Using a Swarm Box : 13
RAISING QUEEN CELLS Using a Swarm Box Clive de Bruyn, BSc (Hons), AIM, AMInstF, CEng, NDB A
s mere humans, we can neither create queens nor
bring them to maturity. The beekeeper’s role is restricted to providing larvae from a chosen colony to a cell-rearing unit so that the bees do the job for us. Last month I considered the
fi rst component of bringing virgin queens into being: getting selected larvae into cell cups (grafting). This month I want to talk about how the bees can be persuaded to look after the chosen larvae until the virgin queens are almost ready to emerge (cell raising).
A Queen's Performance
A queen’s performance depends principally on her
April 2015 Vol 97 No 4
parents and the way she is raised. I believe that the conditions maintained in the cell-raising stock and the infl uence they have on the queen’s development is critical. It matters not if the grafted larva has the perfect genes if it is not allowed to develop fully. While both nature and nurture
are important, I feel that genetics is stressed too much, rather than the provision of optimum growth conditions. Any fertilised honey bee egg has the potential to become a queen, caste determination being wholly determined by the food given to the larva. Honey bees require carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, fats (lipids) vitamins and water for normal growth. Nectar and honey deliver the carbohydrates and the pollen
everything else. In the colony, young nurse bees are the major consumers of pollen which they synthesise into a protein- rich secretion (brood food) progressively fed to all larvae. Wedmore tells us that as soon as nurse bees emerge, they feed old larvae and they proceed to feed young larvae from the sixth day onwards1.
Timing
In our fi ckle British climate, ideal conditions are not always present. I have started to rear queens as early as April and as late as October, with varying degrees of success. Overall, I fi nd I get the best acceptance in early spring in the swarming season. Many beekeepers try to rear a batch of queens and fail. This can be because of many things; the beekeeper is
only one part of a multifaceted operation. I despair of those who write off a whole season merely because their one attempt failed. I have grafts, queen cells and virgins that fail every year but, because I am rearing queens continuously, I can usually fi nd a ‘window’ where things go well.
Drones
The bees themselves inform us when they are ready for queen rearing – by raising drones. The appearance of the fi rst drones in spring, often followed by production of play cups, can be the signal to start grafting. In an ideal situation, new young queens should be mated and laying before July. Provided that colonies have a copious supply of food in March and April, at the end of May beekeepers
www.bee-craft.com
All photos by Clive de Bruyn
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
