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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #2624  by yellowcyclist
 05 Apr 2019, 14:21
I,M ABOUT TO VISIT A COUPLE OF COLONIES WHERE WE MAY HAVE CAUSED THE BEES TO MAKE QUEEN CELLS BY STICKING A QUEEN EXCLUDER BETWEEN A FULL AND A SHALLOW BROOD BOX. Sorry about the caps, didn~t notice the lock was on.

I was originally just going to clear away any queen cells in the top box if the queen below is in full swing as she was last time we checked. However, I~m considering maybe taking a chance on getting a couple of queens out if possible. The queen cells will have eggs laid a week ago in them, should the cells exist.

What chance do you reckon there might be of getting virgins mated at this time of year in West Yorkshire? We have drones in our hives and it is currently a balmy 15.7°C.
 #2626  by MickBBKA
 06 Apr 2019, 00:10
If the usual southern mantra BBKA advice was factual that it requires 18C+ and calm winds then none of my queens would ever get mated. Most years here we don't get 18C+ until July. My queens are usually mated by the end of May at around 12C to 14C.
Never had any mated in April though , but I have a colony that raised a load of emergency queen cells about 2 weeks ago which I think will be doomed. I found a 6 frame nuc today with a single lovely capped queen cell and last years queen still present. So you and I may find the answer to your question by the end of the month. Most colonies now have drones taking flights at the moment.

Some colonies are the largest I have ever had at this time of year. Colony on brood + 1/2 has 10 frames of brood in brood box and 7 in the 1/2. I have never seen this until the middle of June in the past. Its going to be another strange year...…..Just like the last 6.. LOL

Cheers, Mick.
 #2628  by Chrisbarlow
 06 Apr 2019, 17:01
what you got to lose? I would try it.

they do talk about sunny afternoon being 20°c plus for mating flights but you never know.

You do have to wait for drones but my colonies have a good amount of drones in, I have never seen this many so early.

If the virgins can get out flying, I would say you have a pretty good chance. Let us know how it goes
 #2630  by Jim Norfolk
 06 Apr 2019, 17:06
All I would add is how well mated are queens likely to be at this time of year? The more drones a queen mates with the better and this would likely be achieved by repeated, prolonged mating flights, not a quickie on a cold day. It is also better for the queen not to mate with her close relatives which would be the drones in the hive.

Unless it is essential to produce an early queen I would cut out the queen cells and try again later in the year. However doing something different from convention in beekeeping is worthwhile for the learning experience, so push the boundaries and let us know how it goes.
 #2632  by Chrisbarlow
 06 Apr 2019, 17:15
I dont think drone diversity would be the problem, there seems to be lots of drones around in everyones hives, so I suspect there will be other colonies not to far away from the posters apiary with lots of drones in as well.

I think the issue will be getting a good flying day. From emergence the queen takes upto 7 days to reach sexual maturity and then youve got three weeks to get her mated. I am the Leeds area, West Yorkshire and in the next two weeks according to the BBC weather services we have a few days at 13°c/14°c and they all seem quite windy.
 #2634  by Jim Norfolk
 06 Apr 2019, 18:53
Chris no drones here yet although I did see eggs in drone cells last inspection. Could it be due to my having local bees and not feeding them supplements or is it colder here? We are promised 7 C next week.
 #2635  by Chrisbarlow
 06 Apr 2019, 19:51
Probably a bit of all of that. I really do have an aweful lot of drones in some very strong boxes. Getting queens mated now wouldn't be an issue except for the weather.
 #2640  by AdamD
 07 Apr 2019, 09:23
You could make up a nuc and have a go. I think it's just luck as to whether you get a warm day (one should be enough) between 6 days from queen emergence and, say, a month after emergence. Much beyond a month and the virgin queen is probably going to be too old to mate well.

I have had to throw out un-mated or late mated queens in the past, in one year the weather was rubbish for weeks and then we had one good day; my queens went out and mated before the cold weather set in again. A few days after the warm day all the queens were laying. If I hadn't had that one day they would have been useless.
 #2682  by MickBBKA
 10 Apr 2019, 16:34
Well my colony that was queenless now has 2 frames of eggs and loads of polished cells, bees were also bringing in loads of pollen.

Cheers, Mick.
 #2684  by Chrisbarlow
 11 Apr 2019, 01:32
MickBBKA wrote:
10 Apr 2019, 16:34
Well my colony that was queenless now has 2 frames of eggs and loads of polished cells, bees were also bringing in loads of pollen.

Cheers, Mick.
So the queen cells hatched and one got successfully mated. Thats great news