Dave penned:
"Using whole frames of drone foundation in the brood nest can disrupt the
nest significantly, the bees never do this themselves so why should a
beekeeper attempt it?"
and Bob followed: How do you set up a drone rearing colony which has no
other purpose but to produce large amounts of drones?
Perhaps a few professional queen breeders could respond to this writers
opinion below or the above as I am neither a commercial package bee
supplier nor a professional queen breeder. I do raise a few queens for my
own benefit and others who may purchase queens when available and for fall
requeening. As with many on the BEE-L I also sell splits in the spring and
in doing so I am permitted by the state in which I live to sell bees. I
have been using queens purchased each spring from a Georgia package and
queen breeder that has gentle and productive Italians when making spring
splits as I have hives on pollination next to rows of strawberries that
are being picked by the growers customers.
After many hours of thought, I have decided to integrate the Minnesota
Hygienic lines developed by Dr. Marla Spivak into my operation. By the
way, Dr. Spivak will be speaking at the Spring Conference of the North
Carolina State Beekeepers Association in New Bern, North Carolina March 12
and 13, 2004; I can’t wait to get her cornered, and Ann Harmon will be
there too! I am writing the following because it makes sense to me,
perhaps only me.
Much has been said on the BEE-L within the past few month regarding
queens; in comparison very little has been said about drones. The
production of a line of queens with desired traits or desired breeding
requires control of both the father and the mother of the queen that
results- for whatever purpose, reason, or desire. Drones need further
discussion!
Bob has mentioned Larry Connor’s series of articles published in the
World’s most easily and most widely read beekeeping periodical, “Bee
Culture”. I suggest that those of you who do not have a copy of these
articles should beg, borrow or go to the nearest library and check out Mr.
Connor’s writings on your own. If your library does not carry “Bee
Culture” perhaps, your local beekeeping club or organization could fund
it! Dr. Connor in the December 2003 issue writes about Drone-Holding
Colonies, Drone Mother Colonies, methods of manipulation and usage of
Drone –Holding Colonies and timing since natural mating of queens must be
accomplished with sexually mature drones. Detailed plans were given for
placement of frames and uses of drone-Holding and-Increase Colonies. Dr.
Connor’s series does make very good sense and is a valuable tool in
planning successful drone rearing and queen mating. His experience with
this mater is certainly justifiable for incorporation into a series of
articles; however, I believe that you would have to have a large
organization to support Dr. Connor’s ideas as discussed in December 2003
and if put into operation; most of us could not afford such time and
expense. In the November 2003 "Bee Culture" Conner develops a 46 day table
for drone rearing which also shows timing to coincide with queen rearing.
This spring I will order several breeder queens to arrive in early May,
and after trails raise queens this summer for fall replacements in two
lines, active and inactive using local drones. Next spring I will schedule
splits, queen rearing, and drone rearing to Connor’s 46 day schedule plus
3 days as Glenn Apiaries recommends a 15 day maturation period for drones.
I also plan to maximize Hygienic drones next spring, ’05, by flooding
techniques from some of my best Minnesota Hygienic queens whose lines of
parentage were not used, inactive line for queen rearing, in order to
prevent inbreeding. Furthermore, I will use whole frames of capped drone
brood from my active line of breeder queens as a varroa control and lesser
method of swarm prevention, which limits unwanted drones, that are most
likely to carry the same alleles as the active line of queens. In May
2005, I will once again receive an order of breeder queens to repeat the
process in order to assure a higher percentage of Minnesota Hygienic
drones of a different parentage thus having different alleles. I believe
that I will be able to accomplish this without the greater expense
required by Connor’s method.
By the way there were several really good articles in the November
2003 “Bee Culture” by some guys named Jim Fischer and Bob Harrison, could
it be? Naw!
Chuck Norton
Norton's Nut & Honey Farm
Reidsville, NC
(Whose experience with Murphy’s Laws certainly understands dogs on bean
bags, hive staples not holding when carrying 150 pound hives without a
veil, truck radiators with Stop Leak; and, leaving home to go to South in
the cold of winter without a house sitter:).
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