Todd Webb asks about Midnite queesn and Morris Booton discusses his
experience.  Here is mine.

Back in the 1960s I used Midnites because they were four way crosses
(hybrids) of the Caucasian bee.  I used Caucasians successfully for several
years because they "were" well matched to the coastal weather of Washington
State.  They wintered with large clusters while being frugal with winter
stores.  I've used both Caucasians and Midnites over the years with
gradually less success.  I've also used what was sold to me as Carniolans
and New World Carniolans, and Italians.

This spring I purchased a dozen marked Midnites (for $13.50 each) since I
hadn't tried them for probably ten years.  As previously described on this
list, I use two queen colonies from April 15 or so to July 7 to 15th.  Then
I combine the top queen down after killing the queen from last year in the
bottom or parent colony.

I put the 12 queens into a queen bank in a western super (the 6th), over a
vented bottom board, on top of a five western super hive.  The bottom queen
is confined into the bottom three westerns with an excluder.

The bank was made up of two combs of pollen, two of honey, four combs of
emerging brood, six combs of bees, and one empty comb.  The 12 queens were
fed with Fumidil-B and water for two days to control Nosema before putting
them into a space between the four combs of brood.  The mustard honey flow
was going well.

Four days after setting up the queen bank, I went to the apiary to make my
top splits.  I made my top splits over two days because of the weather.

Results:

Upon arrival in the apiary I found three of the Midnite queens were dead (9
left) in the queen bank.  I bought three California Italian queens to
replace them. One Midnite queen in her cage was left in the queen bank as
the top split on that colony.  Seven days later I checked the top queens.
The one in the queen bank was gone and one more in another top colony.  I
replaced them with two California Italians (7 Midnites left).  The next week
I checked again on the top splits.  The Italian in the queen bank colony was
gone (4 left).  Only 4 of the 7 Midnites had decent brood patterns.

Later I removed some brood from several of the top queens and added it to
the bottom colony to prevent swarming of the slowly developing top splits.
On the best top queens I added a western super in case I wanted to set them
off later as side splits or new colonies.

When I put the top queens down the weekend of July 10th the same four
Midnite colonies had decent brood patterns.  Two parent colonies with queens
from 1998  were still doing excellent so I took the top queen from one and
added it in place of the queen bank.  One top Midnite queen was laying a
spotty pattern with worker cell caps raised up similar to drone caps but
only 1/3 rd as tall.  I killed her and saved the bottom queen (6 Midnites
left).

I'll probably go out next weekend to check them again when I check on the
end of the honey flow and see what they've stored in the brood nests.

My 12 Midnites cost me $162.00.  I paid $37.50 to replace the ones that
disappeared and the one I killed because it wasn't any good.  So to have 11
requeened production colonies I paid $18.14 each for queens!  (One colony
still has its queen from last year.)  But fall hasn't come yet.  Based on my
observations of the bee behavior in the hives I expect to lose two or three
more by the time I wrap the hives for winter.

Based on the number of western supers of honey on the hives now, only five
are producing like I expect of two queen colonies.  The rest have varied
quality queens whose bees are producing the aberrant behaviors I've
discussed previously on this list.

The above is the result of Midnite queens from one producer.  I hope you're
more happy with your results than I am.

I've bought queens from 15 different breeders in the last 12 years and lost
from 25 to 50 percent each year using the same queen bank and top queen
techniques described above.  In talking with others who purchased marked
queens from my sources over the years I find that their experience is
relatively the same as mine though they may use a separate queen bank and
make side splits instead of top splits.

When using unmarked queens to requeen failing queens in production colonies
or making side splits it is fairly reliable to determine the new queen loss
rate for the first 30 days or so, but unless they are marked it is
impossible to tell whether they have been replaced by fall.

James C. Bach
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