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Re: Bee keepers replacement queen? Russians or?
[Re: Providence Farm]
#7591126
05/25/22 04:14 PM
05/25/22 04:14 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 15,718 MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
Trapper7
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 15,718
MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
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Inspected my hives today. Out of 10 it looks like 5 do not have queens. One had some queen cells. One had older caped brood and eggs last week but no eggs or uncapped brood today.
I tried to requeen with virgin queens a few weeks ago but I didn't see them or any eggs. They were also humming like they were queen less.
One was a split I tried.
So I think I will double check this weekend and if no queen I will combine the smallest ones with my new swarms and re queen the larger hives. I'm planning on driving to man lake after work on Friday to pick up some mated queens and my mentor suggested Russians ,he says that they winter better and produce well but may be a bit more aggressive than Italians. They have Italians and Russian queen hybrid mated with Italians as well.
What do you like.
All my bees are from swarms. I have had 100% winter survival my first two winters. It the spring when they swarm and farmers spray when I loose my quees and have trouble. Maybe I was just needing to requeen anyway but this will be my 3rd summer and I may not get any honey yet again. ( first year swarms I just feed and let build so no honey the firs summer)
What queens do you prefer and why?
I used to have bees until they started spraying all the fields around me with insecticides that killed a lot of my bees. I preferred either Buckfast bees or Starlines. They were pretty good honey producers and fairly docile.
The difference between animals and humans is that animals would never let the dumbest ones lead the pack.
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Re: Bee keepers replacement queen? Russians or?
[Re: Trapper7]
#7591196
05/25/22 05:56 PM
05/25/22 05:56 PM
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 849 Washington
wildflights
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 849
Washington
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Inspected my hives today. Out of 10 it looks like 5 do not have queens. One had some queen cells. One had older caped brood and eggs last week but no eggs or uncapped brood today.
I tried to requeen with virgin queens a few weeks ago but I didn't see them or any eggs. They were also humming like they were queen less.
One was a split I tried.
So I think I will double check this weekend and if no queen I will combine the smallest ones with my new swarms and re queen the larger hives. I'm planning on driving to man lake after work on Friday to pick up some mated queens and my mentor suggested Russians ,he says that they winter better and produce well but may be a bit more aggressive than Italians. They have Italians and Russian queen hybrid mated with Italians as well.
What do you like.
All my bees are from swarms. I have had 100% winter survival my first two winters. It the spring when they swarm and farmers spray when I loose my quees and have trouble. Maybe I was just needing to requeen anyway but this will be my 3rd summer and I may not get any honey yet again. ( first year swarms I just feed and let build so no honey the firs summer)
What queens do you prefer and why?
I used to have bees until they started spraying all the fields around me with insecticides that killed a lot of my bees. I preferred either Buckfast bees or Starlines. They were pretty good honey producers and fairly docile. That's interesting. I bought one Buckfast nuc a couple of years ago. They wintered well the first year and died just before it warmed up around here this spring. By far the meanest SOB's I've ever been around. Really quick to attack without provocation and they'd chase you for a hundred yards. That was one hive you didn't walk in front of. ETA- My buckfast bees came from Texas. Little buggers...mean little buggers.
Last edited by wildflights; 05/25/22 05:59 PM.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. -Gustav Mahler
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Re: Bee keepers replacement queen? Russians or?
[Re: Kent Smith]
#7593765
05/29/22 08:14 AM
05/29/22 08:14 AM
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Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 2,967 new york
mike mason
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 2,967
new york
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PF,
In bad, rainy, cool weather it can take a week "or more" for virgin queens to fly out and breed. Then two to four days after that to lay and then very small patches of eggs for a few days. If I anticipate a hive might be queen less and they are still strong, I put a frame of less that 3 day old eggs from another hive in it. Within 3 days they will be drawing out a queen cell unless you have laying workers.
If you have queen cells they will not accept a new queen unless all cells are destroyed. You could put the queen cell frames above a strong hive with a queen excluder between. You would need to drill a hole under the hand hole on the box big enough for the new queen to fly out and breed. Once she is laying you can start a hive or join her with another queen less hive using a newspaper.
How to join hives and how to get rid of laying workers is another lesson.
TrapperKent 45 years of bee keeping This is what I did, let the hive develop a queen. My first hive came from a wild bee tree and they were great honey producers but tough to work unless you had a great nectar flow. Kent has some good info, joining the weaker hives with newspaper above the supers will get 2 weak hives stronger.
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