The Buzz Newsletter

May 2005

 

 

Page 7

(continued from Page 6)

Queens were picked in the mornings and sometimes again after lunch. I am now a third rate queen catcher. They used several different styles of mating pockets. Some utilized Illinois frames in a duplex. They had a couple of different styles of mini frames in the other mating nucs. I liked the Illinois duplexes the best. There were a lot more bees in these. The queens had a chance to lay a lot more eggs and were better developed. At the end of the queen rearing season, the Illinois frames are retuned to regular boxes and they use them to establish more colonies.

The cell starting boxes were loaded in the morning. Grafting was usually after lunch. Cells were installed in the afternoon and the mating nucs were fed if needed. There was also a crew that went out to build splits in the morning but I was never involved with this. They start the splits with two frames of brood and a queen cell. They did 168 every morning. I am assuming this is the number that fit on the truck.

It was a great trip.

Submitted by Phil Ebert

Ryan Lamb examines a frame of new queen cells.

 

Bismark is looking for a queen. When the bees have bult a piece of burrcomb, the queen is almost always found on it.