On  4 Mar 97 at 20:00, Frank & Phronsie Humphrey wrote:
 
> getting queens until the first week in April,  I 'm going to remove my
> breeder queen and let the colony raise me some.  I've never tried this I
> have heard both pro and con from experienced beekeepers.  Anyone care to
> comment??
 
By all means do it, BUT, do it right!!  The breeder queen needs to be safe
guarded, and allowed to build another hive. Take her plus some sealed
brood plus stores and a goodly number of bees off to one side, leaving on
the old site the remainder of the hive. (this assumes you want new queens
from the old queen mother)
        The field bees from the old hive now return to the new hive , boosting
the cell builder. The builder will now start to raise cells from larvae
and eggs left on the old site. Here is where it can fail. You must be
aware of ALL cells being produced and at the 4th day ALL sealed cells
(even short, uneven or underfed) must be cut out.Brush the bees off the
frame to be really sure you get them all. DO NOT SHAKE or you will damage
the cells. If you don't cut them out the bees will produce an intercaste
queen which for our purposes will be useless, in a few weeks that queen
will be supersceded. In the meantime, of course, the hive will be in
decline.
        Needless to say, the cell builder will need pollen and feeding with 1-1
syrup, and some feed to the queen mother would'nt go amiss. If you can
restrict the flying drones of the breeder mother during mating time, even
better.
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The Bee Works, 9 Progress Drive Unit 2, Orillia,
Ontario, Canada. L3V 6H1
David Eyre, Owner. Phone/Fax 705 326 7171
Dealers for E.H.Thorne & B.J.Sherriff UK
http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks
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