By KENNETH W. TUCKER
Research entomologist, Science and Education Administration, Bee Breeding and Bee Stock Research, Baton Rouge, La. 70808.
BEEKEEPING IN THE UNITED STATES
AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NUMBER 335
Revised October 1980
Pages 58 – 63
The production of queen bees, package bees, and nuclei provides for the establishment of new colonies, the replacement of dead colonies, or the rejuvenation of ongoing colonies. It renders these objectives as planned management, instead of the haphazard and often ill-timed replacement of colonies by swarming and of queens by swarming or supersedure.
Most queens, packages, and nuclei are produced by beekeepers who concentrate on this specialty of beekeeping. Most beekeepers who manage bees for the production of honey and wax or for pollination leave the propagation of queens and bees to a specialist for several reasons. Probably the most important reason is that the specialist in queens and bees can produce them at less expense than could other beekeepers. The specialist also requires considerable experience in many detailed rearing techniques, in comparing breeder queens to ideal standards of performance, and in testing for uniform performance of the daughter queens. The specialty also requires considerable investment in equipment used just for queen and bee production.
The annual dollar value of queen and bee production for 1975 was probably about $10 million to $15 million. California, where county-by-county production statistics are available, accounted for about half this production. For Texas and the Southeastern States, the estimate was based on the guess that about half the queens and a third of the package bees were produced there. This estimate indicated a production of about 1 million queens and 500 tons of package bees but did not include a complete accounting for queens, bees, and nucs (nuclei, small colonies) used within the same beekeeping operation. Partial figures for large migratory bee operations indicated a production of perhaps 100,000 valued at about $2 million.
As an industry within an industry, the queen and bee business operational expenses and earnings become the operational expenses of other beekeepers. Some large honey producers and pollination contractors have integrated queen and bee rearing into a "vertically" enlarged beekeeping operation. Typically, such operations locate in mild winter areas for queen and bee production during winter and spring, then locate in cold winter areas for honey production or pollination in summer.
Queens
Queens usually are sold as young mated adult queens that have been laying eggs for only a few days. These queens most often are reared from 12- to 24-hour-old worker larvae, transferred ("grafted") from worker comb into specially prepared queen cell cups. The developing queens are reared in either queenless colonies or next to young brood in part of a queenright colony from which the queen is excluded. Completed queen cells, when within a day of the queen's emergence as an adult, are placed individually into small, queenless colonies of bees, called mating nucs. About 2 weeks later, the young queens will have mated and be laying. For shipment, each queen is placed into a mailing cage supplied with candy along with 7 to 10 young worker bees from the mating nuc (fig. 1).
Package Bees
Package bees usually are sold caged in 2- or 3-pound units, along with a caged laying queen and a pint can of sugar syrup. Bees for packaging usually are shaken from the brood combs of the upper part of strong colonies, so that mostly young adult bees will be included. The bees are shaken through a funnel into the packages or into a "shaker box" until about 10 pounds of bees have accumulated; then several packages are filled from the shaker box. Cages for shipping packages are made of wood and screen, in a way that combines lightweight, sturdiness, and a maximum of screened area through which the bees can ventilate their cluster (fig. 2).
Nucs
Nucs or nuclei are small colonies with queens. They usually are composed of three to five combs of bees and brood with a laying queen. These may have been the mating nucs for the resident queens, or queens mated elsewhere could be introduced into nucs newly assembled from strong colonies. Nucs intended to develop into full-strength colonies are made up in equipment of the same size as the full-strength colony, in contrast to most queen-mating nucs, which have much smaller combs (fig. 3).
Management for Queen and Bee Production
Queens are best reared and bees and brood most efficiently produced under those circumstances which accompany the spring swarming season: colonies near peak population, an abundance of nectar and pollen, and a readiness to rear drones in abundance. The season of abundance can be started earlier and extended later by feeding sugar syrup and pollen substitutes when nectar and pollen flows are inadequate. For maximum production of queens, drones, and bees, conditions of abundance should be maintained for as much as 2 to 2-1/2 months before the anticipated date of queen production and continued as long as queens are still to be mated. Drone production is the most sensitive to nutritional inadequacies and should be used to gage rearing conditions. By early and continued feeding, the rearing season may be advanced by a month and production of bees for stocking mating nucs and for packages increased.
Demand for Queens and Bees
The demand for bees and queens is based on the use made of them. These uses usually are the start of new colonies and the continuance of established colonies.
New colonies may be started in a variety of ways. A 2-pound package with a laying queen installed onto drawn comb and provided with adequate honey or syrup and pollen or pollen supplement should be expected to develop into a strong colony in about 12 weeks (four brood cycles). A three- or five-frame (9-1/2-inch depth Langstroth) nuc with a queen should be expected to develop to the same strength in 9 weeks (three brood cycles) because it has brood already present. Either the package or the nuc option may be made starting with only a shipped queen, but with the bees and brood supplied from other colonies managed by the recipient of the queen. Of these two options, the nuc (also called a divide or split) probably has been used most, with the bees and brood taken from the strongest overwintered colonies. A few northern beekeepers shake their own packages.
For the continuance of established colonies, usually only a queen is needed. These queens are used to replace older queens which are no longer laying well or to change the nature of the bees of a colony that may be unproductive, overwinter poorly, sting too much, use too much propolis, or have any other characteristic the beekeeper thinks undesirable.
The demand for bees and queens also reflects the ways in which the recipients expect the bees and queens to fit their management. The recipient beekeepers must make decisions based on economics and on the seasonal cycle of weather and honey flows in their localities. These decisions include whether (1) to operate with perennial (overwintering) or annual (bees killed in late summer or fall and the hive restocked in the spring) management (which depends upon whether the beekeeper expects surplus honey from new colonies in the same season or not until the next year), (2) surplus honey flow or pollination is early, mid-season, or late, and (3) to establish new colonies or replace queens.
These management decisions by the recipients of queens and bees have dictated two aspects of the queen and bee industry: the shipping season and the geographic location of the industry.
The relation between management options and shipping season is summarized in table 1. Currently, and for the past 50 years, the shipping season for most queens and bees has been early spring, from March to May. The reason for this has been the dual demand for bees to replace winter losses and a very strong demand from annual management without overwintering. But with less annual management and more overwintering, it seems possible that the shipping season may spread out from the spring concentration.
Because of the heavy demand for queens and bees in early spring, the queen and bee industry has become concentrated in the mild winter areas of the country. Thus, most queens and bees currently are produced in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and the Sacramento Valley of California.
Research entomologist, Science and Education Administration, Bee Breeding and Bee Stock Research, Baton Rouge, La. 70808.
BEEKEEPING IN THE UNITED STATES
AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NUMBER 335
Revised October 1980
Pages 58 – 63
The production of queen bees, package bees, and nuclei provides for the establishment of new colonies, the replacement of dead colonies, or the rejuvenation of ongoing colonies. It renders these objectives as planned management, instead of the haphazard and often ill-timed replacement of colonies by swarming and of queens by swarming or supersedure.
Most queens, packages, and nuclei are produced by beekeepers who concentrate on this specialty of beekeeping. Most beekeepers who manage bees for the production of honey and wax or for pollination leave the propagation of queens and bees to a specialist for several reasons. Probably the most important reason is that the specialist in queens and bees can produce them at less expense than could other beekeepers. The specialist also requires considerable experience in many detailed rearing techniques, in comparing breeder queens to ideal standards of performance, and in testing for uniform performance of the daughter queens. The specialty also requires considerable investment in equipment used just for queen and bee production.
The annual dollar value of queen and bee production for 1975 was probably about $10 million to $15 million. California, where county-by-county production statistics are available, accounted for about half this production. For Texas and the Southeastern States, the estimate was based on the guess that about half the queens and a third of the package bees were produced there. This estimate indicated a production of about 1 million queens and 500 tons of package bees but did not include a complete accounting for queens, bees, and nucs (nuclei, small colonies) used within the same beekeeping operation. Partial figures for large migratory bee operations indicated a production of perhaps 100,000 valued at about $2 million.
As an industry within an industry, the queen and bee business operational expenses and earnings become the operational expenses of other beekeepers. Some large honey producers and pollination contractors have integrated queen and bee rearing into a "vertically" enlarged beekeeping operation. Typically, such operations locate in mild winter areas for queen and bee production during winter and spring, then locate in cold winter areas for honey production or pollination in summer.
Queens
Queens usually are sold as young mated adult queens that have been laying eggs for only a few days. These queens most often are reared from 12- to 24-hour-old worker larvae, transferred ("grafted") from worker comb into specially prepared queen cell cups. The developing queens are reared in either queenless colonies or next to young brood in part of a queenright colony from which the queen is excluded. Completed queen cells, when within a day of the queen's emergence as an adult, are placed individually into small, queenless colonies of bees, called mating nucs. About 2 weeks later, the young queens will have mated and be laying. For shipment, each queen is placed into a mailing cage supplied with candy along with 7 to 10 young worker bees from the mating nuc (fig. 1).
Package Bees
Package bees usually are sold caged in 2- or 3-pound units, along with a caged laying queen and a pint can of sugar syrup. Bees for packaging usually are shaken from the brood combs of the upper part of strong colonies, so that mostly young adult bees will be included. The bees are shaken through a funnel into the packages or into a "shaker box" until about 10 pounds of bees have accumulated; then several packages are filled from the shaker box. Cages for shipping packages are made of wood and screen, in a way that combines lightweight, sturdiness, and a maximum of screened area through which the bees can ventilate their cluster (fig. 2).
Nucs
Nucs or nuclei are small colonies with queens. They usually are composed of three to five combs of bees and brood with a laying queen. These may have been the mating nucs for the resident queens, or queens mated elsewhere could be introduced into nucs newly assembled from strong colonies. Nucs intended to develop into full-strength colonies are made up in equipment of the same size as the full-strength colony, in contrast to most queen-mating nucs, which have much smaller combs (fig. 3).
Management for Queen and Bee Production
Queens are best reared and bees and brood most efficiently produced under those circumstances which accompany the spring swarming season: colonies near peak population, an abundance of nectar and pollen, and a readiness to rear drones in abundance. The season of abundance can be started earlier and extended later by feeding sugar syrup and pollen substitutes when nectar and pollen flows are inadequate. For maximum production of queens, drones, and bees, conditions of abundance should be maintained for as much as 2 to 2-1/2 months before the anticipated date of queen production and continued as long as queens are still to be mated. Drone production is the most sensitive to nutritional inadequacies and should be used to gage rearing conditions. By early and continued feeding, the rearing season may be advanced by a month and production of bees for stocking mating nucs and for packages increased.
Demand for Queens and Bees
The demand for bees and queens is based on the use made of them. These uses usually are the start of new colonies and the continuance of established colonies.
New colonies may be started in a variety of ways. A 2-pound package with a laying queen installed onto drawn comb and provided with adequate honey or syrup and pollen or pollen supplement should be expected to develop into a strong colony in about 12 weeks (four brood cycles). A three- or five-frame (9-1/2-inch depth Langstroth) nuc with a queen should be expected to develop to the same strength in 9 weeks (three brood cycles) because it has brood already present. Either the package or the nuc option may be made starting with only a shipped queen, but with the bees and brood supplied from other colonies managed by the recipient of the queen. Of these two options, the nuc (also called a divide or split) probably has been used most, with the bees and brood taken from the strongest overwintered colonies. A few northern beekeepers shake their own packages.
For the continuance of established colonies, usually only a queen is needed. These queens are used to replace older queens which are no longer laying well or to change the nature of the bees of a colony that may be unproductive, overwinter poorly, sting too much, use too much propolis, or have any other characteristic the beekeeper thinks undesirable.
The demand for bees and queens also reflects the ways in which the recipients expect the bees and queens to fit their management. The recipient beekeepers must make decisions based on economics and on the seasonal cycle of weather and honey flows in their localities. These decisions include whether (1) to operate with perennial (overwintering) or annual (bees killed in late summer or fall and the hive restocked in the spring) management (which depends upon whether the beekeeper expects surplus honey from new colonies in the same season or not until the next year), (2) surplus honey flow or pollination is early, mid-season, or late, and (3) to establish new colonies or replace queens.
These management decisions by the recipients of queens and bees have dictated two aspects of the queen and bee industry: the shipping season and the geographic location of the industry.
The relation between management options and shipping season is summarized in table 1. Currently, and for the past 50 years, the shipping season for most queens and bees has been early spring, from March to May. The reason for this has been the dual demand for bees to replace winter losses and a very strong demand from annual management without overwintering. But with less annual management and more overwintering, it seems possible that the shipping season may spread out from the spring concentration.
Because of the heavy demand for queens and bees in early spring, the queen and bee industry has become concentrated in the mild winter areas of the country. Thus, most queens and bees currently are produced in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and the Sacramento Valley of California.
TABLE 1.-Demand for queens and package bees or nucs related to bee management and to timing of honey flows or crop pollination |