Using 2 queen cells in mating nuc?

[Bee North]

Agreed Ben....I'm not concerned at all.

I'm looking forward to trying this. I was planning to pinch my old Alpha and feeling bad about it. She deserves a better ending, always been a pleasure to work and given me multiple queens. Now she can go out naturally.

Happy days.

[Oldbeavo]

If you have an old queen that you think may swarm, she is doing a good job as there would not be a big enough hive of bees if she was not doing the job.
If you want to retain her for her genetics, then put her in a nuc with some bees and graft eggs or make other nucs.

[Bee North]

Good points Oldbeavo. Thanks mate.

I grafted from her all last season. My yards are full of her offspring.

I'm going to select another queen this season just to mix the gene pool up a bit.

I've had to carry her these last couple of months giving her the odd frame of bees and honey to see the hive through. Shes performing under expectations compared to my other hives which cant continue.

I cant keep her, but I cant pinch her either. Supersedure sounds like a good alternative.

[Duane]

Agreed Ben....I'm not concerned at all.

I'm looking forward to trying this. I was planning to pinch my old Alpha and feeling bad about it. She deserves a better ending, always been a pleasure to work and given me multiple queens. Now she can go out naturally.

Happy days.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but that means she will starve or be starved to death?

[Duane]

Day 6/7 from egg
- move from QL cell starter to QR cell finisher.
(cells are started, cups are filled with jelly and cells rims are 10-30% drawn. Move to finisher. A great finisher is the centre of 3rd box above queen excluder on a strong queenrite hive.)
- cells could be left in the starter to be finished, but there is a high likelihood that the starter will cut back (remove) the number of cells they had started.  They will not finish them all.

Day 10 from egg
- move from finisher to incubator
(Cells are capped on day 9, move to incubator the day after capping is observed.  The very best incubator available is meticulously designed, precision controlled, and is supplied by the world renowned experts in queen rearing.   It is .. .. .. .. a beehive. Place capped cells in a slightly off centre position in the 3rd box above a queen excluder on a strong queenrite hive)

So is the cell finisher and incubator the same thing, and you don't need to move the cells?

[Bee North]

Agreed Ben....I'm not concerned at all.

I'm looking forward to trying this. I was planning to pinch my old Alpha and feeling bad about it. She deserves a better ending, always been a pleasure to work and given me multiple queens. Now she can go out naturally.

Happy days.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but that means she will starve or be starved to death?

Hi Duane,
I believe you are correct. My understanding is once the new queen is mated and laying the old queen is "ignored".

If your questioning why I would prefer her to starve, rather than pinch her, that's simple....It's what I believed to be a more natural ending.
That probably wont make sense to some people and thats ok too.
I pinch queens from pissy hives when I have to but I hate it!

[Ben Framed]

So is the cell finisher and incubator the same thing, and you don't need to move the cells?

They are not the same Duane. The cell finisher is the place where bees take good care of queen cells when they are removed from the cell starter. In the cell finisher they are capped and taken good care of until they are ready to go into the incubator. The use of an incubator is not absolutely necessary but a great, safe place for QCs when in a cell protector, protecting them from a possible early hatching queen, along with a good place to transport these finished cells when ready to be placed in mating nucs for instance.  As HoneyPump explained above. Bob Binnie explains this in detail, (the use of each of these cell starter and finisher), in his video (How We Produce Queens). There are others which also explain this in great detail. Richard Noel who explains the difference in great detail, from Brittany France also uses a cell starter and finisher. Though their methods do differ but sightly.