The Buzz Newsletter

May 2005

 

 

Page 6

On The Road In Texas

I had an opportunity to spend a few days at Gary Lamb’s operation near Jasper, Texas.

Gary and his crew operate around 5000 colonies in North Dakota. They winter in Texas, where they raise queens and prepare their colonies for the upcoming year. They produce around 10,000 to 12,000 queens for sale and an additional 6000 to 8000 for their own use. They also shake 400 to 500 packages. I was impressed. The operation was well organized and they had quality help.

The breeder queens were confined by some excluder pieces within the colony so they knew what frame she was laying on. The bees in the starter colonies were replaced every day. These colonies are the size of a nuc box. The boxes have a screened bottom and the bees are confined in the box. Each starter box gets 60 cell cups. The started cells are transferred to cell building colony to finish the cells. These are two story colonies that are queen right. The queen is confined to the bottom box. The cells go in the top box. Each top box has three frames of cell cups. As one frame is removed, another is added. The inner most frame is the one that is removed . New frames of cell cups are added on the outside. These boxes are jammed with bees. Every six days, they are primed. That consists of pulling young brood up from the bottom box and putting it beside the cell bars. The older frames are moved back to the bottom so the queen will have somewhere to lay. (continued on Page 7)

Gary Lamb is banking queens in the nurse colony.

 

Sue Lamb is packing queens for shipment. Sue also does the grafting.