When to replace a Queen

[highgate]

Evening all,

Looking for some advice, my hive swarmed about 2 1/2 weeks ago and i was fortunate enough to catch my own swarm.

As she is a tempromental red queen with defensive but prodigious bees am on two minds on whether or not to replace mother and daughter.

The virgin queen is now laying.

Ironically the bees have not been nearly as defensive so far.

The Red Queen is a UK Buckfast from a NUC i purchased last year. Concluded it is probably F2.


Thoughts gratefully appreciated.

 

[iann41]

Replace both with good quality stock. The red one is getting too old anyway and will probably supersede this year.

 

[Ian123]

It’s entirely your choice personally I don’t stand for poor behaviour the likelihood of your new queens genetics being better than the mother are slim. The improvements in behaviour you mention are probably down to the reduced numbers in both hives and good conditions we are currently having.

 

[Ian123]

It should also be said that if your supplier of the nuc was selling you a f2 queen as a buckfast they really don’t have a clue.

 

[For want of a better word]

It should also be said that if your supplier of the nuc was selling you a f2 queen as a buckfast they really don’t have a clue.

Sadly true.... many suppliers are selling "Buckfast bees"

Good bees produced by crossing lines of hybrid bees should come with a breeders certificate stating the pedigree line.

Had a call yesterday evening from a would be beekeeper who wanted a nuc or a free swarm of "Buckfasts" if I had any.
I had to decline selling her any bees when she said that a local association was selling a nuc of Buckfasts for £100 or a swarm when they caught one for £70... as long as she had " done a course"

She said she did not want to pay £200 for something that was of unknown origin!!!

I wished her well and hung up.

 

[Swarm]

Sadly true.... many suppliers are selling "Buckfast bees"

Good bees produced by crossing lines of hybrid bees should come with a breeders certificate stating the pedigree line.

Had a call yesterday evening from a would be beekeeper who wanted a nuc or a free swarm of "Buckfasts" if I had any.
I had to decline selling her any bees when she said that a local association was selling a nuc of Buckfasts for £100 or a swarm when they caught one for £70... as long as she had " done a course"

She said she did not want to pay £200 for something that was of unknown origin!!!

I wished her well and hung up.

Getting a lot of this, new beekeepers who state buckfast (as if that is some automatic guarantee they will be nice bees) but they expect them for nothing or as near to nothing as they can find.
Usually lost in swarms anyway.

iann41,
Why do you think a 2018 queen is old and due to be superseded? I have a 2018 Amm queen who is still laying so well she is due a Demarree (incidentally, gentle pussycat colony, no smoking zone) and some who are older.

 

[highgate]

It should also be said that if your supplier of the nuc was selling you a f2 queen as a buckfast they really don’t have a clue.

Hi Ian, I made the assumption that it is a F2 probably by me lady going out with the wrong sorts rather than him intentionally selling me an F2.

Assumption based on the level of aggression; it is not hyper agreesive just very defensive and having a 4 and 6 year old with the hive in the back garden I wanted to be better safe than sorry!

Figured that the F3 will effectively be a black mongrel so was curious at the fate of the new colony. By fair point about the apple not falling too far from the tree.

Will visit bee equipment and take them up on their offer.

 

[Ian123]

Ok so just to give you an idea what you will buy from say be equipment for say £30-£40 will be an f1 Queen so basically the daughter of a pure/breeder queen. Breeder queens are available from some suppliers but will set you back say £150 upwards. Now you can certainly reproduce from your f1 queen if you wish personally I don’t because the outcome is so varied and I have a number of breeders, in many respects it’s easier for me with many hives than the bloke with 1 of 2, so effectively all my colonies are f1. Any that slip the net and some do are ear marked for splitting for nucs or used as cell raisers. As I said above you can let the queens reproduce but you need to be ruthless with selection as with any bee race/strain or mongrel, if you had 20 nucs sitting there you may only consider a few up to scratch, but that’s not a lot of use to a beginner with 1 hive and 2 spare boxes.

 

[Bakerbee]

Anyone getting into beekeeping and thinking these prices are expensive, needs to learn more about beekeeping. Good equipment is not cheap and lets face it to do it well you need lots of spares for all eventualities.