On 11/30/2011 11:08 AM, allen wrote:
> The other concern is that these colonies may carry inferior drones and
> if they are yarded where new queens are mated, can lead to
> degradation of the resulting stock. At least that is what we noticed
> when we did that.
>
Yes, yes...
...I take the time to raise my own queens from productive stocks, and
mate in a yard where I at least try to flood the area with good bees.
One certainly shouldn't rely on unproductive colonies to raise
productive stocks. The nucleus colonies are yarded in dedicated nuc
yards allowed to build up with queens from the mating nucs. At no time
are the nucleus colonies or the non-productive colonies from where they
came raising their own queens.
We had a terrible year this summer. Yet these nucleus colonies were able
to build up and be expanded many times over. Maybe a picture is worth a
thousand words...as you seem to have so many doubts and reservations.
Overwintered double 4 over 4 nuc boxes in late April after the grass has
started to grow:
http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/?action=view¤t=DSC_2517.jpg
Ready to harvest brood:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/DSC_2765.jpg
This 8 frame, 4 over 4 nuc can give up 3. It hadn't build up as well as
the others so was limited to 8 combs by that bag:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/DSC_2771.jpg
The other side is a 4 over 4 over 4 and can give up 4 for a total, with
the first nuc's contribution, of 7 and enough to stock a cell builder:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/DSC_2783.jpg
Holding combs of brood in shaker box prior to finding the queen. One
thing...it's almost too easy to make nucs from nucs...the queens are a
breeze to find.
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/DSC_2777.jpg
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