I love this forum, been beeking for years, and just found this site....... much better than pestering the locals for thoughts.... much wider views......
To my quandry..... I have one hive that started late last summer, and did very poorly on buildup.... made it thru the winter fine, but it was my worst hive... barely filled a good deep........ queen was spotty at best, but by the time I realized it it was to late to requeen...... now here we are in spring, and shes still lousy.... just checked all my hives today, and her hive has about 2 square inches of brood (yes shes there I found her easy) she barely keeping up with die off....... I am pondering just offing her and giving them some fress brood/egs from a good queen.... it will be a bit more than a month before I can get any replacment queens....(unless someone has them now that I don't know about)........
figuring in my head I have nothing to lose by offing her, and a cpl weeks to gain
I would think that it's a bit early for queens flying and mating. Yes, it will be a couple weeks till she would be flying, but I know I have less than ideal weather for good mating even the first week or two in April.
agreed, but if I off her this week and give them some new brood from good queen, it will be 3 weeks before mateing flights...... and my other hives have drone comb already..... I am trying to see a down side...... if no new queens are formed I could combine the ones left with another hive....
Maybe it is warmer where you are. I don't know. I may consider grafting in three weeks. But I know it probably will not be consistently above 6-65 at that time. And that is what you need for quality mating.
Three week from now puts you about the 5th of April. Way too early for mating around here.
make sure you save her in some alcohol. :-)
Quote from: kathyp on March 15, 2009, 10:21:38 PM
make sure you save her in some alcohol. :-)
What kind there is so many at the liquor store :-D
cheep stuff to preserve her. save the expensive stuff to preserve you!!
OK
how did my post obaout offing aqueen get turned into a liquor discussion???? *S*
Why in the heck would I want to preserve her anyway??????
Quote from: gmcharlie on March 16, 2009, 11:56:17 AM
how did my post obaout offing aqueen get turned into a liquor discussion???? *S*
Why in the heck would I want to preserve her anyway??????
1-Relax just having some fun :-D
2-To have some thing to look at and show people :cheer:
look on michael bush's site under feral bees, then the bottom of the page about catching swarms. it's about making swarm lures.
Kathy, Ive tried finding the "feral bees" on Michael's site but seem to be missing it. Ahh, never mind just found it.
I thought that you put her in the liquor to sedate her before the execution. :roll:
Most of my queens end up with a pin through their thorax in a graveyard of various and sundry beautiful and scary insects that my sons collect. :) Theirs is always the only collection with a queen bee, queen hornet, queen yellowjacket, etc. One of them even had a mating pair of bumblebees still connected in death. :shock:
Rick
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesferal.htm
bottom of the page. bait hives.