# A successfull queen rearing season



## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Ian, these will winter in the potato barns with your larger hives?
You say you made them up with bulk bees. 
? Did you pull brood to make up the nucs? 
? Any effort to pull nurse bees to cover the brood?


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## Dave Burrup (Jul 22, 2008)

Ian what percentage of your queens did you get back from mating flights?


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

way to go ian, congrats.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Ian they look nice! Have you or the other guys in your area wintered many of the 5 framers indoors? Is honey consumption through the winter lower on the indoor units? The reason I ask is because I winter several different sizes of nucs outdoors ranging from 4 frame mini deep nucs to 10 frame medium mini's to 5 over 5 polystyrene nucs. My biggest challenge is getting enough food in the box for those smaller units. I used to winter just 5-frame polystyrene units, but moved to wintering 5 over 5 units because I could get more food in them and had much better luck with them.

I guess my main question is does food become an issue in those smaller units in the shed?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

JWChesnut said:


> Ian, these will winter in the potato barns with your larger hives?
> You say you made them up with bulk bees.
> ? Did you pull brood to make up the nucs?
> ? Any effort to pull nurse bees to cover the brood?


These will be wintered in my indoor winter facility. I used bulk bees to make these nucs up with cells and mated queens. I plan on pulling brood up next spring to make up splits as usual except I'll be using my own queens .


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Dave Burrup said:


> Ian what percentage of your queens did you get back from mating flights?


Thsts the risk of this project here, mating % success is variable. Some rounds run 90% success, others floundered at 75%. Variable weather issues, also dragon flys.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

JSL said:


> Ian they look nice! Have you or the other guys in your area wintered many of the 5 framers indoors? Is honey consumption through the winter lower on the indoor units? The reason I ask is because I winter several different sizes of nucs outdoors ranging from 4 frame mini deep nucs to 10 frame medium mini's to 5 over 5 polystyrene nucs. My biggest challenge is getting enough food in the box for those smaller units. I used to winter just 5-frame polystyrene units, but moved to wintering 5 over 5 units because I could get more food in them and had much better luck with them.
> 
> I guess my main question is does food become an issue in those smaller units in the shed?


This is hard to comment on because the more I talk to southern Beekeepers the more I realize the variability in conditions influencing feed stores. 
I have these nucs packed with 55lbs feed, and that will get them from now til April. But you must understand this feed simply holds the bees alive through this period, there is very little brood production which would increase food consumption. We really work our hives through the winter with s different strategy as many down south. It's basically how long can we make them hang on. It's why I'm so obsessed with disease and nutrition.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

I pulled into a yard with the 4 frame mini nucs about 2 weeks ago to find many of them looking like this... It was a cool morning and most were packed with bees and honey!


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Ian said:


> This is hard to comment on because the more I talk to southern Beekeepers the more I realize the variability in conditions influencing feed stores.
> I have these nucs packed with 55lbs feed, and that will get them from now til April. But you must understand this feed simply holds the bees alive through this period, there is very little brood production which would increase food consumption. We really work our hives through the winter with s different strategy as many down south. It's basically how long can we make them hang on. It's why I'm so obsessed with disease and nutrition.


I understand that. Brood rearing can put added stress on the bees. With the double polystyrene boxes outside, I can fill inside feeders in late February and put on some sub and push them right along. They will be hanging out the fronts in March and April ready to transfer. I just wasn't certain with the indoor wintering if keeping them quiet all winter was enough to conserve resources in the shed for those smaller units. 

The other really interesting part of this from my point of view, genetics, is mark the more conservative nucs. Conservative does not have to mean small clusters, but you should find that some bees use far less stores and maintain a good size cluster capable of producing a very respectable crop!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Gotta get those into 5 frame nucs


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Yes, my wintering shed keeps the nucs in a controlled environment which allows me to manage smaller framed units. Conservative genetics are my targets for breeding. I can really hunt them out later in March, as the ones I like hold large clusters sitting on ample feed stores. Why some blast through the stores quicker than others is unknown, probably related to early brooding, which means my focus is on breeding bees that are not so anxious to get going


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

All I got to get them to do is get to the first pollen flow. The viability of these hives are determined solely on queen vigour on that first round of brood


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

We agree with Ian's weight target. 
Somewhere in the 50# area.
A few years back I weighed a few nucs every month throughout winter and into spring.
I was surprised at how little weight they lost in December and January. About 2 pounds or less.
Once the sun starts to shine in February the weight really starts falling off.
Ours are stored outside though.


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## Dave Burrup (Jul 22, 2008)

I shoot for 50-60 lbs for a double 5 frame nuc, but I have successfully over wintered them at 36-40 lbs.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Having healthy bees with food within reach makes a world of difference. The strain of bees also goes a long way. The first pic is the smallest unit I overwinter. These are medium mini frames and I keep a sugar block above the cluster. These sit outside unwrapped and have made it through the past two cold winters. These tiny units do struggle with the cold temps, but can make it through. Survivability on these tiny units the past two winters is about 50-60%. The second pic is of the styrofoam boxes. They winter much better! Survivability on them has been about 93-94% the past two winters.


















If you are using bulk bees with no brood, here is an idea that may interest you. Clean up the bees going into the nucs and keep the nucs in separate yards from your big hives. I wrote up the process we use for our sub trials and you could easily adapt it for your nucs. It is from March 2015 ABJ.


Two Pounds of Bees—Optimizing Growth Potential
*Joseph S. Latshaw* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Now I understand the term all beekeeping is local including
the home yard made queens. I like!


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