BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS
Mating Nuc Efficiency
Bush_84:
So I?ve made an observation and looking for some input. I made six queen cells (initially 8 but 6 went south before emerging). Three went into full sized production colonies. Three went into mini mating Nucs. Mini mating Nucs are half medium frames and can hold five frames. So I?d dump two frames of bees in the mini mating nuc and close them up for a couple of days with queen cells. Even with this they shrunk quite a bit when I opened the front door. I know everybody will say move them to an out yard. I don?t have one and don?t have a plan right now to get one.
Anyways I noticed that my stronger hives seemed to mate queens better the weak ones. My mini mating Nucs that had 3-4 frames of bees seemed to mate their queen. The hives that withered down to two never did get their queen mated. Queen emerged from the cell, but never made a mates queen. All of my production hives mated their queen. I should note that strength being defined as a sufficient concentration of bees, not necessarily quantity.
Has anybody else noticed this and are there any other suggestions to increase my odds at mating queens? I have had awful luck getting them mated. I paint them different colors and any that are the same color are facing the other direction and not next to the hive of the same color. My mating Nucs also have entrance discs and they are also of a different color. Maybe I just need to ensure that I shake in way to many bees.
bemused:
Managing mating nucs is a skill in itself.
They require careful management to keep them viable and strong enough to support a queen. The first time I tried mini mating nucs they all died of starvation within two weeks. I find it easier to mate them in things like three frame nucs because if you add a frame capped brood and nurse bees they'll quickly form their own colony with lots of bees.
I only raise between 20 and 40 queens a year, so three frame nucs work fine for me. However, next season I'm going to try mating nucs again just because I want to crack the technique.
BeeMaster2:
I have found that putting a split hive on top of a queen right hive, with a double screen in between, drastically improves the success of getting a mated queen.
Jim
Bush_84:
--- Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 11, 2018, 08:15:22 am ---I have found that putting a split hive on top of a queen right hive, with a double screen in between, drastically improves the success of getting a mated queen.
Jim
--- End quote ---
Interesting. I would have figured the opposite. I would think that the virgin would return to the wrong entrance a bit to frequently.
texanbelchers:
I had some questionable cells and was out of bottom/top boards, so I tried a stack. It was 2 mediums separated by a QX with cells top and bottom. 3 of them resulted in a laying top box queen, but no bottom box queen signs. Granted, the bottom box cells were a couple days behind the top which may have done them in to start with. One had 2 laying queens, but both were being balled when I took a look. I don't think I'll be doing that again, but it was an interesting trial.
I run 6 medium frames (2 undrawn, 4 resource/brood) in a box with a couple scoops of bees; just enough to control the SHB. To get bees I shake frames into a bin and let them sit for a while, then shake them down in the bin. I'm left with nurse bees that don't migrate back much. I've tried moving frames with bees, but invariably too many go back to the origin hive and the results are spectacularly slimy. My apiary is a 45 minute drive on a good day and most often I have to set it up and walk away for days.
On the last round of queens it looks like a 66% overall mating rate counting my stack experiment. 15 nucs and 10 queens. I'll recheck the missing 5 tomorrow night; it is always possible I overlooked one. :embarassed:
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