Hi Chris. Happy Hogmanay (New Year) from Scotland 🏴 Thought you Guys in N Z should be having better Weather ! Here its been a Mild Winter so far (7C today) all Hives Flying and Orientating a bit. Good to see their still happy, active and Yes Alive ! 🤭 Did a Fab Order on a Mid Winter Beek Sale : Grabbed myself a Set of 2 in 1 Poly Nucs with Central Divider Boards / Two Entrances : For Queen Rearing. And a few of those Faux Apidea (Dinky) Mini Mating Nucs. Want to up my Skill set and Raise some "Queen Cells" over than those just 'made by doing' Splits (!) Have made my own Cell Punch and Frame Holder. Amazing that Pallet Wood and an Ex Beer Keg inner Pipe (Yes a local Lady got an ex Larger Keg to turned it into a Flower Tub ! Local Tool Shed Guys cut that Keg up good and well : Steel Pipe was going to be scrapped ! It made a Set of excellent "Cell" Cutters come Punches. Cut up into 2" Sections and Edge filed to a nice Sharp Cutting Edge ! Like a bit of DIY Upcycling of Scrap and saving some Bee Gear ££'s. 🤭 Just need May to come quick, and some Drones about the place. Right ! Wishful thinking, only on 3rd Day of the New Year. Got Winter and Spring to happen first. 😉 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Think TH-cam will be quiet then mega busy once Beeks attend that USA Bee Expo in Mid South USA. Guess all the usual Experts (suspects) will have Stories and new Toys to show us 'at Home' types: what we missed and couldnt see by not going to that big Bee Show. Seen a UK and EU TH-camrs Beeks have shown up already. Its not even started yet. 😄 Watch for the the Cool, Awesome, and What Price !?!# Episodes hitting our Intrays.
Hi Andrew, yes, I had two in that box, but there is a strong flow on and I am feeding them so they can produce the best cells possible. A bit of drawn wax creates some fiddly work, but in my opinion, it is worth it to get queens that have every opportunity to fully develop. Cheers Chris
Nice. Do you feed them a lot? I’ve been told by a professional queen rearer that one needs to feed small amounts but non-stop. Giving them a bottle with one or two small holes, laying it on its side on top of frames. Do you agree with that idea?
Its probably a better way than the way I do it. I give them ad-lib access to feed (in a top feeder) from a week before the graft until the cells are capped. At this time of year you have to be careful to avoid plugging the hive, so I regularly remove full nectar/honey frames and replace with bare foundation so they always have comb to draw and somewhere to put fresh nectar. Cheers
From Algeria
Hi Chris. Happy Hogmanay (New Year) from Scotland 🏴
Thought you Guys in N Z should be having better Weather ! Here its been a Mild Winter so far (7C today) all Hives Flying and Orientating a bit. Good to see their still happy, active and Yes Alive ! 🤭
Did a Fab Order on a Mid Winter Beek Sale : Grabbed myself a Set of 2 in 1 Poly Nucs with Central Divider Boards / Two Entrances : For Queen Rearing.
And a few of those Faux Apidea (Dinky) Mini Mating Nucs.
Want to up my Skill set and Raise some "Queen Cells" over than those just 'made by doing' Splits (!) Have made my own Cell Punch and Frame Holder.
Amazing that Pallet Wood and an Ex Beer Keg inner Pipe (Yes a local Lady got an ex Larger Keg to turned it into a Flower Tub ! Local Tool Shed Guys cut that Keg up good and well : Steel Pipe was going to be scrapped ! It made a Set of excellent "Cell" Cutters come Punches. Cut up into 2" Sections and Edge filed to a nice Sharp Cutting Edge !
Like a bit of DIY Upcycling of Scrap and saving some Bee Gear ££'s. 🤭
Just need May to come quick, and some Drones about the place. Right ! Wishful thinking, only on 3rd Day of the New Year. Got Winter and Spring to happen first. 😉
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024.
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Think TH-cam will be quiet then mega busy once Beeks attend that USA Bee Expo in Mid South USA. Guess all the usual Experts (suspects) will have Stories and new Toys to show us 'at Home' types: what we missed and couldnt see by not going to that big Bee Show.
Seen a UK and EU TH-camrs Beeks have shown up already.
Its not even started yet. 😄
Watch for the the Cool, Awesome, and What Price !?!# Episodes hitting our Intrays.
Do you put an empty frame of foundation for them to draw? With hopes for them to draw on the frame instead of on the queen cells
Hi Andrew, yes, I had two in that box, but there is a strong flow on and I am feeding them so they can produce the best cells possible. A bit of drawn wax creates some fiddly work, but in my opinion, it is worth it to get queens that have every opportunity to fully develop. Cheers Chris
Nice. Do you feed them a lot? I’ve been told by a professional queen rearer that one needs to feed small amounts but non-stop. Giving them a bottle with one or two small holes, laying it on its side on top of frames. Do you agree with that idea?
Its probably a better way than the way I do it. I give them ad-lib access to feed (in a top feeder) from a week before the graft until the cells are capped. At this time of year you have to be careful to avoid plugging the hive, so I regularly remove full nectar/honey frames and replace with bare foundation so they always have comb to draw and somewhere to put fresh nectar. Cheers
Thank you!