What to do with some QC's

[theboynelson]

At my local assoc. apiary yesterday we had one hive that was charged with queen cells and just bursting at the seams. We quickly did an artificial swarm and removed all the sealed QC's leaving a couple that were not quite capped yet and the larvae inside nice and white.
I took some of these QC's home with me suspend in the fingers of a nitrile glove and popped them in individual baby food Tupperware pots with a little honey and water and put them in an egg incubator at 35 degrees C.

Now the question is how likely are they to hatch and if they do what should I do with them? I don't really want to increase my stock much so any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[nonstandard]

We hatched some out in a Brinsea incubator last year, they were from one of my better queens so we introduced them to some mini nucs once hatched. We used one to requeen a grumpy colony and replaced a couple of other older queens. They didn't all take and one was rejected outright even by a queen-less colony, but it was an interesting experiment and the 4 that took are going great guns this season.

 

[theboynelson]

Excellent news! So there is hope, they did seem to be too good an opportunity to miss but we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks

Mark

 

[davnig]

Now the question is how likely are they to hatch and if they do what should I do with them? I don't really want to increase my stock much so any suggestions would be gratefully received.

If you don't want to increase your stock then all you can do is requeen surely?

why did you take them if you didn't want to increase - experience?

 

[Finman]

.
Proplem is that neq queens need quite much bee frames from ordinary hives.
To take daughters from swarming hives is a bad idea. You get very swarmy yard.

 

[theboynelson]

why did you take them if you didn't want to increase - experience?

That is pretty much the case, more curiosity than anything else, and if it works, next time I will know that it does.

I was just wondering if I could use the end result, swarm lure next year and the like.

 

[Gower]

hi there

I've just acquired an incubator that my father used for his hickens, however the thermostat has stuck (it's quite an old model) and the temp is a constant 37 degrees centigrade - is this too hot? i have a hive which I've demareed, so there are about 6 or 7 plump QCs that i intend to harvest tomorrow, as they will be hitting day 15 on Wed and should be emerging on Thursday. I not you mention 35 degrees C - is this the optimum ambient temp? Is 37 C too hot, as i dont want to cook the Qs?

many thanks

 

[Gower]

.... chickens!!

 

[Little John]

.To take daughters from swarming hives is a bad idea. You get very swarmy yard.

If you'd read the OP more carefully - the hive is swarming because of lack of room: "... just bursting at the seams" - not because those bees are genetically intrinsically 'swarmy'.

From the description given, I'd suggest that almost any colony would be preparing to swarm under those conditions - after all, it's what bees do.

LJ