Queens Breeding

[Jeff Buzz]

Hi is it too late for me to breed some new queens and get them mated please.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Finman]

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You have 30 hives. You surely have enough experience what to do. But surely 2-hive owners will help you in your problem. AMM are surely recommended. Native to Cornwall.

 

[For want of a better word]

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You have 30 hives. You surely have enough experience what to do. But surely 2-hive owners will help you in your problem. AMM are surely recommended. Native to Cornwall.

Never too late to try if you have local bees?

In Northamptonshier I would go for a nice Buckfast.... possibly a bit late for them now however... most I know who keep them have supers off what they can, have fed them throughout the June-July-Aughust gap... have treated for Varroa and are now loading up with thick syrup.... to get them into Winter
... bit like Finland really?

Must stay off the Aquavit at lunch... goes down well after a few raw! herrings!

​

Yeghes da

 

[Jeff Buzz]

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You have 30 hives. You surely have enough experience what to do. But surely 2-hive owners will help you in your problem. AMM are surely recommended. Native to Cornwall.

Hey Finny just because I have 30 hives it does not mean 1. I have any bees in them or 2. I know what I am doing....

I do actually have bees in them but I do not know a great deal about Queen rearing so simple question really. Is it too late ?????

 

[Finman]

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It is late, but not too late. If you graft now, you will have laying queens after a month.

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Never too late to try if you have local bees?

In Northamptonshier I would go for a nice Buckfast.... possibly a bit late for them now however... most I know who keep them have supers off what they can, have fed them throughout the June-July-Aughust gap... have treated for Varroa and are now loading up with thick syrup.... to get them into Winter
... bit like Finland really?

Must stay off the Aquavit at lunch... goes down well after a few raw! herrings!

​

Yeghes da

Yes they are local bees and super still on and not feed them all summer they have been getting there own food...

 

[B+.]

Is it too late ?????

Yes
It takes 16 days for a virgin queen to emerge...then she has to mate (some people are already reporting that drones are being expelled, but not yet in Bedfordshire). Then you have to risk queen introduction and build up so the queen has enough of her own bees to survive the winter...and feed them so they have enough food.
I would say you're a couple of months too late (queen rearing around me starts at the beginning of may...but drone rearing starts earlier if the pollen is coming in)

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Yes
It takes 16 days for a virgin queen to emerge...then she has to mate (some people are already reporting that drones are being expelled, but not yet in Bedfordshire). Then you have to risk queen introduction and build up so the queen has enough of her own bees to survive the winter...and feed them so they have enough food.
I would say you're a couple of months too late (queen rearing around me starts at the beginning of may...but drone rearing starts earlier if the pollen is coming in)

Ok I thought I may have missed the boat, next year I will be ready. I normally make a few new queens doing splits to stop swarming but only had to do two this year as I have taken Finnys advice and threw away my queen excluders and most of my hive are on double brood so giving them lots of space seems to have worked well.

 

[B+.]

I have taken Finnys advice and threw away my queen excluders and most of my hive are on double brood so giving them lots of space seems to have worked well.

When Finman talks about multi-brood box hives, he's talking about Langstroth which is considerably bigger than a National. I've run double-broods over-winter for years.
Queen excluders do have their place though. Towards the end of the season, they're a good way of getting brood to emerge from the supers and getting them to back-fill with honey

 

[Finman]

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I was too late to rear my queens this summer. I bought laying queens to half of my hives two weeks ago from 1500 hive owner. Local or not. They are 300 km to north from me.

I must get rid of my bees' mongrel genes.

 

[Thymallus]

Never too late to try if you have local bees?

In Northamptonshier I would go for a nice Buckfast.... possibly a bit late for them now however... most I know who keep them have supers off what they can,

Season seems to finish very early for some. Expecting at least another month on the Balsam and heather before we even start thinking of shutting down and feeding. A few Buckfast queens still to emerge and mate.

 

[midnight sun]

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You have 30 hives. You surely have enough experience what to do. But surely 2-hive owners will help you in your problem. AMM are surely recommended. Native to Cornwall.

You're certainly getting the hang of our British humour Finman!

 

[B+.]

You're certainly getting the hang of our British humour Finman!

 

[Eyeman]

I've got 11 queen cells going into apideas this Thursday. They should be mated mid September and will be re-queening all my nucs before winter.

 

[B+.]

I've got 11 queen cells going into apideas this Thursday. They should be mated mid September and will be re-queening all my nucs before winter.

Are you doing instrumental insemination?