Simple Ways Of Rearing Queens?

Hi all
Really enjoying my beekeeping adventure and all is going well I have 2 strong colonies with marked queens, this year i would like to be able to expand,

I have been reading as much as I can about queen rearing and some ways seem a bit complicated so I am throwing this question on to the forum to find out what ways (simpler the better) you are using.

I would like to increase to as many as viable from my 2 colonies as I am in a lucky position that I have 2 people wanting me to put some bees on their land, Happy Days.

So looking to create some queen cells and then make up a number of nucs maybe, I will look forward to some excellent advice as allways

many thanks

If both hives strong, and you can see eggs clearly- find the queen and ensure on a frame you are not going to remove.

Using a Nuc hive transfer a frame with eggs and BIAS into it. Transfer 2 frames of food. In neither case shake off the bees. Shake 2 more frames of bees into that Nuc. The fliers will return to the old hive but the house bees will stay in the Nuc. You need a good dollop of bees to be in the Nuc. Fill any space in Nuc with drawn frames
Give a syrup feed to assist them. They should grab those 1-2 day larvae and develop queen cells. Choose the best queen cell ( most dimpled, strong looking) and dump the rest.. That will give 1 further colony.

I also have the small apideas that I would use those queen cells in but that is maybe a bit further down the line for you.
Good luck

Or Demarree - queen on one frame of brood in bottom box, the rest foundation, QX couple of supers - then second brood box with brood and eggs (vertical A/S basically) open up after three or four days and break down any sealed QC's (they will be from older larvae),inspect the week after and you should have a good collection of sealed QC's - you can then probably split this top box into three nucs and probably have a few more QC's to put into apideas

Agree with JBM.

Is that a welsh 3 line whip ?

Both methods work well

Be good to have a spare Q or two if you capture a good swarm then you can replace the Q with one of your own if you prefer your own bee blood lines

Regards
S

I have never used the Demarree system as I only get the chance to inspect bees every 7 days in an outer apiary, and what about the poor drones stuck in the QE But if its all about the honey hey ho each to their own.

jenkinsbrynmair said:

Or Demarree - queen on one frame of brood in bottom box, the rest foundation, QX couple of supers - then second brood box with brood and eggs (vertical A/S basically) open up after three or four days and break down any sealed QC's (they will be from older larvae),inspect the week after and you should have a good collection of sealed QC's - you can then probably split this top box into three nucs and probably have a few more QC's to put into apideas

Click to expand...

This does sound a fairly straight forward way of acheiving some gains I think this is the way forward for me,

Do you think it is to early to carry this out now or should I wait a few more weeks, I am not in any great rush just sorting out in my head what i am going to do so I have everything prepared.

many thanks for the replies

Brilliant forum

If you constrain them so they go to swarm and then do an artificial swarm method you will always get good queens, emergency reared queens as above can sometimes be of poorer quality.
The operation is just as easy and gives you loads of queen cells, with which I would suggest you try raising some of them in mating nucs, as a mated queen needs very little to help her raise a new colony.
Also the bees will not start till they are ready, and when they are ready will be the right time.

Tdod said:

Do you think it is to early to carry this out now or should I wait a few more weeks

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Wait until the colony has built up and is really strong - you want loads of brood on the point of emerging for royal jelly production and plenty of eggs not hatched larvae, as well as plenty of fresh brood - You will also then have plenty of bees for your new nucs

REDWOOD said:

what about the poor drones stuck in the QE.

Click to expand...

I keep forgetting - you can put a second entrance above the QE - but regardless, they are only cooped up until your chosen QC's are sealed then they get split up and nuced - not really about honey production, but an easy low impact way of creating more than one new colony.

rogerb said:

, emergency reared queens as above can sometimes be of poorer quality.

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Well, they're not really emergency QC's in the true sense of the word where a queen has died/stopped laying - in this method you have fresh eggs, QC's from newly hatched larvae, and as there is plenty of brood - new vigorous nurse bees to make quality royal jelly.
But then again there is a str mantra on here which some will chant regardless of good science.

There is no mantra (or for that matter dogma) in the words; “can” and “sometimes”, nor any debate in their accuracy.

I like to let the bees choose to rear queens in their normal way, as I feel they are better at it than I am.

Not a bad place to start if you’re a beginner???

Heather said:

If both hives strong, and you can see eggs clearly- find the queen and ensure on a frame you are not going to remove.

Using a Nuc hive transfer a frame with eggs and BIAS into it. Transfer 2 frames of food. In neither case shake off the bees. Shake 2 more frames of bees into that Nuc. The fliers will return to the old hive but the house bees will stay in the Nuc. You need a good dollop of bees to be in the Nuc. Fill any space in Nuc with drawn frames
Give a syrup feed to assist them. They should grab those 1-2 day larvae and develop queen cells. Choose the best queen cell ( most dimpled, strong looking) and dump the rest.. That will give 1 further colony.

I also have the small apideas that I would use those queen cells in but that is maybe a bit further down the line for you.
Good luck

Click to expand...

Firstly, it is always going to be better to move the queen out and raise cells in the full colony.

Second, there is an entrenched attitude that mininucs are somehow advanced and not for "beginners"...this is simply not so (and neither is grafting by the way). There are several excellent queen breeding groups in the UK where beginners each have an apidea they charge and take home to care for to raise a queen.

here is a way i used last year. 8 -> 42
you need
1) nuc boxes
2) out apiarys (i used my freinds home apiarys for 4 weeks)
3) strong hives you want to breed from
4) strong hives to break up.
5) fondant(easy but not needed syrup or better stores will work)

pick your breeder colony. build it up well. catch queen make a nuc with her.
move nuc away. come back when queen cells advanced. prepare nuc boxes.
open all hives give each nuc a frame with a queen cell, complete nuc with frames, bees, brood from any other hive. close the nuc's and move to the out apiarys. feed a block of fondant to each nuc. come back in 2-3 weeks check for mating.

you end up with lots of nucs.
the original mated queens can be a pain as there is always one that is missed but she will soon show herself when you inspect the nucs.
it is best to use 3 sources for your bees as two sources will somethimes fight 3 or more seem to be fine.(disease free of course)
queen cells are delicate but if you pick the age carefully they will travel.
this is a little oversimplified but the bones of it are there for you.

Also beware i did have one nuc try and cast.
flying bees also need to be considered so i left either the original queens or nucs on the original stands.
i found that if you marked each frame with what it was ie (brood qc stores f) it made building the nucs easier to keep track of.
it is chaos but ohhh so much fun.

sounds interesting I have a lot to think about as to which way I will go to make increase.....

Many thanks