What type of Queens do you have in your hives

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Queen Bee
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
Messages
6,344
Reaction score
12
Location
Hampshire uk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
6
I tried a couple of Bikerstaffes Italian queens this year but both got balled.

I then took a couple of swarm cells from one of my Hampshire mongrel hives.

Both mated and the hives expanded fine.

I am happy next year (fingers crossed that bees come through winter) to use the hives I have to graft queens from.

What Queens do you use?
How did you get them?
What are they like?
Are they single brood box?
How much did you pay?
Do you think it was worth it?
What is temprement like?

Sorry to ask so many questions all at once..
 
Maybe I have overdone it a bit,I am just interested what others are doing.

Although it does read like a marketing excersise:(
 
.
I use to bye 3 queens from some professional and then I raise from them 30-40 new queens.
I need 20 final laying queens every summer. I destroy them by selecting as much I need to.

Brood area must be even. No a sign of chalk brood. New bees do not show me stings when I open the cover. Brood area must be in two Langstroth box in normal hive. On box is too small.

I tell to seller what I am going to do. Last time I got 3 diverse lines in 3 queens.

Next spring I try to find one or two good mother queens for breeding.
Alternatives are not many in 20 hives.

I have not paid attention enough to drone hive quality.
 
Last edited:
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NEXT SPRING

Hives show nosema tendency during winter and in spring.

I start brood rearing with pollen patty at the beginning of April.
At the end of May all wintered bees have died, workers are offsprings of the queen and queen has revieled its abity to lay.

Some may show super ability to rear brood but perhaps it does not compensate faults.

After May queens do not make suprises.

In June hives show their tendency to swarm.
In late June many have shown their ability to forage.
 
Anyone know what the start date was in the uk last year?
 
no sorry, but during safari yesterday I found out that 1 person has already started down here!!!! One queen hatched last Monday another on Wednesday!!! Not sure whether he was expecting much better weather, but he did say that he thought the first would start laying in a day or 2.????
 
Not sure whether he was expecting much better weather, but he did say that he thought the first would start laying in a day or

That will be quite quick considering the weather.
 

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