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Backyard Breeding of Northern Queens December 2, 2014
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Sustainable Hive Management Breed survivor stock and Stop Buying Bees! ◦ Hives with local queens survive the winter better* ◦ Overwintered nucs with northern raised (or Russian) queens are in high demand and short supply – become part of the solutionWhy? [*from Erin Forbes and Cindy Bee’s SARE research on requeening package bees]
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Why? Swarm “Prevention” Lost swarm = lost honey production Hedge your bets against queen failure Avoid terrifying your neighbors
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When? It starts with your comb culling program in April Beginners – this is why we ask you to write the date on new frames Wait till pollen is coming in and temperatures are warm enough for bees to fly nearly every day Silver maples Crocuses
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Comb culling: ◦ Replace your oldest 20% (2 frames/hive body) of frames with new foundation each year so none are older than 5 years ◦ Pull out damaged or oldest frames when broodnest is small (don’t pull brood frames) Save frames with capped honey and pollen in the freezer
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When? Make queens and nucs on the dandelion bloom, or when you begin to see queen cells. (You have to choose.) If you wait for cells you might lose a swarm If you split early you might sacrifice honey production
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How? Remember: Where do your bees live? Finding young bees: ◦ Nurse Bees – 5 to 15 day old bees produce the most royal jelly – they are found on the young larvae Nurse bees are essential for queen production, and queen health Nurse bees don’t fight with other bees, and rarely sting
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How? Remember: Where do your bees live? ◦ Finding your queen: Use marked queens Use only a little bit of smoke a puff at the entrance should be enough in the spring The queen is most likely to be on a frame with eggs and young larvae – go there first Look where the eggs are
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Setting up the Castle: Why find the queen? Take out the strong queen for swarm prevention Broodless hives in spring reduce your Varroa mite population Set the queen aside in a queen catcher before you start shaking bees If you don’t see her, check back in 4-5 days and look for eggs You need a queen cell – more than one is even better
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Setting up the Castle ◦ Need young bees – capped brood and nurses Take the bees that come along with the queen cell frame Capped/emerging brood will keep everything moving forward Shake one or two frames of nurse bees from additional frames of open brood
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Setting up the Castle: ◦ Need resources (at least one frame) Use pollen and honey from comb rotation, or take it from a too-strong hive
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To feed or not to feed? ◦ Nurse bees eat honey and pollen to produce royal jelly If they have plenty of natural food they will be healthy and productive ◦ On the other hand, you may have a hive with no foragers If you make up the castle in the same yard, foragers will return to the parent hive If they don’t have enough food they may starve or produce an undernourished queen
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WAIT! and try not to worry
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And keep good records
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Queen Math* * Egg HatchCell CappedEmergeLaying 3½ days8 days ±1 16 days ±128 days ±5 If you find a capped queen cell, how long before it should have emerged for sure? 9 days, but probably eight. If you find a capped queen cell, how long before you should see eggs from that queen? 20 days. [If a hive just swarmed today, how long before the new queen is laying?... about three weeks give or take a week. (two to four weeks).] *from www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm
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Advanced techniques: Miller frames allow you to manipulate the age of larvae and make multiple queen cells (sometimes) Mini mating nucs allow you to move individual queen cells and make a lot of queens with little resources and space
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A few people can make a huge difference ◦ If 20 people in Maine make 5 nucleus colonies this year that’s 100 packages that aren’t needed Every year with more winter hardy drones makes the whole area’s population stronger Red Brook Honey nucs, packed together for warmth
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