to the roof space... they seem to be able to squeeze through the cone escapes....

Cheers