# Queen rearing update



## irishstars (Jan 30, 2004)

Ok, here's the latest. Of the 24 queen cells that I graphed by hand, only 2 were developed into queen cells by the queenless nuc box set up. They have been installed in a split hive and in the observation hive in our family room. Hopefully they will emerge today or tomorrow. Also, our mentors lent us a "genter" queen rearing system to try. You catch the queen, put her into the special frame insert, she lays 100 or so cells on special "cups", then you take her out and put the cups into a queenless hive. They will raise the queens, then you insert the queen cells into splits before they emerge. With our first try, the queen laid approx. 75 eggs, and we took 24 to raise. Of that 24, we have at least 10 queen cells that we will install in a few days. Survivability is yet to be seen. If the they all emerge, we will take them to our mentor's bee yard since we don't have enought drone to mate all these queens. If this begins to work, I'll update more. Barb, irishstars


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Actually, queens fly far and fast on their mating flights. If there are hives wiithinn a few miles, she will likely find enough drones.

But, sharing queen cells with your mentor sounds like a LOVELY idea!


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## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

what variety are your bees? and are you planning on selling in the forseeable future? just a though but you might want to check out the program on queen rearing that ohio state has it also covers instremental insemination of queens.


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## irishstars (Jan 30, 2004)

well James, 
at the moment we have 3 banded italians, canolians, and a smr cross. if we have any good sucess, we will look at purchasing a breeder queen next year. At the moment we aren't planning to sell, because they aren't living!!! :waa: :waa: The first ten from the genter died when a **** tipped the nuc over, and only one of the original graphed queens lived. She is really too small, I used too old of larvae. Our second round of the genter system was doing great until we hade 70 mph winds and the breeder box blew off the hive. SOOOO, this is definitely a learning curve year!!!   Any that we have sucess with this year will either go into our own splits or to our mentor, as he needs queens as much as everybody else. We are heading towards commercial and he has 1500+ hives. That's a lot of queens when you re-queen at least once a year. If we can get the genter system working, and have queens to sell, I'll let everyone know. I'll look into Ohio State later this year; too much to do at the moment. We are going to try graphing by hand, and using the genter system again this week. will update as I go Barb, irishstars


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## irishstars (Jan 30, 2004)

[
Hi Terri,

[Actually, queens fly far and fast on their mating flights. If there are hives wiithinn a few miles, she will likely find enough drones.] This is true, but there there are no hives except our own for over ten miles. We picked this locale just for that reason. We hope to be commercial next year, and I want to be able to control the insemination, but not try artifical just yet. Also, hive beetles was a big problem in our area a few years ago, so I'm trying to stay away from any and all contact with other hives; all new equipment etc. same goes with varroa mites and AFB.

But, sharing queen cells with your mentor sounds like a LOVELY idea![/QUOTE]

This has real perks, as he needs queens and is more than willing to help us get started. We will be trading queens for more splits as well as the advice, etc. He has farmers begging for pollination hives, so it's to everybody's advantage if we can get up and going asap for the queen rearing and hives forntal. Of course the honey is a great side benefit!   

Barb, Irishstars


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