Post by histopicker on Feb 7, 2015 17:25:41 GMT -5
I checked the hives today. They are a little weak from the winter but the queens are laying and there is some capped brood. I will have new bees working soon!
Post by Jack of all Trapping on Feb 7, 2015 20:18:43 GMT -5
Histo, Can a hive have more than 1 queen?Are other bees female (ie. Workers)?
"WHERE THE DEER LEAP AND THE PANTHER CREEPS, WHERE THE TROUT LEAPS HIGH AT THE HOVERING FLY, AND THE EAGLE'S CRY BODES A TEMPEST NIGH, THIS IS MY HOME IN THE MOUNTAINS ALONE."
histopicker
Swamptalker Extrordinaire Swamp Talker of the Month - 02/2015
Histo, Can a hive have more than 1 queen?Are other bees female (ie. Workers)?
Jack; yes a hive can have more than one Queen. It is rare but if a hive has a failing queen it will make another queen and eject the old one. Sometimes this "ejection" might take some time and you will end up with mother-daughter queens. Once the daughter queen becomes aware of the old queens presence she will usually kill her. A hive will usually swarm during periods of rapid growth thus expanding the colony into two or three separate colonies. When they do this new queens are made.
All of the bees in a hive that do work; nurse bees, worker bees, foragers, are all female and can lay unfertilized eggs but seldom do. The queen is the only bee that can lay fertile eggs. All fertilized eggs produce female bees. If the hive needs male bees to carry on its genetics, the queen will selectively lay unfertilized eggs. These male bees are called Drones. Drones have no stinger, they do no work, and they have to be feed and cared for by the nurse bees. They are in fact a burden on the hive.
Every day the drones leave the hive and go searching for a virgin queen to mate with that was produced by a different colony. He will not mate with a queen from his own hive. This is how hives can become Africanized. The Africanized drones are faster than other species thus making them more efficient breeders. When a colony needs to swarm, it raises new queens. The new queen has to go on a marriage flight to breed. They only breed while in flight. If there are Africanized drones in the area chances are good that they will be the successful breeders thus creating an Africanized colony.
At the end of the season, late fall, the drones are kicked out of the hive and die within 24 hours. No need in keeping the useless fellers around.
I hope this answers your question Jack and I apologize for rambling on so.
Post by Jack of all Trapping on Feb 7, 2015 21:56:55 GMT -5
You answered my question completely. Thank you. I would of never known that if you didn't explain it so well.
"WHERE THE DEER LEAP AND THE PANTHER CREEPS, WHERE THE TROUT LEAPS HIGH AT THE HOVERING FLY, AND THE EAGLE'S CRY BODES A TEMPEST NIGH, THIS IS MY HOME IN THE MOUNTAINS ALONE."
nytrapper23
Global Moderator Swamptalker of the month 7/2013,12/2014
Please forgive my stupidity, this is amazing to me and would love to learn more, but how do they "make " a queen?
Great question! definitely not a stupid one at all.
When a colony decides it needs a new queen, a few one to three day old eggs are selected for the purpose. The cells these eggs are in are modified to a size and shape specific to rearing a queen.
The Queen cell is much larger than a normal cell so the Queen can obtain her greater size. When the egg hatches it is fed a special substance produced by nurse bees called "Royal Jelly". She has to be fed this substance to grow into a Queen.
The colony will produce several of these Queens to ensure one will be viable. The first queen to hatch is drawn to the remaining queen cells because the queens in the cells make chirping sounds; probably calling for food. When she locates them she stings them to death through their cell walls. She has to kill them before leaving the hive because if another queen hatches in her absence, the workers will kill her upon her return to the hive. On a side note; the queen bee can sting multiple times and does not loose her stinger like the worker bees so stinging is not fatal to her like the worker bees. After killing the pre-emergent queens she goes on her marriage flight. If she fails to return the hive is in risk of dying unless another queen can be produced.
Last Edit: Feb 7, 2015 23:35:46 GMT -5 by histopicker
Histo,any books or DVDs you would recommend? I would really like to learn more and maybe try this hobby.
I really like this guys methods. My hives are built using his plans and his natural methods are proven to sustain healthier hives. In your area it gets extremely cold but bees do well there. You will have to provide additional protection from the cold for your colonies to survive. You tube is loaded with great channels to learn beekeeping. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYPJuzEn9P4
Histo, once you get set up do you go looking for a queen or buy one. And how do you know she will stay in your setup?
I purchased "Package Bees" from a local apiary. These packages include about 3lbs of bees (about 10,000) and a caged queen. The queen is already bred. You dump the bees into the hive and place the caged queen into the hive with them. The queen is trapped in the cage by a piece of candy. It takes the worker bees about three days to release the queen from the cage and by this time they are used to her scent (Pheromones) and accept her as their queen and allow her to live. She will never leave the hive unless forced to do so. Here is a video of me introducing a package into a new hive. In the beginning of the video you see me tying a queen cage to the top bar. In the end of the cage there is a nail protecting the candy from the bees. I remove this nail leaving access to the candy. What I spray on the bees is sugar water. This gets them full and not very able to fly away. During this process you are unlikely to get stung as they have nothing to defend. Caution should still be taken because they are insects and there is no way to predict their behavior. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTvMLfDp0Lk
