Queen Banking

[drstitson]

sure but i think what finamn means is you don't pay II prices for your main production colonies.

sure all queens need to prove themselves before taking on breeder duties and if a small scale bee improvement project happens to have mostly II stocks then so be it but the next step down the pyramid is where your crop comes from.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Perhaps because he does his second CO2 after II...and with a large throughput it's quicker?

Yes he does,but returns the inseminated queens to the bank until needed,they are not given the second CO2 treatment until the time of introduction to a nuc,where they remain caged for a further five days or so before release.
High throughput for sure,100 queens inseminated a day at times.

 

[wightbees]

Im sure i read that some Beeks dont do the second treatment of co2.
What is the timing for the start of laying without second co2 treatment?

 

[Finman]

Insemination means to connect some special genes that all drone semen ar e from good source.

In productive hives hybridisation is a big advantage. when I look my hives during few years, best production comes from "pure" Italian queens crossed with "forest" Carniolans. whatever they are. Italian is a good layer and multicolor workers work better. Hives are strong.
If I take virgins from these hybrid hives I will get a huligan gang sooner or later.

Like here one professional beek says, if he inseminates , the queens will die too much. He pays to a guy who insemiates to him crossings. By the way that beek was the first in the world to cross common fox and polar fox. (so he told). In theory it was not posible.

Insemination must have a special reason. It is not every boys hobby. Andit is too expencive to produe them for normal use.

Last I bought an inseminated queen and that was the worst queen in my yard.
First, hive did not carry pollen like others. It was a strange mongrel, And it revieled that the color came from Monticola bee of which I want to stay as faras possible.
- such story 4 years ago.
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[wightbees]

Fiman Do you buy pure Italian queens to cross with the Carni ?
Or do you breed you own then cross ?

 

[Finman]

Fiman Do you buy pure Italian queens to cross with the Carni ?
Or do you breed you own then cross ?

there are no pure Italians. Stocks are tens even in Finland. Pure is a human term. Not used in nature.

I have not Carniolans but in surroundings it seems that Carniolans are making feral population in empty houses or somewhere. There are no hives out there but my Italians mate in many places with Carniolans.

But the main point is that hybrids are better than my pure Italians. It makes me think that inbreeding is easy to happen in a small scale yard.

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[wightbees]

Sorry Finman ,when you said "Pure " i thought that was what you had or could get.

 

[Finman]

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About bank cages....

I had, andstill I have cages to where bees can go in but the queen is behind a piece of square inch excluder.
The queen rubbed themselves hairless. It means that queen try to get out all the time via gabs.

Queens' basic instinct is to coltrol its colony from very beginning.

My idea is to gett he queen to lay as soon as possible. At its best it takes 10 days after emerging.
Then 4 weeks later I have a queen and I can see what it has produced.

10 days as brood + 10 days mating period + 30 days to see new bees = 50 days =

then I can decide, take it or leave it. What was the advantage of banking?

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[Finman]

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I bought last spring Norton's superbees. They arrived at the end of May.
Ok, queens start to lay and after 2 weeks they have one box of brood.
Then 6 weeks later there was a gang of superbee foragers in 4 hives......but summer was over.
I was not able to see what is the difference compared my Italians. Next spring I see how they wintered.

Laying queenin and 8 weeks later I may see how they play.

What I mean, queen rearing is a long distance job.

what I can do is to see: is the queen sensitive to chalkbrood, how agressive are the workers, does brood area has problems, is it a good layer.


I test most of my queens in nucs to see what they are. I split polyboxes to 3 parts to make 3 frame nucs.
They are really handy to begin a mating nuc and then it continues as testing nuc.
In autumn I have lots of brood frames and queens and I look what I do with them.

...................queen breeding is selecting

,.................actually I BANK my laying qeens in 3-frame nucs to select them later..

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