I had enough requests for the page on Queen rearing, so here it is.
Comments are always appreciated, as there is always the chance to
learn!!
 
QUEEN REARING.
For the amateur beekeeper, one major problem is making queens of
quality without grafting. The following system was taught to me many
years ago and used successfully for a long time until I needed larger
quantities of Queens..
         The sequence is relatively straight forward, and consists of a
number of manipulations at set intervals, each one timed to help the
bees.
         First let us set the timing. With all queen rearing, there has to
be a nectar flow, or the bees have to be fed!
        Secondly, there is no point in making queens unless drones are
flying freely.
        We start by making up a nuc. To control the breeding we try hard to
ensure that there are no eggs or young larvae in the 3 or 5 frames,
or you can be sure the bees will start a queen up in an obscure
corner somewhere. Once started in one direction it is almost
impossible to re-direct them into the direction you want them to go.
        One way to achieve an eggless nuc, takes longer but is overall more
effective. To a two box hive add a queen excluder pulling up all open
brood, make sure the queen is in the lower box, wait 7 days. The bees
will cap over all open brood, then you can remove the bottom box to
another part of the yard, leaving the queenless box on the original
stand. Needless to say, the queenless nuc is strengthened by the
flight bees from the removed box.
        Now add a frame of eggs 24 hours after the split! As it is virtually
impossible to get a frame of just eggs without special equipment, it
stands to reason that larvae of various ages will be transferred. A
series of cells will be started, from newly hatched eggs, to older
larvae. To ensure that the bees will not use larvae too old it is
important to remove those true emergency cells from the nuc after
they are made and capped over.
        It is important to remember the bees feeding sequence. When the egg
first hatches it is fed Royal Jelly, after it is decided that the
larvae is to be a worker the food quality is drastically reduced,
this prevents the formation of ovaries. The bees can, even after this
time change back to Royal Jelly, and will produce a semi-queen or
intercaste, quite capable of laying eggs, but they are usually small
and weak, and their egg capacity is very poor. Pheromone production
is also under question, as the hive can get very aggressive with
these scrub queens.
        We cut out any cells which are capped over at 4 days after the egg
frame is added, and check all other frames as the bees are known to
move eggs. It is important to remember that any cell capped over
before 9 days from egg laying will rarely produce quality queens.
                We reduce the number of cells, to concentrate the amount of food
fed to each cell. It is possible to remove excess cells and use them
in other nucs, just be very gentle, and wait till the 14th day after
laying, and protect with a cell protector.
 
 
 
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The Bee Works, 9 Progress Dr, Unit 2,
Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1
Phone/fax  705-326-7171
David Eyre, Owner.
http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks
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