Bad time to loose a queen

Sparky · March 19, 2012, 09:11:33 PM

Things are starting to really boom here in Maryland with a early spring. The bees are loading the frames with pollen and a nectar flow has started. During a queen evaluation inspection of one hive and before i put on the super, i just had to set a frame with some comb attached to the bottom down in the box and slide out of the way to find the queen and mark her. Well i found her alright. When I set the frame in and slid it there she was quivering in the wax that i smashed her into on the top bars below. :'( There she lay, the plump, former healthy Italian taking her last breath GRRRRR !! We are still lacking a good population of drones yet, so it looks like a outside source for the new leader. This is the first that i killed one during a inspection but it just had to be a good over winter queen that was done in so that's what really makes it hurt.

AllenF · March 19, 2012, 09:39:57 PM

Did you find many drones during your inspection?

jaseemtp · March 19, 2012, 11:28:43 PM

Bob Harvey has queens available, he is in Florida. Let me know if you need or cant find his contact info
That sucks that you lost her, I have recently done the same thing and had to combine the hive

Sparky · March 20, 2012, 11:34:10 PM

Quote from: AllenF on March 19, 2012, 09:39:57 PM
Did you find many drones during your inspection?

No, I only saw a couple per hive so I would not atempt to get a good mated queen from my stock yet.

Sparky · March 20, 2012, 11:37:22 PM

Quote from: jaseemtp on March 19, 2012, 11:28:43 PM
Bob Harvey has queens available, he is in Florida. Let me know if you need or cant find his contact info
That sucks that you lost her, I have recently done the same thing and had to combine the hive

Thanks for the offer but I called the local commercial guy that I do business with and he is bringing packages up from Georgia and will have queens this weekend.

jajtiii · March 20, 2012, 11:54:05 PM

Why wouldn't you try to raise a queen now? Is this because of other old timer, who offered advice based on times that no longer exist (when over half the problems we have today didn't even exist)? Have you done it 10 times and seen it fail the majority or at a rate that is unacceptable? I know the answer is 'no', because Md and Va have not seen a Winter like this in around 94 years (I am assuming you are not that old, of course.)

I started queens on Feb 23 and I am not too far south from you. I am confident in saying right now that the majority of these queen will be better then anything you could purchase and have shipped up from some other state. No question.

I have lost one hive in 3 years and I do not treat (except for one time that I succumbed to some old timer's doom and gloom and tortured them with powdered sugar). I only run 35 hives, but I sure don't have a problem with survivability.

Right this second, I bet your hives would raise a better queen then anything you could buy somewhere else.

jajtiii · March 20, 2012, 11:56:18 PM

I meant to add that 'this time' is NEARLY the best time to lose a queen. Lose one in Dec or Jan and you'll learn what a 'bad time' is.

Sparky · March 21, 2012, 09:29:55 PM

Quote from: jajtiii on March 20, 2012, 11:54:05 PM
Why wouldn't you try to raise a queen now? Is this because of other old timer, who offered advice based on times that no longer exist (when over half the problems we have today didn't even exist)? Have you done it 10 times and seen it fail the majority or at a rate that is unacceptable? I know the answer is 'no', because Md and Va have not seen a Winter like this in around 94 years (I am assuming you are not that old, of course.)

I started queens on Feb 23 and I am not too far south from you. I am confident in saying right now that the majority of these queen will be better then anything you could purchase and have shipped up from some other state. No question.

I have lost one hive in 3 years and I do not treat (except for one time that I succumbed to some old timer's doom and gloom and tortured them with powdered sugar). I only run 35 hives, but I sure don't have a problem with survivability.

Right this second, I bet your hives would raise a better queen then anything you could buy somewhere else.

I would rather raise one from my own stock that I know what the characteristics of the bees have been. I also know that this past Saturday and sunday going through all of the hives that the drone brood is capped and will be emerging soon. I only saw a small hand full of drones in all the colonies combined. By the time the drones are hardened and of maturity to breed I could have put a bred queen in and picked up on the production that is being lost by waiting to see. Apparently this is not the case for your area for getting the queen to be well bred. I will be raising some queens soon but only after I see a good population of drones that are flying.