California NUCs and packages vs SE US, Is there a difference

Started by jalentour, October 19, 2014, 12:36:36 PM

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sterling

You could get the five packages and let them build up strong. Then make your best hive queenless by taking her out and put her in a nuc and the bees will make queen cells. on the 14th day take two frame nucs out of the packages and put the queen cells in. Keep the package queens in a small nuc also for a backup queen.

jalentour


sterling

Quote from: jvalentour on October 25, 2014, 12:09:12 PM
From which apiary should I purchase those packages?

If you are going to split them and give them a queen from local stock I don't think it would make a lot of difference. Packages from the SE do really good at building up in a hurry. That is what they have been bred to do. I have had packages from Ga and they have done well in building up so I could split them. And the ones that superseded their queen after I split them did well the next year. I can't say anything about California bees because I have not ever dealt with any personally but evidently many people have had good luck with them.
To answer your question. I have used Wolfcreek and Wilbanks packages and have helped others start with Kellys and Pigeon Mt.

OldMech


  Of all the packages I have ordered, the Wilbanks packages had the least problems..  Understand, that is not saying a LOT, but if forced to choose a package They would be my choice..
   Pigeon Mt......   they decided to ship me bees out on a Thursday, with a three day weekend upcoming..  A full third of the bees were dead when they arrived, the syrup can was empty..  When hived they simply continued to dwindle as expected..   if I had not added brood and bees from other hives I am quite certain I would have lost all four.. three of four of the queens superseded..    I cannot say their bees are no good, I CAN say their shipping department has very little intelligence.. I have not ordered anything from them since...
   Other packages arrived with tiny queens, or a lot of mites etc..  With no resources, meaning other hives to draw brood, drawn frames and bees from MANY of the packages from other places would NOT have survived..   Perhaps it has to do with having the Wilbanks packages overnight on a truck as opposed to getting them through the US mail..
39 Hives and growing.  Havent found the end of the comfort zone yet.

hjon71

"Gentle, productive and reproductive are also factors."

I noticed your first word was Gentle. Most of what I've read and watched about California bees indicates some AHB genetics. Of course requeening fixes most aggressiveness but that temperament may be an issue.
Quite difficult matters can be explained even to a slow-witted man, if only he has not already adopted a wrong opinion about them; but the simplest things cannot be made clear even to a very intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he already knows, and knows indubitably, the truth of the matter under consideration. -Leo Tolstoy

sterling

The people I helped get started with Pigeon Mt bees didn't have any problems and they built up well and are producing honey.
A package superseding their queen is not necessarly a bad thing if there is enough local drones for mating. I have some WolfCreek hives I started 4 and 5 years ago that superseded their queen the first summer that are still doing well.
I have a Wilbanks hive that I started 3 or 4 years ago that has done really well building up every spring and producing honey with minimal management.
I have also taking splits off some of these hives every year after the flow.

jayj200

Is it not to late in the season to think about breading a new queen?

buy from Fl or calf as they have the mildest shortest winter. therefore a long summer