# 10 Threads in 10 Days - #10 Raising Queens



## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

I would like to encourage beekeepers this year to make an effort to raise a few queens. Queen rearing for far too long has been a lost art form for the average beekeepers and I think the genetics are weaker than they would be if more beekeepers would raise their own queens.

There are many websites out there. And many books and videos.

The Northern States Queen Breeders Association, which is a small group of beekeepers helping each other, has been expanding the NSQBA website to pass along information, advice, and the encouragement for beekeepers to make the effort with queen rearing.

While I am an "old-school" grafter, there are many techniques and ways to raise queens. 

You will find out what many have already found out....that your own queens are pretty good when compared to others you may buy.

So check out the NSQBA website. And raise a few queens this year. You will be glad you did.

www.nsqba.org

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

I have given queen a thought but have yet to try ,, I feel I do not have enough use for them , but I will be giving it a try when I get a few more hives .I have been reading and collecting info on it .. so when the time comes ,,, I won't be able to find my info ,, and so I will be asking what to do ..


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Tom,
When you get ready to raise a queen or two just give me a call. as you know we have been doing that for many years now.

One of the biggest complaints at bee club meetings every year around June and July here in the north is the poor quailty queens in packages.
Many of the older bee keepers are now advising people who by packages to buy a new queen ASAP as the package queen will shurely fail before fall arrives.

 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Interesting thread as I hadn't thought I'd need to rear queens! If I get a new package this spring, can I just try to find the queen and kill her in the summer some time and have the hive rear out a new one? Of course this means I'd have to find her and she'd have to just have layed eggs, right?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yes you could find her, kill her and let the workers raise a new queen. 
BUT if she is doing a good job you shouldn't need to. There is also a time lag to thoink about, 14 days from eggs to a hatched queen then several days for her to mate (I figure by day 20.) and maybe up to a week to start laying.

Better to slect some eggs to graft into cups, place in a nuc with young workers who will make the cells and you can seperate them for hatching if you do several at a time or just graft a couple and allow the strongest to make it.

Many like me have horriable eye sight so grafting is hard to do with the grafting spoon. We use several other tools. I use the cell punching method, some use the boughten queen rearing products.

 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

I went and did the lasix surgery and the ...quack... ahem... I mean Doctor... ended up making my eyes with mono-vision. One eye sees near and the other sees far, so neither really work the best as they fight each other. Anyway, I don't think I'd be good with the grafting either, so please tell me where I can learn more about the cell punching method!


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## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

AverageJo said:


> Interesting thread as I hadn't thought I'd need to rear queens! If I get a new package this spring, can I just try to find the queen and kill her in the summer some time and have the hive rear out a new one? Of course this means I'd have to find her and she'd have to just have layed eggs, right?


No.

If your requeening because of poor genetics in the package, then you don't want to raise your next generation queen from genetics from the queen you just pinched. 

You can select from your own best stock if you have other hives, or bring in a quality queen from a breeder that knows what they are doing. The lost production from the downtime your hive goes through in rearing their own, is more than the cost of the queen. 

Of course, you can do all this with swarm cells from other hives, or at a time after the main flow when a stoppage of brood also alleviates mite pressure.

Many ways to upgrade your genetics. But letting them raise queens from packages, and letting them raise their own, is about the poorest choice you could make.


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

BjornBee said:


> The Northern States Queen Breeders Association ...


With the NSQBA as sort of a model, the Indiana State Beekeepers Assn has been awarded a grant to develop/promote in-state queen rearing. The grant will pay for materials including mating nucs, grafting equipment and Latshaw artificial insemination instruments. The Assn will work in conjunction with Dr. Greg Hunt at Purdue, who has been breeding for mite-resistance for quite a few years. The plan is to train beekeepers and develop queen-producers around the state.


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## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

indypartridge said:


> With the NSQBA as sort of a model, the Indiana State Beekeepers Assn has been awarded a grant to develop/promote in-state queen rearing. The grant will pay for materials including mating nucs, grafting equipment and Latshaw artificial insemination instruments. The Assn will work in conjunction with Dr. Greg Hunt at Purdue, who has been breeding for mite-resistance for quite a few years. The plan is to train beekeepers and develop queen-producers around the state.


Fantastic.

The key is the last part..."develop queen producers around the state".

Seems there are a few state level universities, and entomologists, who want a feather in their cap for promoting or setting up a queen program. But reality is, we need the end to result in actual queens being produced.

To many programs rely on over-hyped "We are going to produce a mite resistant strain" and then it never results in actual supply being produced to benefit the industry. And one state in particular was in this "propogate this and fine tune that" and after a few years, it just fizzled. If nobody is making money and benefitting, and no queens are ever produced for the bee consumer to buy, support will diminish and the program will never achieve it's original intended purpose.

Pennsylvania is going through this process also. It is being promoted that the university will do the selection, the stock buildup, then if you want to be a breeder of the program, you must abide by their protocol, their standard, and follow their queen rearing program. Which is an insult to those that are already putting in the effort, and probably further along than any university queen program could ever achieve. Instead of working with the breeders already in the state, they have suggested we have failed, they will do better, and they will tell us what to do IF we want to play along. It's as if this is being promoted as knights on white horses who will be coming along any day now to save us from our own failures. 

But that means nothing to the beekeeper who picks up the phone come June and finds not a queen to be found from this program.

I don't need the government, or the university, telling me how they will save me from my own failures, especially before they have produced one result or one queen.

Good luck Indy. Mayby my own perspective and opinion can be used to see how others veiw other state level programs.


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

So... If I were to get a call for an extraction where I didn't get the queen, just vac'd up a bunch of bees and put in a bee escape for what was left... for example.... How quickly could I get a bee from NSQBA to give the captured bees? Or, if I were to do a split of a hive, I should probably get a queen then, too? Do they ship via post office or would I have to pick up?


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## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

I can't speak for all the NSQBA members. Most are micro-breeders who operate and are at the mercy of northern climates.

Myself, I normally have queens in June, July, and August. Earlier produced queens are used for nuc production, which is the bread and butter of the operation.

In early spring, or other times of the year, you may need to go south or west for a queen.

Reality is that we just have limited supply in the north. We need more northern breeders.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

I have thought about trying queens but like I say , I feel I do not have enough use for them .. But I have thought about just doing one or two just to see how much I don't know ,, The queen may not be put to use ,, only so I can LEARN 
a little about raising a queen or two ..


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## bee_linux (Jan 30, 2011)

I plan on raising some queens of my own this year. I'll look into NSQBA, thanks Bjorn


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