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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Jim Musson <jim AT musson.org>, chloe palenchar <cpalenchar AT hotmail.com>, Orange Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] queen sources now?
  • Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 19:11:10 -0400

Another good place to find sellers is the NC Permit to Sell Bees list: http://www.ncagr.gov/plantindustry/plant/apiary/documents/PermittoSell2014.pdf

Randall

On 4/22/2014 3:34 PM, Jim Musson wrote:

I have a queen coming tomorrow from these folks: http://www.honeybeegenetics.com/order.html

They ship once per week on small orders, I ordered one last week; you want to call them (707) 449-0440.

 

Jim Musson
Digital Computer Services
105 W King St Suite 201
Hillsborough NC 27278
jmusson AT digserv.com

From: ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of chloe palenchar
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 15:26
To: Orange Beekeepers
Subject: [ocba] queen sources now?

 

I followed up on Randall's suggestions below. (Thanks Randall for providing so many answers to the listserve!)

Rossman's won't have any queens available until end of May. I have left a message on the voicemail on the one person listed on the NC Agricultural Review Classifieds as selling queens.

Does anyone else have any specific suggestions of where to check?

I made a split yesterday and was thinking I might get a queen for the new hive, just to save them the effort of raising their own. (I had two split attempts fail last year, so I thought I'd try, what I believe is the more "sure fire" method this time....) So, I guess, in addition to suggestions on where to get a queen, I'd also be interested in opinions of whether or not I should even try....

thanks,

chloe


Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 16:08:20 -0400
From: ra41717 AT gmail.com
To: jevans20 AT gmail.com
CC: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ocba] New hive - supercedure cells

For queens, I would check the NC Agricultural Review Classifieds first. In addition there are lots of on-line suppliers (one example is Rossman's).

Randall

On 4/20/2014 3:38 PM, Jim Evans wrote:

Randall,

 

The requeen option seems the best for this rookie beekeeper. Any suggestions on where to purchase a new queen?  As of Friday, Baileys had not identified a source. 

 

I will open one of the supercedure cells before introducing a new queen. 

 

Thank you for the advice and suggestions. 


Jim Evans 

jevans20 AT gmail.com

919-949-7362 (mobile)


On Apr 20, 2014, at 3:20 PM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Jim,

An article here discusses a variant of your situation, which is very common.

However in your specific case, you haven't had enough time from April 5th to today for your bees to have raised a new queen and have her emerge. My guess is that the package did not get off to a successfully start with a good laying queen, for any number of reasons.

Since you have one good hive to compare with and so you know what brood looks like, I don't doubt your assessment of the situation. If the queen cells are capped, I would open one or two of them to see if anything is inside -- my guess is that there isn't. I think those cells are just wishful thinking on the part of desperate bees. I've seen that before in my own hives.

Others may have other opinions but it does sound like your hive is truly queenless and you should remedy that ASAP. Normally I would suggest taking a frame of very young brood from the good hive and letting the queenless hive raise their own queen, but since it has been almost 3 weeks already without any new young bees, I don't think the hive can wait another month for reinforcements to arrive via a full brood cycle. So I would pay $25 or so for a store-bought queen so she can start laying ASAP. Just make sure you don't have laying workers before you try to install her, but it sounds like you don't (yet).

An alternative would be to combine this hive with your good hive for now and maybe later make a mini-split to get back to 2 hives.

No guarantees, but you seem to have observed carefully and given this considerable thought, and it seems your initial conclusion is the same as mine.

Randall Austin


On 4/20/2014 2:12 PM, Jim Evans wrote:

I'm a new beekeeper and installed two packages on April 5.  The hives have been fed regularly and bees are very active.

 

One hive is doing great.  Lots of honey stores, brood, and larvae.  The queen was easy to find. 

 

The other hive has honey stores but no brood cells. The bees are building comb and storing food.  It does have 5-6 supercedure cells.  It seems odd to have supercedure cells and no brood?  My bee mentor checked and agreed that there is no brood.

 

Should I wait for a new queen to emerge and mated i.e. do nothing (other than continue feeding)?

 

Or, should I seek out and purchase a new queen for this hive? 

 

I could move brood from the "good" hive into the weaker hive, but without a queen, not sure this makes sense. 

 

Advice appreciated. 


Jim Evans
jevans20 AT gmail.com
919-949-7362

 



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