Will be putting three colonies on demarree at the weekend and reducing cells to just the one on a colony that would have been another but they had already made their own plans.
Queen cells...is it just me?
- Thread starter Courty
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masterBK
Queen Bee
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If the colony is a good one why would you destroy the queen cells produced under the supersedure impulse in the top box of the demaree? Why not leave the best one until about two days before emergence and either separate the top BC from the rest with a swarm board with rear entrance or take a 2 or 3 frame nucleus with the queen cell. A young spare queen is always a useful thing to have. If you have several demarees going on then use the cells from the best colony to replace any in the others and rear queens in those top BCs.
This colony are not on demarree, they had begun swarm preparation. The other three are better colonies so no loss.
OP
Courty
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I took down the sealed cell as it may have been from an older larvae. I created a nuc from the frame with two open cells of similar looking age and close to each other as they would be from younger larvae. I want to keep the colony large and strong so aim to take down further cells. I anticipate this season will be good for increase so I won’t rush creating nucs at this stage. I’m using a board with a queen excluded hole in it and also a hinged entrance.
Thanks
Courty
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