[…]to give satisfactory mating success by drone flooding using drone comb in selected hives. Grafted queen cell A.m.m. queen produced by grafting. Year 3. 2012 A suitably remote site for mating of grafted A.m.m. virgins was needed, and Eoghain MacLean; Director of the Scottish Natural Heritage Reserve at Kinlochewe gave permission to site a mating apiary on the mountain nature […]
[…]the new site. The out-apiary is there for the future if we need it. Key to our bee breeding and queen rearing plan is mapping the linage of each queen, assessing quality according to our own standards, then selecting drone colonies from specific lines and breeding from our best queens each year. We are able to steadily increase the […]
[…]Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture has seen fit in recent years to allow the importation of queen bees under licence. These queens are imported from different part of the world and are of a variety of races. If this trend continues it can have a deleterious effect on the purity of our native bee which is the race that predominates […]
[…]smokers or hive tools are to be used, other than those supplied. To identify stocks to raise queens from or to replace (we don't expect to kill queens!) we may place them in order of preference. This is for instructional purposes only and not to be seen as criticism of the bees kept by our hosts. Some apiaries may be […]
[…]This can be done by assessing colonies against a set of criteria that you want in your bees, using queen cells from colonies displaying those criteria and culling those that don’t. Clearly these criteria need to be something that is achievable, not something that isn’t. What beekeepers need to remember is they usually only have influence over half the parentage […]
Membership/Website Nick Mawby has kept bees since 1977. He has managed a queen rearing group in Leek, Staffs for 30 years; this group became the association teaching apiary but is now refocusing again on queen rearing.He is chairman and webmaster of North Staffs Beekeepers Association. When not beekeeping, Nick will take off in his campervan. For any comments regarding membership […]
Beekeeping activities, especially queen trading, have shaped the distribution of honey bee (Apis mellifera) subspecies in Europe, and have resulted in extensive introductions of two eastern European C-lineage subspecies (A. m. ligustica and A. m. carnica) into the native range of the M-lineage A. m. mellifera subspecies in Western Europe. As a consequence, replacement and gene flow between native and […]
[…]and quality control of mating stations. Recommendations for the handling and quality control of queens complete the queen rearing section. The improvement of colony traits usually depends on a comparative testing of colonies. Standardized recommendations for the organization of performance tests and the measurement of the most common selection characters are presented. Statistical methods and data preconditions for the estimation […]
[…]choice of subject: Conservation and Improvement of native bees including all aspects of queen rearing. Practical Demonstrations: Considerable experience in giving practical demonstrations on colony evaluation, selection for breeding and methods of queen rearing. Also morphometry and preparation of honey for show. Geoff Critchley Geoff lives in Flintshire and is prepared to travel. Tel No… 01352 740 991 Mobile… 07885 […]
[…]grafting and mini-nucs as standard but have experience of other methods. Talks given and practical queen rearing skills demonstrated. contact Trisha […]
[…]hope for better conditions in 2016 and the successful rearing and mating of a larger number of queens. Demand for Amm queens is strong in Scotland where there is growing interest in locally-bred, native and/or well-acclimatised bees. More and more beekeepers are learning to rear their own queens or source them locally rather than import stock with the attendant risks […]
[…]with the DC area above the Port St. Mary Golf course. The drone comets that formed to chase our queen sent aloft, tethered to a couple of helium balloons, remains one of the highpoints of my beekeeping career. Our efforts culminated in watching a queen being pursued and mated at head height. …much to the indifference of my five year […]
[…]Brooke poem – Adrian recited the rest of the poem! He demonstrated skill at managing bees and queen rearing which he was able to convey to others. Adrian was also a stick dresser – a maker of walking sticks. He made one for me with a skep carved on the handle, which will remind me of the time we spent together. He […]
[…]modest batch of AMM grafts have been taken to standardise the method and educate the core team. Queen cages are being prepared, either plastic bought at the Tradex or Benton Cages constructed from timber. Mating preparations have started; making Queen Castles and attending lectures on Apidea management Activities we have planned: Swarm control !!! 🙂 More evening social meetings Apiary […]
[…]plastic), attendant workers (present or absent) and food type (sugar candy, honey, or both). Ten queens were tested in each of the 12 combinations. Queens were reared using standard beekeeping methods (Doolittle/grafting) and emerged from their cells into vials held in an incubator at 34C. All 12 combinations gave high survival (90 or 100%) for three days but only one […]
[…]Workers can only produce drone offspring if hopelessly queen less, but do they produce drones in a queenright colony? I will explain a little on drone genetics and its consequences and sex determination in the honey bee and how diploid drones arise. I will outline the job description of drones and include some behavior particulars leading onto the mating event, […]
[…]eusocial insects? How do honey bees avoid inbreeding? Examine the rearing and sexual maturing of queens and drones. Illustrated with videos I demonstrate the mating process, and the timing and meeting at drone congregation areas. How do honey bees minimize the chance of virgin queens mating with their brothers, and how does the mating process work? My interest into this […]
[…]Since then has coordinated the Group’s breeding programme and its arduous task of learning about queen and drone-rearing, natural mating and instrumental insemination, colony assessment and bee morphometry and breeder evaluation and selection. Lecture Title: “A current attempt to recover Apis mellifera mellifera from mongrelised stocks in the Welsh Borders” Achieving sustained and demonstrable bee improvement in only a few […]
[…]and propagate the native and near native honey bees. The CHIP members have formed a collective queen rearing group and are each helping other local individuals and groups to enter into selective and practical queen rearing groups in their locality For more information please contact […]
