Northumberland Honey Queens

[BigAshW]

I purchased five virgins from them this year and got four mated to overwinter have them a in poly nucs now.

I also got a mated queen from them to requeen a horrid colony I had this year. To early to tell what sort of temper they are but will report back on them next season.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Just because...

I mean, this Forum can adopt the feel of an EDL rally when people feel the need to defend/attack a particular strain.

I've never been too fussy (redhead, blonde, black, white, tall, short, chunky, slim, complicated or uncomplicated etc... you've got to be open minded, no (?) otherwise you don't know what you're missing )

The way I look at it, all my queens are going to end up dark and of mixed background a few generations down the line in any case. That's fine with me, and I have no especial interest in maintaining stocks of one 'type' - although I appreciate others do. I've had an OK experience with Buckfasts, but nothing to write home about. Generally, I've found them to be fecund and calm, but I can't say that I personally prefer keeping them; I have not found them generally to gather much more honey than my other bees. I prefer Carniolans, I like their temperament, and the way they generally build up (and store) quickly in spring; but they can be swarmy. Horses for courses I guess.

In the main, I have decided to aim to rear and keep a more locally adapted hybrid bee, and have tried my hand at grafting from my best colony this year. The grafts were broadly successful(-ish) (11 out of 24 in total), but then wasps completely ravaged 8 of the 11 3-frame mating nucs I had set up, whilst I was away on holiday (and, yes, I had taken adequate precautions - so I thought).

So, now, as the season draws to the close, I don't have the number of spare queens I was expecting, in order to freshen up a couple of my other colonies pre-winter (notably a couple of swarms, whose own genetic provenance is unknown to me) .... so really, as I say, in order to invigorate the gene pool, I am looking to introduce some darker genes from ANOther source - so the typology is more in line with what I want to raise/keep in the future - that's all.

The chunky ones are always more grateful ........the buckfast that is

 

[Jonathan01]

I had a hive that killed 2 black bee queens I introduced. The first was released from her cage at 4 days and they killed her. The second I kept locked in for 10 days and they killed her as well. I did check for an existing queen and laying workers and it was definitely queenless. I am not giving them another queen. I have put in a frame of eggs and hoping for the best. Its quite late in the season and do worry that if they make a new queen, she might not get mated and get laying fast enough to go into winter. Having said that, having killed off £80 worth of queens, my sympathy for this colony is not great and I am not willing to risk merging them with another hive.

 

[boywonder]

I had a hive that killed 2 black bee queens I introduced ... [it] was definitely queenless ...

Interesting. Though I will say this; nature has a way of confounding us. Bees (like us all) are programmed to survive, and I now take some convincing (test-frame or not) that a hive is actually queenless. Even having said that, this year, I have lost two queens I have introduced into hives I was "certain" were queenless (one NH queen and one of my own) ... only to find that a couple of weeks later they had a - previously elusive - queen of their own, now in lay. Shame on me.

... and that is with getting on for a decade of "experience" ... and it still smarts. You can keep on giving them queens and/or test frames, but the fact is that, if they are not accepting these, there is invariably a good reason.

I am not, of course, suggesting that either of your two failed introductions fall into this category, but it's worth stating, nonetheless.

In terms of introduction (no matter how careful), it seems to be the case that:
1) Nucs (or colonies with fewer foragers and more nurse bees) will accept a new queen more readily
2) Queens of a similar 'type' are more likely to get accepted (e.g. a Buckfast Q into a colony of Buckfast-esque providence)

Ironically, I have - in the absence of any very dire warnings to the contrary - today ordered myself two new NH dark queens (so am also £80 lighter) ... destined for two specific nucs, where I have queens I will remove.

Fingers crossed. Assuming acceptance, I will report back next year, if I remember.

 

[user 20297]

Though I will say this; nature has a way of confounding us. Bees (like us all) are programmed to survive, and I now take some convincing (test-frame or not) that a hive is actually queenless.

From (limited) experience I've come to the same conclusion.

 

[Jonathan01]

Interesting. Though I will say this; nature has a way of confounding us. Bees (like us all) are programmed to survive, and I now take some convincing (test-frame or not) that a hive is actually queenless. Even having said that, this year, I have lost two queens I have introduced into hives I was "certain" were queenless (one NH queen and one of my own) ... only to find that a couple of weeks later they had a - previously elusive - queen of their own, now in lay. Shame on me.

... and that is with getting on for a decade of "experience" ... and it still smarts. You can keep on giving them queens and/or test frames, but the fact is that, if they are not accepting these, there is invariably a good reason.

I am not, of course, suggesting that either of your two failed introductions fall into this category, but it's worth stating, nonetheless.

In terms of introduction (no matter how careful), it seems to be the case that:
1) Nucs (or colonies with fewer foragers and more nurse bees) will accept a new queen more readily
2) Queens of a similar 'type' are more likely to get accepted (e.g. a Buckfast Q into a colony of Buckfast-esque providence)

Ironically, I have - in the absence of any very dire warnings to the contrary - today ordered myself two new NH dark queens (so am also £80 lighter) ... destined for two specific nucs, where I have queens I will remove.

Fingers crossed. Assuming acceptance, I will report back next year, if I remember.

Good luck with your new queen installations. I am not going to try again. If they can't make their own queen before winter, its done for. I al also not willing to merge it with another colony, incase they still have regicide on their minds.

 

[Polymorph]

I had an angry hive and ended up removing the queen and splitting the flyers off from the nurse bees. Easy introduction and bees really keen to see queen in introduction cage. The hive was then initially reasonably tempered which got worse before better, when the nurse bees became older and took on the flyers/guards roles. I didn't find the new queen changed their nature and had to wait for them to die off.

 

[madasafish]

I had an angry hive and ended up removing the queen and splitting the flyers off from the nurse bees. Easy introduction and bees really keen to see queen in introduction cage. The hive was then initially reasonably tempered which got worse before better, when the nurse bees became older and took on the flyers/guards roles. I didn't find the new queen changed their nature and had to wait for them to die off.

Whereas I requeened a horrible hive at home and three days later they were pussycats.

But a month ago did the same at our allotments and they took three weeks before I dared do more than lift the CB to judge their temper.

 

[Polymorph]

Ummm, I was able to look and see eggs laid and deal with a couple of attempts at supersedure before they started to become more fiesty. Now all seems to be far better. It was one of John Getty's queens, so waiting to see if comments about chalk brood tendency come to pass. Fingers crossed.

 

[hemo]

Some colonies appear to self destruct and only like Q's that they raise, I removed a Q form a colony who's traits I wasn't keen on in 2019, two home raised Q's killed off after introduction (the colony wasn't that great trait wise). Eventually they did raise there own from brood introduced, laid like a trooper last year.

 

[BigAshW]

Just as an update to this thread.

Of the five virgins I bought in four got mated and through the winter.

One has turned out to be very chalky so is due to be replaced.

The other three are very calm bees that are building pretty steadily.

The mated queen I got in towards the end of the year to requeen a nasty colony are again very gentle but much slower to build compared to others in the same apiary however inspection yesterday showed a good pattern and plenty of sealed brood so she seems to have kicked into gear now.

 

[BigAshW]

Little update on my dark queen's.

The mated queen is still building slower than the rest of the apiary she is in.

The three young queens in their first year at the other apiary all made swarm preps in their first year despite having space above them and one got away as I must have missed a started cell.

I've as'd the other two and they seem to be getting on with it now with bees up in the supers.

Temperament has been very good on all of the colonies.