Package's vs overwintered nucs.

[rolande]

I've been told they will work harder than a nuc

To get to where the nuc is starting from?

 

[Curly green finger's]

To get to where the nuc is starting from?

I'm not sure I suppose they are all nurse bees so they are going to draw comb very quickly.?
Q. I've just been out and taken cages out that I introduced 2 days ago I had a look at one and she is laying already caught her in the act that's the quickest I've known an intro to start laying.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a folder full of Q suppliers.

Last I looked:
Becky's Bees
BS
Sipa
Yorkshire Honey
and loads more.

But changes regularly

Yes I suppose ....I was thinking of March

 

[madasafish]

Yes I suppose ....I was thinking of March

IIRC Sipa sold overwintered Qs in March at c£75 each.

 

[Erichalfbee]

IIRC Sipa sold overwintered Qs in March at c£75 each.

I meant home bred mated queens. I thought spring was too early.
I don’t know enough about package bees. So a 2021 spring U.K. package with a U.K. queen would have a 2020 queen in it?

 

[Curly green finger's]

I meant home bred mated queens. I thought spring was too early.
I don’t know enough about package bees. So a 2021 spring U.K. package with a U.K. queen would have a 2020 queen in it?

Probably dani

 

[Patrick1]

You can make your own nucs - no need to buy in. For local spring nucs - overwintered ones sell quickly and mine are spoken for by the end of Feb. There should be no need for concern about disease and a decent overwintered nuc will, quite possibly, get some honey in the year. The weather is not ideal for early queens and this year has been particularly rubbish so spring/summer nucs have been very late.

Everything I slate this year, it has been a nightmare, we need a change of attitude, some real beekeeper training programs.

Beekeepers are obsessed with early queens, the best drones don’t arrive much before May, the best time to requeen is probably after August sometime.

 

[pargyle]

Probably dani

Probably not .... a package is thrown together as a pound or two of bees and a mated queen is put with it ... if they have overwintered queens they will be overwintered in Nucs which are more valuable to sell in spring than packages ... the packages will be made up from full colonies split and a queen from somewhere warm imported to go with it. The remaining queen and colony will either be kept or sold as an overwintered nuc.

There's no commercial logic in doing anything else.

 

[Patrick1]

How’s that going Patrick?

Its been a nightmare this year, nothing but hard work

 

[Erichalfbee]

Probably not .... a package is thrown together as a pound or two of bees and a mated queen is put with it ... if they have overwintered queens they will be overwintered in Nucs which are more valuable to sell in spring than packages ... the packages will be made up from full colonies split and a queen from somewhere warm imported to go with it. The remaining queen and colony will either be kept or sold as an overwintered nuc.

There's no commercial logic in doing anything else.

That’s what I thought. It makes no commercial sense to remove a queen from an overwintered nuc and put her in a package.
Spring packages such as Curly was offered surely have an imported queen?
I didn’t have a clue that spring packages were available at all.
BS are available late May according to their website. I suppose that’s technically spring.

 

[rolande]

beekeepers are obsessed with early queens, the best drones don’t arrive much before May, the best time to requeen is probably after August sometime.

Spot on. I know some will always disagree and even have stats to prove overwintered queens are slightly less desirable than spring ones, but taking imports out of the equation for a moment, there's little chance of early UK mated queen's being as good as summer mated ones. Again I know people will disagree but personally I can only be bothered to write from experience rather than imaginary successes.

 

[pargyle]

I didn’t have a clue that spring packages were available at all.

About as rare as fresh dinosaur droppings ... packages tend to become available later in spring when the donor hives have built up and bees can be donated from them .. and an inexpensive queen from abroad added ... packages are much more common in the USA because of the predominance of bee breeders and sellers in the warm southern states

 

[Erichalfbee]

About as rare as fresh dinosaur droppings ... packages tend to become available later in spring when the donor hives have built up and bees can be donated from them .. and an inexpensive queen from abroad added ... packages are much more common in the USA because of the predominance of bee breeders and sellers in the warm southern states

Yes so it’s it’s Pie in the sky......

 

[pargyle]

Yes so it’s it’s Pie in the sky......

Advertised in early spring and deposits taken ... shipped in May/June depending on the year.

 

[holmbee]

I have a folder full of Q suppliers.

Last I looked:
Becky's Bees
BS
Sipa
Yorkshire Honey
and loads more.

But changes regularly

I am aware that at lease one of your list sells imported queens but may also have UK ones too.

 

[madasafish]

I am aware that at lease one of your list sells imported queens but may also have UK ones too.

Becky's bees quote both. I was answering the question about UK bred bees.

 

[GuyNir]

Becky's bees quote both. I was answering the question about UK bred bees.

I bought 4 imported Q’s from Becky’s Bees. 2 installed in May and 2 less than a week ago. The ones installed in May are lovely, prolific Q’s.

 

[Patrick1]

About as rare as fresh dinosaur droppings ... packages tend to become available later in spring when the donor hives have built up and bees can be donated from them .. and an inexpensive queen from abroad added ... packages are much more common in the USA because of the predominance of bee breeders and sellers in the warm southern states

This is only achieved because of the weather changes from one end of the country to the other, not to mention the scale of breeding, then we have the cost ! Why do we always have to pay disproportionality higher rates for queens compared to almost anywhere else in the world ?

If we cannot accept a shorter season as the norm then unfortunately over wintered or imports are the only answer.

 

[Curly green finger's]

This is only achieved because of the weather changes from one end of the country to the other, not to mention the scale of breeding, then we have the cost ! Why do we always have to pay disproportionality higher rates for queens compared to almost anywhere else in the world ?

If we cannot accept a shorter season as the norm then unfortunately over wintered or imports are the only answer.

To be honest for stock to rear from I don't want colonys come may so big they go into swarm mode, for me it's all about the main flows which is what I thought our local amms are building up for.
Colonys that build up to quick which swarm or need swarm prevention early on are a hassle.

 

[Erichalfbee]

To be honest for stock to rear from I don't want colonys come may so big they go into swarm mode, for me it's all about the main flows which is what I thought our local amms are building up for.
Colonys that build up to quick which swarm or need swarm prevention early on are a hassle.

Different if you are on OSR?