Queen improvement for an idiot

[Finman]

Maybe, maybe it is caused by the oxalic acid he pours over them.

Beekeeping for idiots....

 

[Hivemaker.]

40 years ago I kept the queens older.

40 years ago, nothing much changed in 40 years then.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Are you bored, Hivemaker?

Yes, it's night time.

 

[Finman]

40 years ago, nothing much changed in 40 years then.

Nothing changes = sustainable beekeeping.

I doupt that you remember that long.

Typical " English inteligent poking for idiots".

 

[Finman]

Yes, it's night time.

Yes it is. Very dark.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Very dark.

Often is during the night.

Goodnight.

 

[Finman]

40 years ago, nothing much changed in 40 years then.

At least I am 40 years older than 40 years ago.
.

 

[Michael Palmer]

How swarming and supercedure are alternatives?

Swarming's purpose is reproduction and supercedure's purpose is to renew the Queen.

Swarming is bees' only way to reproduce.

So supercedure is the bees' only way to renew the queen? Actually swarming is the mode that some colonies employ to requeen. These colonies will swarm, year after year. Once a good number of your stocks employ the supercedure mode, well, honey crop improves, labor is reduced, and you find some absolutely excellent stocks to breed from.

But, from your dogma coming through in your posts...I guess you disagree?

 

[Michael Palmer]

.
I use 1 year old queens and then renew. My hives have very few supercedure cases along years.

Easy-peazy, eh Finman? A real Bee-haver. You buy in your new queens, yes?

 

[Michael Palmer]

And it is written in beekeeping books too. Nothing secret that one year old queen is better than two years old.

I disagree. I have plenty that make a full crop for 2 and 3 years. How will you ever select for longevity if you kill off all your queens every year.

 

[Finman]

I disagree. I have plenty that make a full crop for 2 and 3 years. How will you ever select for longevity if you kill off all your queens every year.

You do your way and I do my way.

I have never tried, what 3 years old Queen does.

 

[Finman]

So supercedure is the bees' only way to renew the queen? Actually swarming is the mode that some colonies employ to requeen. These colonies will swarm, year after year. Once a good number of your stocks employ the supercedure mode, ?

Do not waste your only life

 

[Michael Palmer]

Do not waste your only life

I guess I don't speak Finman. What is this supposed to mean.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I disagree. I have plenty that make a full crop for 2 and 3 years.

Same here, Mike, many are at their best in their second and third seasons.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Yep, and I find some that go on for years and years. Never have to re-queen. Always top producers. Obviously they supercede, but don't miss a beat.

Now what was all this about sustainability?

 

[Finman]

.... requeening every year is another doubtful method of sustainability.... but probably works if the beekeeper does not loose all the colony?

Cheers

Ice Ace has generated alternative science for idiots.

And loosing the whole hive ...when I change the queen?

 

[Finman]

He would need a crystal ball to know that.

Beekeeping is not so difficult that I need crystal ball.

As a professional Queen seller you need that ball that you do not sell away your good queens.

 

[For want of a better word]

Yep, and I find some that go on for years and years. Never have to re-queen. Always top producers. Obviously they supercede, but don't miss a beat.

Now what was all this about sustainability?

Also 2nd year queens are great to graft from..... and Finnie accuses us lot of catch and release beekeepering!!

Roll on Summer!!!

 

[Finman]

Also 2nd year queens are great to graft from..... and Finnie accuses us lot of catch and release beekeepering!!

Roll on Summer!!!

I buy grafting queens from professional breeders. Then I keep out inbreeding. Rol roll

 

[B+.]

Also 2nd year queens are great to graft from....:

I agree.

To be clear, a queens performance can't be assessed until she has her own workers around her. That will take you up to Autumn of the year of her birth. She then has to over-winter and performance tests carried out during the following season. She is still only a 1 year old. The season following her second winter makes her a two-year old.
Now, the breeding values aren't published until the February of her second year....so, it's really only at this point that I know which are truly worth breeding from. I will raise some early daughter queens from test queens that are showing promise though but, until I have the breeding values, I have no idea how they will turn out.