# High Queen Failure this Spring



## beegeorge (Apr 19, 2012)

yes, many like I, have had muliple queen failures, at a MUCH higher rate than I would have expected. I think if I countwiu it up, I have had over 20. which is over 30%. Fortunately I have been able to raise a few, and with brood manipulation, some raised their own queens, so I am now down to only 4 not beeing queenright.


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## spunky (Nov 14, 2006)

I had 2 hives fail to requeen themselves with adequate drones last season and 1 this spring, and this was a hive with 14 frames of bees in 2 deeps .


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## oklabizznessman (Oct 24, 2011)

I bought queens from California and have had only one nuc abscond. The highest acceptance rate I've ever had. I feel lucky with this weather and just some nice queens.


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## Eden Sinclair (May 28, 2010)

I bought 3 packages in April. All 3 had live queens who left their cages a few days later. However, 2 hives never had brood (only some drone brood) and have meanwhile died out. Pretty disappointing since I had high hopes with weather and nectar source conditions being ideal. I had hived packages under much worse conditions and they did well. I have been wondering if I was sold "faulty packages" and will probably go with another breeder next time.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

The queens I recieved this spring were all in all marginal. When I questioned when replacement were coming after my first shipment was lost and it was almost like the replacement shipment were untested or culls. he probably doesn't need my business anyway.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

I am right on track in Western Washington with my queen production. My first batch had a poor mated return due to bad weather, but it was earlier than I usually start. I didn't mind too much because those early queens were NOT the quality I am use to producing. They were kind of shrimpy.

I had an unbelievable demand for queens early this spring, when people received their packages and nucs. Hundreds were desperate for queens because of queen failure or dead queens in the cage. I was really shocked the folks selling these packages had no provisions for this. There was nothing I could do to help that early in my Northern area. The only thing I could do was suggest they combine the hives (If they had more than one) together until a local queen was available.

I think people do not realize the producers are trying to get queens mated so early in the spring that the queens are produced for quantity, not particularly quality at that time of year. Weather is a major factor, but day length is also a key factor. Folks want the nucs and packages early in April and that is probably the best these producers can do I expect. This year I also saw a very high failure rate for those queens. Being a small queen producer, my phone was ringing off the hook for a month.

Getting a local queen to replace purchased package queens should be something every person should plan on. Not only to get acclimatized genetics heading the hive, but to assure you are getting a summer mated queen which will almost always be superior to a March mated one .

If I was going to buy a package, here is what I would also consider necessary for it's basic care the first year and would factor in the cost for each new nuc or package:
-Summer mated local queen
-25# bag of cane sugar-protein pattys
-rachett strap to secure hive or move it.
-Mite treatments

What to do with your package queen once you get a local queen? Sell it of course! There are people desperate for any old queen , if they are queenless There is nothing wrong with the queen, you are just a little more willing to spend a couple more bucks to greatly improve your odds at overwintering your little investment. 

Just my opinion

Here's late May graft frames :









Below: Just getting capped:









With a virgin hot out of the incubator:










Compared to an April graft batch. And this frame was a lot better than the two frames of grafts I just threw away on earlier attempts.:










And you should see my grafts in the finisher right now. June/July mated queens are what you want. They are better fed at time of developement and better mated during the peak of the flow and season.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miller-Compound-HoneyBees-and-Agriculture/256954971040510


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

I just wanted to say to new beekeepers:
When ordering a nuc or package...ASK A FEW QUESTIONS! If it is queenless or the queen fails to lay withn a reasonable amount of time, will there be a replacement available? That question would have saved a lot of people a lot of money this year and laying worker hives that were eventually lost. And perhaps give the supplier a heads up to secure a stock of mated queens for quick replacements for the average amount of nuc and package failures.

And to reply to a post above, I also am seeing mating nucs that had a failed queen return, turn into a laying worker hive a lot faster than I've seen in the past.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Lauri, do you prefer the nicot system components or the jzbz? I like the cages available for nicot.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

JRG13 said:


> Lauri, do you prefer the nicot system components or the jzbz? I like the cages available for nicot.


I like both. JZBZ are fast to graft and get in the starter. I can still use the roller cages in the incubator. The JZBZ sits right on top. Sometimes when I put a breeder into the grid, I'll graft a few larva into some JZBZ. By the time the grid had eggs that are hatching, the JZBZ cells are already capped.

The grid is really good for nice, tiny, hours old larva and after a small learning curve, is easy to use. I only use it when I have a breeder queen on old tough comb that is almost impossible to graft from. Or I have a breeder I want a lot of cells from in one batch.
Like this one:










or this one









This last photo is why I like packages over Nucs if I ever had to buy them. You couldn't pay me to get nucs from an unknown apiary. Too much risk of problems associated with the old comb. You can not beat a freshly drawn clean frame you know has not been exposed to treatments, commercial crops, pesticides and disease. Reduced chance of parasites and pests along for the ride.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I have seen a steady decline in queen quality for the last 39 years... with the worst in the last 10... I didn't get any from anyone else this year, so I can't say about this year but everything was running a month behind, so it's likely they were not raised at the optimum time as they are already being raised too early for good mating, and with things a month behind they were probably WAY too early...


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I got 36 packages from Wilbanks this past March and all queens were exceptionally good. These packages were feeding my queen rearing program with the plan to move out the package queens and replace with my stock. However, after evaluating these for few months, a select few (best of the best) will be kept and evaluated a year to see how they perform. The few I'm keeping are outstanding brood producers!! We'll see how they survive.


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## BeeTax (Dec 27, 2011)

Lauri said:


> I like both. JZBZ are fast to graft and get in the starter. I can still use the roller cages in the incubator. The JZBZ sits right on top. Sometimes when I put a breeder into the grid, I'll graft a few larva into some JZBZ. By the time the grid had eggs that are hatching, the JZBZ cells are already capped.
> 
> The grid is really good for nice, tiny, hours old larva and after a small learning curve, is easy to use. I only use it when I have a breeder queen on old tough comb that is almost impossible to graft from. Or I have a breeder I want a lot of cells from in one batch.
> Like this one:
> ...


Lauri -- I sent you a P.M.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Going to try to see if this one will breed true on a few daughters.....


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