Hello!
Came up for air--there are some great posts here--keep on posting!
II queens: some last two seasons, some last two months before they are superceeded.
Some lay like crazy but don't seem to be "right" and their colony tries to superceed them.
Some end up with a daughter laying alongside.
What are your thoughts on this? What do you think is causing the variation?
Adam Finkelstein
Being one of the beekeepers who has experienced the short end of the II queen's life span last year, I would like to hear recommendations from others on how to best overwinter II queens.
She's not out of the push in cage and already I'm thinking of best scenarios to keep her alive and laying once she is released.
I believe last year's dramatic weather switches between drought and long rainy seasons played some role. Or perhaps it has something to do with her nutrition during those periods. I kept the hive with supplemental feed due to the hunger all the bees were experiencing. This year I am changing from maintaining her in a 10 frame deep last year to a 10 frame nuc this year.
Any suggestions on the overwintering would be appreciated.
(05-21-2010 04:40 AM)adamf Wrote: [ -> ]Hello!
Came up for air--there are some great posts here--keep on posting!
II queens: some last two seasons, some last two months before they are superceeded.
Some lay like crazy but don't seem to be "right" and their colony tries to superceed them.
Some end up with a daughter laying alongside.
What are your thoughts on this? What do you think is causing the variation?
Adam Finkelstein
(05-21-2010 04:40 AM)adamf Wrote: [ -> ]II queens: some last two seasons, some last two months before they are superceeded.
Some lay like crazy but don't seem to be "right" and their colony tries to superceed them.
Some end up with a daughter laying alongside.
I have seen the same variation that you mention in II queens also. One thing that helps, I think is giving the queens a full dose of semen, which is 8ul. Sue Cobey has informed me that she has started to give queens 10ul of semen over the last couple of years and has noticed that the queens last around 6 months longer, than when she was giving 8ul.
Is this variation significant too only II queens or is it also seen in Naturally Mated (NM) queens?
With the extra time and effort that is put into producing II queens, I think we monitor them closer than we do our NM queens. But, is there a difference?
Garrett
(06-08-2010 08:45 PM)garrettdodds Wrote: [ -> ]I have seen the same variation that you mention in II queens also. One thing that helps, I think is giving the queens a full dose of semen, which is 8ul. Sue Cobey has informed me that she has started to give queens 10ul of semen over the last couple of years and has noticed that the queens last around 6 months longer, than when she was giving 8ul.
Hello Garrett,
Nice to hear from you!
We use a 10ul semen dose unless we're going to do single drone inseminations.
We usually don't do those, though.
Quote:Is this variation significant too only II queens or is it also seen in Naturally Mated (NM) queens?
I only see this variation in II queens. Naturally Mated (NM) queens are consistently more robust.
Quote:With the extra time and effort that is put into producing II queens, I think we monitor them closer than we do our NM queens. But, is there a difference?
Good point. I feel that the II queens are more variable--but I'll take better notes now.
Adam Finkelstein