# The latest jar queen addition!



## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

How many hives you up to Fin.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Her wanting to kill sister queens makes it sound like all is well. Did you hear a pipping contest?

Nice thumbnail photos - that will explain what a young, virgin queen should look like to lots of beekeepers just getting in to queen rearing. I see her "hips" have not yet gotten wide.

Save me some jars!


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

To be a bit on the reserve side, I don't see it necessary to
disclose my hive situation on an open forum. For sure
it is more than that of last year. If your beekeeping is
not growing according to plan then something is wrong with the set up or the
bee environment they are in.
Going forward, because I have mastered the art of queen making, it
is going to be a steady climb yearly until I have expanded to 10
bee yards for the long term goal. Still many good bee land out there.
KC, no pipping contest because these small jars housed different queen
cells from hives at different development stage because I don't want the sister
to kill off the other late developing cells. I have yet to perform a graft so that
they can all pip at the same time. The jar cell method is a bit late since we try it out
this year. Maybe in the early Spring will be a better timing. The benefit of the jar method is
to prevent the virgins from killing one another thereby limiting the
hive resources I have to use. Any idea of where I can find the #5 wire mesh for the incubator bees to go inside the jar better?

Oh, so you can see a virgin's hips, eh? All I can see is a big glob of moving yellow
matters. Sometimes I don't even see her head anymore when all covered with bees. I sometimes wonder how much sperms can a queen store?
Does it matter if it is a small queen or a big fat juicy virgin queen?


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

It really amazes me, how the human brain works. To be able to spot a queen on a frame with 4,000 bees on it in so little time. But then, the queen is an entirely different-looking critter. 

Somehow we have the ability to learn to spot the differences between queens and worker bees. Now these differences are not quite as pronounced between virgin queens and workers as they are between mated, laying queens and workers.

Color differences like a root beer abdomen without stripes, or a lighter-than -normal golden color, or a shinyt black abdomen are obvious give-aways, as is the longer abdomen. But we can still spot a perfect color-match by her body proportion differences.

One tell-tale "picture fraction" I often spot is how the queen's abdomen is a bit wider at the top front area ("the hips") than other bees. Other things not quite so obvious are the carapace above the thorax is larger and often bald of little hairs, and her eyes are slightly wider apart. 

Behaviorally, she walks differently than worker bees, and she's usually the only one placing her abdomen into the cells, the workers mostly go in head-first. I also see her pointing at a cell, indicating to an attendant bee to check and clean a cell before she lays an egg in it. But these behaviors don't help me spot a virgin queen.

Becoming able to quiclkly spot the queen is one of the early steps in becoming a proficient beekeeper. I think looking at lots of photos of queens helps. Your photos of a virgin queen is quite helpful. Thank you.

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm catalog has #5 hardware cloth.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Thanks, KC for the good insight and queen observation.
Now I know where is her "hips."
Yes, the eyes are indeed a great attribute to 
our senses.

I have done the calculation on the hole size in order
for the virgin queen to not get out and at the same time
for the bees to keep the cells warm inside the jar. It 
seems to be that at .22 or .20 (1/5) the bees are able to
accomplish this task. Can you help me verify that at .20 is
the right #5 wire mesh for my purpose? I don't want to buy too many different ones that I cannot
use them.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

#5 mesh is used for pollen trap entrances. That is all I know. For a queen excluder, I don't think I'd trust it. The distance accross a square hole should be .200 inch minus a wire diameter, and .2828 inch minus the thickness of a *+* wire joint diagonally, but quality control on the squares that mesh forms is all over the place, and hardware cloth is all made in China these days.

The rods in a QE are 3/16" = .1875 apart, +/- depends on who's making them (God forbid Made in PRC!) like Dadant or Mann Lake or Brushy Mountain - I would guess they have sub-contractors for QE's, but they may make them in-house.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Just re-read your post #4, and I've heard that queens can store as high as 8.9 million sperm, but the usual range is 4.5 to 7 million. The 4.5 million mark seems to be critical, above that, and she's OK, below that, she'll often get superceded early.

This seems to be one of the reasons to make lots of queens in the main part of the season, when there are lots of horny drones out and about. Later in the year when the pollen slows down, they just don't get as many mates, and the drones may not be as well-fed.

It really is a good idea for a club to move all their good hives close together for a mating yard in May. The queen raisers can open-mate their nuc's and everyone benefits from high-performing queens. DO keep the bad drones out! Kill the evil and low-performing drone brood, and re-queen the colonies with VSH or other desirable quality queens.


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