After a cold May and early June, I had a bunch of virgins waiting to go. I don't usually have so many to fly at one time. I had a peek this week to see the result.
GRAFTS
Eight emerged queens were from a batch of 11 grafts from 11 started where 3 were duff. (Although I did drop one of them). One of the queens from the grafts became the drone layer - below. So from 11, I got 7 viable queens which is not too bad. Shame I dropped one!
RESULTS
On 14th June, this was the result:-
7 in Mini Plus nucs mated.
4 nucs mated.
1 nuc believed Q- for the third time.
1 full sized colony; mated. (Top half of a demaree with top entrance).
1 full sized colony, small queen + drone layer. (poorly fed graft perhaps).
1 full sized colony, missing queen.
1 full sized colony, queen present but not yet laying.
*Haven't checked the brood pattern of the queens yet as it's too early to do so as some have eggs only. Other queens mated a few days before - odd in that there was a fairly clear step-change in the weather.
Not sure what others' views are relating to producing a new queen as a result of swarm control/management:
With anecdotal evidence only, my view is that a queen produced and allowed to mate as a result of an artificial swarm is a better bet than a queen produced in a big full-sized colony where the old queen has gone - either queen removed by the beekeeper or gone from the hive after an attempted swarm with a clipped wing.
GRAFTS
Eight emerged queens were from a batch of 11 grafts from 11 started where 3 were duff. (Although I did drop one of them). One of the queens from the grafts became the drone layer - below. So from 11, I got 7 viable queens which is not too bad. Shame I dropped one!
RESULTS
On 14th June, this was the result:-
7 in Mini Plus nucs mated.
4 nucs mated.
1 nuc believed Q- for the third time.
1 full sized colony; mated. (Top half of a demaree with top entrance).
1 full sized colony, small queen + drone layer. (poorly fed graft perhaps).
1 full sized colony, missing queen.
1 full sized colony, queen present but not yet laying.
*Haven't checked the brood pattern of the queens yet as it's too early to do so as some have eggs only. Other queens mated a few days before - odd in that there was a fairly clear step-change in the weather.
Not sure what others' views are relating to producing a new queen as a result of swarm control/management:
With anecdotal evidence only, my view is that a queen produced and allowed to mate as a result of an artificial swarm is a better bet than a queen produced in a big full-sized colony where the old queen has gone - either queen removed by the beekeeper or gone from the hive after an attempted swarm with a clipped wing.
May your bees read the same books as you do.