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Date: | Thu, 18 Feb 2021 18:14:46 -0500 |
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> Using 10 years of weather data I was able to illustrate that the 1st 2 weeks of June are terrible for queen rearing (use purchased queens) and I should rear my queens late June and overwinter in 5 frame nucs...
I'm curious. Does history indicate that period is always bad, usually bad, or just worse on average than other selected periods? Were there occasionally exceptionally good-looking years for that timeframe, or was it never good?
Was weather the only criterion for the decision, or was the condition and readiness of the bees to raise cells and/or swarm a consideration, too.?
We've raised good queens in late April/early May when it was said to be impossible in our area but we had the drones and the management to make it work. We only did it once because it was difficult and used bee resources more easily available and less costly to exploit in May and June. I should mention that was our best production year ever but then we went pollinating and changed the operation completely.
Mating weather is a consideration, but IMO, often an excuse for bad queen rearing or poor drones. If the bees have lots of good-looking drones and want make cells, it is a good time for queen rearing regardless of what calculations may say. It does not take many warm sunny minutes for a queen to mate, in my experience anyhow, but you have to have drones.
Swarming season, wherever you are is the best time to make the best queens. Just ask the bees.
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