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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 24 Apr 2001 19:56:13 EDT
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Gary,
I hope that I am not too "abrupt" for you, but you surely know very little
about beeKEEPING.  You better do a good bit of reading about "How to keep
bees".

Clipping a queen's wings to prevent swarming is as obsolete as women's
corsets, because it does not stop swarming, but may delay it for a few days.
A queen does NOT lead a swarm.  In fact, she usually has to be PUSHED OUT of
the hive, and then joins in the clustered group of bees hanging someplace
nearby.  If she can't fly, she can't join, so the bees will break cluster in
about an hour or so and return to the hive.  The queen quite often dies
without ever walking back to the hive, but if she gets back, the bees might
even kill her.  In either event, the bees usually will swarm with the FIRST
VIRGIN QUEEN that emerges.

The hive that you have put the old queen in with a few bees and some brood
might survive as a split if you feed it for the next 4 months, unless your
area has a continuing nectar flow from now until September.

You mentioned "waiting for brood"  Most of the time, beginners are not aware
of the presence of a virgin queen in their colony.  If the bees decide to
remain home and not swarm, a virgin queen emerges from swarm cell and does
not go out to mate for about 6 days (and then only if the weather is nice and
ONLY in the afternoon, never the morning).  She starts laying a few eggs
about 2-3 days later.  Eggs do not hatch into larva for 3 days.  Hence, about
the earliest a beginner can see evidence of young larva is 11-12 days after
the virgin queen emerges from her queen cell; so don't
surmise your hive is queenLESS too quick and order a new queen because she
will just be killed by the new virgin queen.

You surely did not see a mating flight!  When a queen embarks on her mating
flight,
there is some minor excitement at the hive entrance involving a few bees, but
only
a highly experienced beekeeper would notice this.

WHAT should you read? Due to tracheal mites being found in 1984, varroa mites
in
1987, Africanized bees entering the US in 1990, the small hive beetle in
1998, and
now resistant American Foul Brood disease, all books written before about 1992
are obsolete because they do not cover these problems which are THE problems
of
the past decade.  You are obviously a beginner or very uninformed, so I
strongly
suggest the "best" beginner's book ever written (stated by Roger Morse and I
agree),
The Beekeeper's Handbook, 3rd Edition of April 1998, by Dr. Diana Sammataro.

If you are not too mad with me, I suggest you read my PINK PAGES which are a
monthly writing aimed at "Upgrading beeHAVERS to beeKEEPERS".  I have been
writing these for a number of years for my own Maryland beekeepers, and the
Web site managers tell me they get over 10,000 hits per month, so I have to
assume that many like George's PINK PAGES.   They appear on the Internet at:
www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/         click on "bee articles"
       or
www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html

I hope that I have helped.

George Imirie
EAS Certified Master Beekeeper
Starting my 69th year of beekeeping in Maryland

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