# Breeder Queen



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

How well does a typical hive winter there? That's how well she'll probably do. I would winter her in a full sized hive. If you want to keep her egg laying more for breeding purposes, you could boost them with some capped and emerging brood from other hives.


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## Bill S (Jul 4, 2011)

That's encouraging to know. Last year I didn't have any winter lose and hopefully my good luck will continue. I will move the breeder to a 10 frame box with additional brood frames. Bill


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

ii queens are not very good at overwintering... but it can be done... the best way to utilize ii queens before winter is to graft daughters and let them mate with your local drones to boost their survivability for your winter... then in spring these daughters will be providing drones from the genetics of the original ii queen, so a non-related ii queen can be used to produce spring daughters and let them mate with the drones produced by the fall daughters... as with any type of agriculture, what we do this season decides next seasons outcome... using breeders in summer and fall to create drone colonies for next years queens to mate with is the way to prepare for the next season.


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## Bill S (Jul 4, 2011)

Thanks for the great idea.


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## adamf (Jan 28, 2006)

Bill S said:


> I recently purchased my first breeder queen ('Pol-Line' Hygienic Italian with VSH) and I introduced her in a five frame nuc. Should I move her to a 10 frame box so that she can produce enough brood so that the hive can survive the winter? Do breeder queens normally winter well in the north (PA)?


Hi Bill,
A good question. II queens' longevity is variable: some last a season and some last for years. We're thankfully grafting from a three-year-old II breeder queen. She's amazing and still going strong! If the II and pre/post II conditions are optimum, you should be able to get your queen to over-Winter and thrive for a season of grafting.

That's a great cross! The *Pol *lines have been doing well for us. We're testing ones from Tom Glenn and from the USDA (we have a _Materials Transfer Agreement_ with them). 

Keep an eye on your breeder's colony and give it plenty of room to expand. If it starts to run out of room, split some of it off. 

Good Luck,
Adam
www.vpqueenbees.com


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## Bill S (Jul 4, 2011)

Thanks Adam for the encouragement. I'll certainly keep an eye on the breeder queen's space. Bill


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

*Russell Sunkist Queens*

Hi Russell,
Would your regularly priced Sunkist make a good breeder? I guess what I'm asking is if your queen is shipped after determining that she is a good brood layer.


Thanks!

Larry


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

*Re: Russell Sunkist Queens*

The SunKist is a mix of many strains, so production queens (the regular priced queens) are open mated and grafting from them will produce an array of mixes that will not be consistent in each queen produced from the graft. The defining qualities of a SunKist breeder queen can only truly be determined by evaluating the colony that she produces and checking her daughters first hand... so all SunKist breeders (II and year old naturally mated) are grafted from and the daughters are examined before releasing the breeder. But to answer your question directly, the production queens will not produce consistent mixes in their daughters, but absolutely yes, the patterns from all of our queens are judged before caging... if its not great, she is killed and another cell is planted in the mating nuc... 

Hope this helps!


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## olddrown (Oct 28, 2009)

*Re: Russell Sunkist Queens*

Mr. Russell
If you you graft from one of your production stock of Sunkist, will the grafted queen produce 100% Sunkist drones?
I know that a open mated can have different subfamilies.I have some of your Sunkist.
Thanks


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

*Re: Russell Sunkist Queens*

Thanks Mr. Russell for responding. If you were to buy one to buy one of your regularly priced queens to use as a breeder, which one would you choose? I'm looking for honey production and live in SC. I hope I'm not putting you on the spot.

Larry


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

*Re: Russell Sunkist Queens*

That's correct. Many people have a policy of ordering virgins in summer and fall from us... the make splits or requeen using the virgins so that they will mate with their local drones and then produce SunKist drones to spread the genetics during the next season... some order breeders and produce their own virgins to do the same thing...


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Larry, they are all good honey producing bees... it just comes down to personal preference.. most lean more toward the Sunkist for early buildup and comb/brood production to be able to create more hives, sooner... they also have a farther foraging range than your average Carniolans or Italians... each strain has its strong points and weak points... for the Sunkists, the down sides of the large populations is that you need to were protection to work them and they need space to boom early in the season... they were developed to be a commercial bee, for package production primarily, so they can be somewhat intimidating to beginners.

Hope this helps.


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## Beezly (Jun 25, 2011)

Dr. Russell,
You say the with the Sunkists, protection is needed to work them. Is this because they are a more aggressive bee, or just due to the fact that there will be so many of them in a colony? I want tons of bees, so i don't think that would intimidate me beyond what i would get over quickly. Hopefully ordering Sunkist Cordovan in the next two weeks when the new job starts. Economy even hits bees.
Thanks,
mike


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

For the most part it is due to population size... in a nuc, they are as nice as they can be... in a hive, they are more protective of course... the tornadoes of this spring destroyed a lot of Sunkist Cordovan hives... in doing so it somewhat limited the breeding stock (still far more left than most would consider overkill. Lol), but as luck would have it, the remaining stocks were mostly the ones that scored highest in the gentleness selection category... so this years Sunkist Cordovans have been especially gentle, even more so than most of our others strains... so out of the tragedy, at least their are a few thousand people out there that are able to enjoy beautiful, productive and exceptionally gentle bees... hopefully, their present bee keeping experience from this will encourage more people to get into keeping bees in the future.


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