Just attended Dr. Tew's Spring Workshop in Auburn, Alabama.   Had a good time and a very interesting meeting.  Queen rearing was discussed.  I brought up the notion of using the Hopkins Method of queen rearing (comb of eggs/very young larvae {>1day old} laid flat over a queenless colony) to produce queen cells.  Only one person responded that he had used the method and had not gotten very good results.  

My question to the group is:  How many of you have utilized the Hopkins Method to raise queens and what were your results?  You can respond to me here on BEE-L or directly at [log in to unmask]

I wish to raise a number of my own queens this spring and summer and am seriously contemplating using the Hopkins Method as the mode of operation.  Also, with your response, if you have any personal hints or suggestions, those would be appreciated as well.  Included in my planned mating operation is the inclusion of drone producing colonies headed up by feral swarms captured along the Alabama River where I'm thinking not too many managed colonies exist, and one or two colonies headed up by both SMR and VSH queens (I'm thinking that varroa control is different between these two lines of bees).  In this manner, I'm hoping to include as wide a diversity of drone genetics as possible.

Queen rearing will be a new venture for me although I have utilized some swarm cells and supercedure cells in the past.  I'm looking forward to an interesting and challenging summer this year.

Mike in LA



      

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L