# Buy or raise a queen for split?



## Coach62 (Mar 26, 2016)

I have one hive that I love the genetics, the queen came in a Nuc. She is killing it!
I have another that I "raised" the queen, she mated locally and she seems to be doing very well also, very happy with her.
My 3rd and final Hive, the queen was just introduced a couple of weeks ago, I still haven't really evaluated her, I purchased her from a very nice guy here in FL. 

I want to do one more split this year (at least). Trying to figure out if I should do a Nuc split and let them raise a queen, losing 6 weeks or so while that happens, or buy a queen and do the split to speed things up. I'm strongly leaning on buying a queen since it's basically July.

We are on the front edge of a good flow of Sabal Palm, then leading into Brazilian Pepper which should also be a good flow. I should have good flow into September. I should have at least 10 weeks of good flow left in the year, but you know how that goes.

If I do buy a queen, any suggestions appreciated. I still need to inspect the hive of the last queen that I bought to evaluate her performance. The guy I bought her from will have more queens in the next day or two.

I currently have all Italian mutts, I was considering a Russian just to compare performance, or a Carni. which I know very little about.

Thoughts?


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## Barhopper (Mar 5, 2015)

I'd grow my own if I were you. I think get better queens plus I know where they came from. After the solstice queens seem to do very well. If you make a strong split at the beginning of your flow you'll make honey while waiting on your queen. You should be able to split for a good while yet. Remember your in Florida where winter prep isn't such a big deal. I've got a couple going now and I expect to have to split more in the next few weeks.


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## Coach62 (Mar 26, 2016)

Good point Barhopper.

Hows the flow up your way? I was in Cocoa a couple of weeks ago and the Sabal Palm was in full bloom, down here it's just now starting and I have THOUSANDS of them around me, plus tons of Brazilian Pepper which, as you know, starts blooming in August.

I've heard the palm honey is just OK, others say they love it.


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## Arnie (Jan 30, 2014)

I would take the queen from your favorite hive and put her in a nuc to build up. The hive will raise a fine queen and since they won't have a lot of brood to feed they'll collect some honey.


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## Barhopper (Mar 5, 2015)

Our flow is kinda slow but cabbage palms are just starting to bloom. I extracted about 8 gallons this past weekend to give them room in anticipation of a decent flow. I hope I get one! My bees are all in suburban settings but I'm not making more honey with more hives so I'm moving some within the next two weeks to a couple new locations. Maybe overpowered this area. We'll see.


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## Sunday Farmer (Nov 13, 2013)

It's a lot of brood to miss out on by not buying a queen.


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## Coach62 (Mar 26, 2016)

Sunday Farmer said:


> It's a lot of brood to miss out on by not buying a queen.


And that's the delemma. If I knew for a fact that I'd get a great queen buying one it'd be easy. The last one I bought was on the skinny side, I'm gonna inspect her hive today, hopefully she proves me wrong.


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## Coach62 (Mar 26, 2016)

Barhopper said:


> Our flow is kinda slow but cabbage palms are just starting to bloom. I extracted about 8 gallons this past weekend to give them room in anticipation of a decent flow. I hope I get one! My bees are all in suburban settings but I'm not making more honey with more hives so I'm moving some within the next two weeks to a couple new locations. Maybe overpowered this area. We'll see.


FYI we call cabbage Palm Sabal down here. How is the honey from it?


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

So far we rear our own but it can be a real pain. I see definite advantages to just buying them.
1. timing, being far enough ahead with teh queen rearing for mated queens to be ready when you split. so far this year we failed at this one and it costs you about a month to have a productive queen in a split. that is a lot of brood gone missing.
2. failure rate. we need 2 mated queens right now. one split has produced 7 cells. they will emerge no later than July 4th. again a lot of brood not getting produced every day. Out of 7 cells I can realistically expect to end up with 3 mated queens. you loose cells that never emerge. you then loose virgin queens to mating flights.
3. newly mated queens lay like crazy once they do get going. but that can take a few additional days. so can they lay well enough to make up for a month of no laying? even a poor laying through the mail queen may still have an advantage.

Just how much is a $20 queen worth putting up with. So far I keep making our own. Could be I am just stupid or a glutton for punishment. not sure but in all I still prefer it that way.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

With just a few hives I personally wouldn't want any of them not producing brood for a month, but that's just me. You're talking about wanting a single queen and any way that you slice it to make one isn't probably worth the impact to your bees. I'd buy one from somewhere.
I've raised all of my own this year without buying any bees. But I've got over 20 colonies. So finding resources is easier to come by for me than it is for you.
Plus if she gets eaten by a dragon fly three weeks from now while she's trying to mate, you're going to be buying one anyway.


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