When to start off new queens?

[sean-a]

I have lost two colonies this winter and am keen to get a nuc going to replace the losses.
Was planning to take some eggs and capped brood from one of the surviving colonies which is going like a train, and putting this in a nuc to get on and raise some queen cells.

It looks like the weather is about to turn for the better

Do you think that this is the right time?

 

[enrico]

As soon as you think there are enough drones around
E

 

[colinc]

The nuc method will get emergency cells and with inadequate nurse bees could give you a scrub queen, better to wait until swarm prep is made with fully fed larvae and split from there.


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[maddydog]

As per colinc. I'd demaree or AS a strong colony rather than try to bring through a weak nuc (and potentially hinder the donor colony).

 

[madasafish]

Starting early and then being hit by bad weather is a very painful experience.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

Inspected 6 hives today . Spotted 1 lonely drone . Still a bit early i would say .

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[protheroe]

Checked some earlier.saw lots of drone brood but very few drones

 

[drex]

I tend to be led by the bees, and start my queen rearing when they start gearing up.

 

[madasafish]

Drones need 12 -14 days from emergence to being fully fertile...

So if you start queen rearing with no emerged drones, chances are if there are no fertile drones in your own hives then there will be few locally and your queens may not be properly mated or may not be mated - period.

I have a few splashes of drone brood in my largest and strongest hive.. and that's it. I don't expect to start queen reading until mid May (29th April last year)

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Probably too early - this is a late season for me at least. A nuc will not raise good queens. in any case.

 

[enrico]

Probably too early - this is a late season for me at least. A nuc will not raise good queens. in any case.

Sweeping statement, my nucs have good enough queens for me.why don't you think they are any good?

 

[drex]

All that is needed is stock worth breeding from. Plenty of stores, especially pollen and lots and lots of young bees. Mike Palmer has some good videos. I do not find the type of box makes much difference.

 

[beeno]

All that is needed is stock worth breeding from. Plenty of stores, especially pollen and lots and lots of young bees. Mike Palmer has some good videos. I do not find the type of box makes much difference.

He does not raise queens in nucs though.

 

[maddydog]

All that is needed is stock worth breeding from. Plenty of stores, especially pollen and lots and lots of young bees. Mike Palmer has some good videos. I do not find the type of box makes much difference.

I agree apart from the last bit. I don't think Michael Palmer would consider a nuc box to be sufficiently big enough.

 

[madasafish]

http://doorgarden.com/2011/11/07/simple-honey-bee-queen-rearing-for-beginners/

shows queen rearing in nucs.. very successfully.

 

[mbc]

With large patches of drone brood only now beginning to be capped in my hives I'm looking to put brood above excluders first week in may with a view to do the first grafts in the second week. Seems a long way off but the season starts to race along from here for a while.

 

[sean-a]

Update:
I decided to put a couple of frames of brood and eggs into a nuc.
Partially because the frame I took out had some capped brood hanging off as a leaf of brace comb and I didn't want to put it back in, or cut off the comb.

Added a frame of honey to the nuc.

I now have a capped queen cell so will see in a couple of weeks whether the experiment has worked.
I moved another hive forward a couple of feet onto a new stand , and put the nuc onto the old location. This seems to have topped up numbers a bit.

Some drones about in the garden too.

 

[sean-a]

Update:
I decided to put a couple of frames of brood and eggs into a nuc.
Partially because the frame I took out had some capped brood hanging off as a leaf of brace comb and I didn't want to put it back in, or cut off the comb.

Added a frame of honey to the nuc.

I now have a capped queen cell so will see in a couple of weeks whether the experiment has worked.
I moved another hive forward a couple of feet onto a new stand , and put the nuc onto the old location. This seems to have topped up numbers a bit.

Some drones about in the garden too.

The nuc now has an empty queen cell.....
Weather has not been great, but there are drones about, so I am hopeful that she might just have mated.

Hopefully in a week or so I should know...
I will leave it alone until then.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I have been through 6 of my hives in the last 3 days and all but one have drones..... one that has drawn its own comb in foundationless frames has loads.
These are on the Surrey/Sussex/Hants border. So the drones will be there for the ladies soon!

 

[Eyeman]

First round of mini nucs on Sunday about to be filled with a cup-full-of-bees.
They will be opened up tomorrow on my roof top apiary.