# What is the easiest way to breed a few queens



## SlickMick (Feb 28, 2009)

I want to breed a few queens from a cutout that I did earlier in the year that is going like a house on fire. What is the easiest way of doing this and still get good queens.

Mick


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

check out a website called MDA splitter, His queen system is easy, no equipment, and works well.


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## stangardener (Mar 8, 2005)

remove queen and a frame of capped brood and a frame of stores plus a couple shakes of bees.
come back to queenless hive in eleven days and check for queen cells.
if you have more than one good looking queen cell cut them/it out and atatch one or two to a frame of capped brood add a frame of stores and a couple shakes of bees.
come back to any cells in three weeks and check for eggs. if there are eggs you have a queen if not combine with hive that does or add brood and eggs or cells.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

The easiest way to breed a few queens is to let them fly and the drones will do it for you. Breeding is best done by drones. Unless you are well practiced at II, instrumental insemination.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Buy queen cells from the neighbour. Thank him kindly and pay him his fee.

Jean-Marc


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## DRUR (May 24, 2009)

sqkcrk said:


> The easiest way to breed a few queens is to let them fly and the drones will do it for you. Breeding is best done by drones. Unless you are well practiced at II, instrumental insemination.



:lpf:
You will have to get use to us. Life is to short to go through without some humor.
Proverbs 15:13 :A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance:"

Danny


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## SlickMick (Feb 28, 2009)

sqkcrk said:


> The easiest way to breed a few queens is to let them fly and the drones will do it for you. Breeding is best done by drones. Unless you are well practiced at II, instrumental insemination.


Well yes hmmm

ROFL:lpf: (Rolling on the floor laughing)

Mick


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

If you take a hive that has a high density of bees (you can reduce it down in space until it does) and a good source of food (a flow or feeding and pollen in stores) and you take the queen with a frame of brood and a frame of honey and put her in a nuc to keep her until later and you let them start and cap queen cells, then ten days later you can pull each frame that has at least one queen cell out and put it in a mating nuc with a frame of honey and let them care for that queen. If you have natural comb or wax foundation without wires in the way, you can even cut queen cells apart sometimes and put each cell in it's own nuc. To up the odds of all of this you can do the Miller method:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmillermethod.htm


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## Nan3902 (May 18, 2009)

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I want to try that, but will wait until next year. I am too new to risk killing off my hive as yet. But thanks, Michael.

Nancy
Ovid, NY


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## SlickMick (Feb 28, 2009)

Been out of town for 2 weeks. Got home last night and this morning I opened up the hive with the queen that I want to get progeny from. I had put a shallow super on it before I went away. This morning the hive was booming.. brood chamber (deep) was full and the super has honey being capped. Bear in mind that this is the middle of our winter.

I did a full inspection.. did not see queenie but there were 3 capped queen cells on one of the frames. Plenty of brood but frankly did not look for eggs. So I put that frame into a nuc and shook another frame's bees in with it. Inserted a frame with a starter strip on it and hoped that that would stop any inclination to swarm.. (in the middle of winter???). 

Half an hour later I heard a loud buzzing noise. Yes they were swarming. A large swarm settled in my Macadamia tree about 7' off the ground so I got hold of another box, bottom and top and shook the girls into the box. Did not have any more deep frames so I put in 3 shallow frames and a couple of drops of lemongrass oil. They covered all the sides and the bottom of the box plus a heap on the outside. I felt very smug!

Half an hour later they were in the air again and I don't know where they went even though I had a good look and I missed seeing them leaving. There was a lot of action around the hive they came from and I wonder if queenie did not leave the nest with the swarm and that they went back home again as they were feeling lonely.

I will check the hive again in the morning to see if numbers seem to be what they were before the mass evacuation. I'll also check the nuc to make sure that queenie is not with it even though I shook a lot of the girls off to try and find her. I suppose if the original hive is making queen cells then I can assume that she is missing.

Has anyone else experienced that.

Mick


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## SlickMick (Feb 28, 2009)

Checked this morning even though it was showering. 

The hive seemed to have the same number of bees on all the frames as it did before yesterday so it would seem as though the girls must have gone back into the hive and that the queen did not leave. Looking for reasons for the swarming behaviour and having a closer look at things the hive seemed honeybound. Did not find queenie so I removed another frame of brood and replaced it with one with foundation. Shall have to keep an eye on that.

Placed the brood into the nuc that I had put the frame with the 3 capped queen cells. Queen cells were still there undisturbed so I have to wait to see what comes of them as I have no idea when they were capped.

This is all a bit puzzling to me as we are now in the middle of winter. Even though the temp stays above 43 f and we dont frost, experience has it that there is always some nectar and pollen around, I am amazed that the hive has built strongly enough to look at swarming at this time of the year.

Mick


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Well, Mick, now you have lots of queen cells. make a nuc out of each frame with a cell except one to leave for the hive and you'll have a bunch of her offspring.


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## BigDaddyDS (Aug 28, 2007)

... provided that there are still drones around for them to mate with.

(I'm a buzz-kill, I know. Sorry.)

DS


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## SlickMick (Feb 28, 2009)

Heaps of drones in that hive and in one of my other hives. The nuc that I made up from the hive that I wanted a queen from had heaps of drones and other bees trying to get in today. They have only a small entrance so there was a bit of a crush. I am conjecturing that a queen cell may have hatched.

Does this happen?

Mick


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## SlickMick (Feb 28, 2009)

As and aside, the hive swarmed again today. Fortunately I was around and hived it. This time I was prepared and had a couple of old frames I was saving for swarm traps and some new ones with foundation. Yesterday they must have decided to swarm without telling her majesty and had to return to save face and make a formal invitation. She must have gone with them today as there was no indication that they would prefer another home.

Plopped them in the box, lid on, and within minutes they were cleaning up the old comb. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to draw the comb on the new foundation and to see eggs in it.

I ended up with 5 deep frames fully covered in bees, so about half my hive absconded with her ladyship. I am glad to get her back and to have some progeny from her.

I'll post some pics later when I get them off the camera

Mick


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