# Michael Palmer - French Hill Apiaries



## RayMarler

I ordered, through Beesource Private Message, 3 queens from Mike. He sent them on Monday, July 20 and I received them the next day on Tuesday July 21. They were sent by USPS Priority Express and were delivered to my front door. He had Emailed me the day before shipping, and the day of shipping, to let me know they were coming. 

The queens arrived and I made up nucs and introduced them that evening of arrival. The queens were large and in good shape, shipped with at least 7 attendants, and the queens were marked with no extra charge. I removed the attendants and introduced them in the 3 hole cages they were shipped in. Two days later on Thursday July 23 I released them and Three days later 2 of the three were laying well. I did not see eggs on the third but cells were polished and ready so I'm sure she started laying that day or the next, but I have not checked yet.

Of course I can not attest to the performance of the queens over time, but I had Very good service from Michael Palmer at French Hill Apiaries and very top notch looking queens. I recommend him to anyone looking to purchase queens.


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## jfmcree

How did your 3 queens end up doing this year?


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## twgun1

OP said July 21, not recently


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## DPBsbees

twgun1 said:


> OP said July 21, not recently


Jim's asking how they performed since he got them.


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## RayMarler

OK, I've not done a frame by frame inspection in 6 weeks. I've been in a dearth, and have not fed as heavily or steadily as maybe I should have. About a week ago I put in pollen patties and started heavy syrup feeding for a few days, and I've not gotten back in since to see what they have done with that.

I have 14 hives, and 3 of those are Michael Palmer's queens. His are in single 8 frame deeps and are covering 4 frames. They have never built up strong like what I hoped they might, just as many of my own also have slowed way down. Remember, these are from Vermont, they shut down earlier than some bees here do. Now, with pollen patty and syrup I'm hoping that they build out a little more. I'll check soon, them and all my hives, to see more closely what each situation is.

Check back with me in March next year, that's what will tell the true picture of how they are doing here at my location.


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## Michael Palmer

Thanks for your honesty Ray. I look forward to the rest of the story.


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## Cloverdale

Michael Palmer said:


> Thanks for your honesty Ray. I look forward to the rest of the story.


Michael, you sell to BetterBee don't you?


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## Michael Palmer

I have. Not this year.


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## RayMarler

I quit feeding in my beeyard back in first to mid October because an over winter beeyard moved in a mile and a half or two miles up the road from me, and feeding caused my yard to be more aggressive. I was starting to get stung just by walking through or standing off to the side. So, I stopped feeding before all the hives I have were up to weight. We have mild winters here, everyone was active yesterday as an example, but having flowers in bloom this time of year is the issue. The Three queens I got from Michael have good amount of stores, the ones that were light were the latest nucs made up as the new queens just kept using all the feeding to raise more brood, they didn't get up to weight with feeding. I'll get something back on them the first of February. 

Anyhow, just posting here that Michael's queens hives are doing fine as of yesterday. I'm anxious for spring (as I am most years) so that I can get to queen rearing and get some daughters going.


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## RayMarler

Ok, it's Feb 28th so close enough to March 1st. I've just came in from checking through a few hives and here is what I can report on Mike's queens....

Keep in mind, I got Varroa re-infestations last fall in October and November, and I did not feed up to good weight because of robbing pressures and Varroa pressures from commercials moving in around me. I did get Apivar strips back on most hives on December 15th, and I think that made a big difference, a great help for the bees.

OK, Mike's queens as of today.
Hive 1 had 2--3 frames sealed brood, and a healthy enough population, but is ranked down there as one of my more poor hives in the yard as of this time of year.

Hive 2 has 3-4 frames of sealed brood, and has average populations as per the other hives in the yard. I would say it's average or slightly above average compared to the other hives in the yard.

Hive 3... Bingo! Above average hive in the yard, ranks up there within the top 6 hives out of 13. It has 5-6 frames of sealed brood and lots of bees.

This is why I ordered 3 queens from Mike last year. I figured out of 3, maybe one would be exceptional, and that is just what happened. I'm very happy, and will be raising daughters from that one great queen this year. 

All hives in my yard have stores of both pollen and nectar, all hives or most of them have small amounts of sealed drone brood. The season is started here, winter woes are behind me now in this location. Within a week, I need to add boxes to six hives here, one if which is Michael's. If I don't then they'll be swarming.


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## RayMarler

OK, March 24th today, and have had over two and close to but not quite three weeks of rains and bad weather here. Many of the hives of my bees have swarm cells and are superseding or in swarming mode. Not Michael's. All three hives with his queens are now doing very well. They have been building up nicely and are all in good shape. Hopefully the weeks at a time of rains are over and they can now get down to business and pull in some honey. I will be changing most of my hives genetics over to daughters of Mike's queens. Comparing them to what I already have, it's a no brainer as I don't like bees that supersede or go into swarming mode like mine do. I think what I've had here the last couple of years have too much Russian genetics in them for my taste.

Thanks Mike for the years of work you've put in to get these genetics in bees that you have sent me.


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## Cloverdale

Agree with you Ray. I attended a honeybee conference in Geneva NY this past weekend with Mike Palmer and Tom Seeley, both what I would consider Master Beekeepers; so much work/research they have done for honey bees, a along with countless others. When I first started with bees I was advised to follow someone with good knowledge so I chose Mike. And Tom. It was a great conference. And I like Michaels cow.


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## RayMarler

OK, it's August 8th and thought I'd give an update.

I had purchased 3 queens from Michael late last summer.

One queen turned out being a dud and I pinched her, it could have been from high varroa counts or from other reasons, but she just never built up well and then started dwindling so at one point I just pinched her and used the resourcees to make splits with.

The next queen was just an average queen, nothing special but was a good queen with average performance. I gave her to someone to use in his breeding program. I also gave him the best daughter raised from the best queen of Michael's.

The last queen... WOW! what a queen, above average in every way. More honey, more wax drawn, great foraging, good attitude. Great hive, and, her daughters mated very quickly and started laying gangbusters right away, much quicker mating and much faster building up after mating than my other lines of bees here this year. I'm running three lines of genetics here now and Michaels line from that queen is by far the best. Every time I look into a hive and see exceptional performance, it's from one of his best queen's daughters.


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