Capped Drone Brood

[Ben Framed]

I noticed a lot of capped Drone brood today. Thankfully no swarm cells. I suppose it's about time to start grafting if that is what one is interested in trying? Im in zone 7.




                                                                                                                                                                                .

[TheHoneyPump]

Capped drone means they are feeling good about themselves.   It means get your queens rearing equipment sorted and ready.   Do not start grafting until you see young fuzzy newly emerged drones walking around.  It takes the drones a week or two after emerging to sexually mature and start flying to get stronger. That coincides with the amount of time it takes queens to develop from a graft.
There is no point in grafting queens until you see drones walking on the combs.  Grafting too early will have queens ready to play but drones still maturing and not ready.
If you watch the bees they will do the sMe thing.  The bees will not really start drawing cups until there are walking drones. 
So, get your stuff ready, get your calendar worksheets ready, but dont graft just yet. 
IMHO

Hope that helps.

[Ben Framed]

Capped drone means they are feeling good about themselves.   It means get your queens rearing equipment sorted and ready.   Do not start grafting until you see young fuzzy newly emerged drones walking around.  It takes the drones a week or two after emerging to sexually mature and start flying to get stronger. That coincides with the amount of time it takes queens to develop from a graft.
There is no point in grafting queens until you see drones walking on the combs.  Grafting too early will have queens ready to play but drones still maturing and not ready.
If you watch the bees they will do the sMe thing.  The bees will not really start drawing cups until there are walking drones. 
So, get your stuff ready, get your calendar worksheets ready, but dont graft just yet. 
IMHO

Hope that helps.

Thank you it helps immensely.....😊

[van from Arkansas]

Mr. Ben, as HP described, the drones are the limiting factor regarding queen rearing.  I am a little North of you, Ben and I have to wait until mid-April to start grafting larva.  Then in May, all is a go and raise as many queens as you wish.  Be choosy and keep the biggest queens as determined by the wing tip not long enough to touch the 3rd segment.  A simple guide for determining queen size. L

Specifically: the queen wing is not long enough to touch the 3rd segment, counting from the abdomen, count 3 segments or abdomen sections in other words.  These queens have the biggest ovaries, the biggest abdomen.  I?ll post a pic in a few minutes.  Have fun.

[van from Arkansas]

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[van from Arkansas]

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Note the very tip of the wings, is above the 3rd segment, counting from the stinger end of the abdomen segment.

[Ben Framed]

Thank you Mr Van. Good stuff......

[van from Arkansas]

[attachment=0][/attachment]

This queen is only minutes old, as shown with translucent abdomen.  The wing tip just barely touches the 3rd segment.  For a just hatched queen, this is most impressive.

Both pics are Cordovan Italian queens.

[Ben Framed]

Golden Queen Farm.      Nice! 

[van from Arkansas]

Thank you for the kind words, Mr. Ben.

I realize the wing tip above or below the 3rd segment does not sound like any big deal.  After all, this is only  1/16 inch difference.  However that 1/16 of an inch equates to about 100,000 precursor cell eggs.  Not an exact number eggs to be, just an estimate based on cell size and some quick off hand math. Queen bees are born with a set number of eggs to be.  This set number does not increase after birth.

[jtcmedic]

Capped drone means they are feeling good about themselves.   It means get your queens rearing equipment sorted and ready.   Do not start grafting until you see young fuzzy newly emerged drones walking around.  It takes the drones a week or two after emerging to sexually mature and start flying to get stronger. That coincides with the amount of time it takes queens to develop from a graft.
There is no point in grafting queens until you see drones walking on the combs.  Grafting too early will have queens ready to play but drones still maturing and not ready.
If you watch the bees they will do the sMe thing.  The bees will not really start drawing cups until there are walking drones. 
So, get your stuff ready, get your calendar worksheets ready, but dont graft just yet. 
IMHO

Hope that helps.

I just happened to listen to a pod cast about this and how they Saturate drone areas  with genetics, it was a Russian breeder and was very interesting in the producers of this line to her the proper genetic make up they want.