Queen pheromone

[Jon]

I found one of my apideas in my garden empty at lunchtime today.
The bees and queen were clustered 8 foot up on the trunk of a birch tree where the contents of another apidea had clustered nearly 2 years ago. Exactly the same place. That queen pheromone must be very long lasting. Might be a good place to set a bait hive as it is right at the corner of my shed.

[Feckless Drone]

hello Jon - cannot see the Today's News forum so here is update on my April swarm which landed where I caught a swarm last year. The cluster dispersed leaving quite a few dead bees. This swarm came from my hive - inspection (following your encouragement) revealed sealed and re-sealed Q-cells (with worker in place). And, really exciting to hear piping. After harvesting some and destroying some Q-cells, during very long inspection, I watched 3 Q's hatch. With 8 frames of bees in brood box and good numbers in the super I've tried to set up a Demaree split but with new Queens top and bottom and a nuc. I (they) need some good weather now. The value of Association/mentoring came to the fore. I would not have recognised the piping and what I might do unless I had not heard and seen some of these things (like worker sealed in an old Q-cell) and had lots of discussions with my mentor and others in my local Association. I do realise that this might not be a proper and elegant way to raise Qs or for swarm control but needs must I guess. Cheers.

[gavin]

Perhaps I can just add that FD's colony tried to swarm late last summer (August?) while building up from a 5-frame nuc still not filling its box, and this swarm emerged while the brood box had 8 frames occupied and the super part-used. Plus April was a no-inspection month here due to the weather. So he has the swarmiest stock of Carniolan-looking bees I've seen, and has been inhibited from checking them because of the wet and the cold.

[Jon]

FD
Raising queens from extra queen cells is fine. Most beekeepers do that and that was my method before I started grafting.
Bear in mind though that swarming is in part a genetic trait so if you raise new queens from swarmy stock you will more than likely be creating new colonies of swarmy bees. Carniolans do have this reputation. I try and graft from colonies which do not make queen cells in an effort to propagate non swarmy stock. I have a couple of AMM type queens which are going into their third season and have never attempted to swarm and I want to breed from those.
Given how far north you are, that is a really early swarm you had.
I would recommend you clip a wing of your new queens once they get mated.
If a colony swarms with a clipped queen, the swarm returns home. The queen often makes it back as well by climbing up the leg of the hive stand and going back in.

[Feckless Drone]

hello Jon - It is one ambition of mine to get to the stage of having Amm Qs to work with so I'm jealous of you! But not always easy to source/start out with prized Amm bees. In time. For now I've really got to learn to work with and develop what I've got. I've picked up some important lessons this week and if these ladies mate and I can find them then they are definitely getting marked and clipped. The B-type I've got might be swarmy but they seemed pretty good at bringing in nectar and it seems there might be some tradeoff there. I've put a carefully wintered swarmy type in a good forage area and now know I need to be ready for swarming in April. Do the commercial beekeepers like the nectar harvesting capabilities of the Carniolan types over other types or do you think it is just the vigorous spring build up that gives them a head start?

[Jon]

In answer to that there are a couple of variables to consider.
As oil seed rape flowers early in the year, a big colony will collect more nectar from it.
The proviso is that the weather must be good for the flowers to secrete nectar, something above 16c, and 20c is better.
How often do we get that in early April this far north?
When bees are foraging, the colony should be gaining weight but if they stay at home in bad weather they are consuming stores.
In poor or unpredictable weather the smaller colonies have an advantage as stores are being consumed more slowly.
My colonies are still building up although I have a few almost at full strength now.
I have half a dozen which don't need supers on yet.
The thing is, all are gaining weight and doing well in this past 5 weeks of poor weather averaging about 10c most days. They have not needed to be fed.
Contrast that with England where the bee inspectors have a warning out and there have been many reports of colony starvation.
Big is only better in good weather when bigger colonies trump small ones for honey production every time.
In bad weather they are worse than Labradors for demanding feeding.
I wonder what Murray's sugar and fondant bill has been during April.
Carnica is native to the Balcans and they tend to have long summers with very high temperatures suited to larger colonies. We have pizzle most of the time. The same argument could be made for Ligustica which is native to Italy.
Bee sub species have evolved to be suited to their particular climate and forage conditions. OK, things may have changed somewhat with the introduction of new crops such as oil seed rape and climate change factors as well but I still think it is a case of horses for courses.
If you are letting queens open mate in an area with drones from several bee races present, be aware that you could end up with something very aggressive. Mind you that must be the default situation for most of the UK.