A honey bee queen is a chosen one, they are chosen by the worker honey bees when the colony is in need of a new queen, the making of a queen is triggered usually by a combination of conditions such as congestion in the hive and lack of egg laying space. When the first virgin queen leaves her cell two things can now occur, either the first virgin queen leads a smaller swarm from the hive (called a cast) or she locates the other queen cells and kills the other virgin queen bee inside the queen cells by stinging through the wax wall of their cells. Just today I saw a queen cell opened up by some workers and the virgin queen's head emerge, I was happy to saw that scenery but I still had those fear of loosing the virgin queen bee, for the first 5 days of the virgin queen was critical, I lost some queen bee that emerge during the rainy days maybe because when they had their first flight the weather might not be good. A virgin queen as I describe it has a short abdomen and not engorged with sperm glands from male bees. Virgin queens appear to have little queen pheromone and often do not appear to be recognized as queens by the workers. A virgin queen in her first few hours after emergence can be placed into the entrance of any queenless hive or nuc and acceptance is usually very good. I am producing queens using the split type method, it is not easy to split a hive and there is no guarantee, for a new queen might not emerge, might not mate and of course the first mating flight was so critical. I am always hopeful that the first flight of the virgin queen bee will be successful because it is never guaranteed there is always that fear in me that she might not make it on her first flight or she might be killed. As of the splits that I have made in 4 Nuc boxes I already have 1 mated queen, 2 virgin queens and 1 queenless . October is fast approaching and I'm getting ready for their build-up period, dearth period was not an easy stage for the beekeeper and the bees but we are almost at the end of it for this year.
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Beekeepers use several different methods to raise queens, here's an awesome video that talks about queen rearing, and enlightened me in someway. The guy is Mike Palmer who explained some informative details to the listener about queen rearing, one of the quotes that he mentioned was "There are plenty of people in your area raising queens and the best queens are gonna come from your own area grown under the same condition that you're keeping the bees." the quote is all about supporting your local queen producers.
Last week while inspecting I had a hard time finding the queen bee, and I was on doubt on what happened to the Queen since I really can't find her, the bees on the hive already made some queen cell and one problem that I encountered as an amateur bee keeper was the type of queen cell that the bees have made. In our seminar the bee technician told us that there are three types of Identifying the queen cell: Supersedure Cell, Emergency Queen Cell and the Swarm Cell. Queens are raised in specially constructed cells that start out as queen cups for the resident queen to lay eggs in. Queen cups are larger than the worker and drone cells and are oriented with the cell opening downward. When the queen cup is occupied is called a queen cell. Queen cells that begin from a queen cup are either swarm cells or supersedure cells. After an egg is laid in a cup, the worker bees extend the cup into a queen cell in which the queen is raised. Worker bees do not extend the queen cups into queen cells unless they have had eggs laid in them. The completely constructed queen cell is somewhat shaped like a peanut pod, usually 25-29 mm (1-1½ inches) in length and hangs downwards from the comb. The new queen spends its stages in the cell as it develops from egg to larva and then pupa. The worker bees feed the larva abundantly on royal jelly for the entire larval stage. This special feeding produces a female with fully developed reproductive organs. When the larva is ready to pupate they cap or seal the cell with beeswax. When the virgin queen is ready to emerge, she will bite her way through the bottom of the cell. When she has emerged the cap may still be attached to the cell. The queen bee needs 15-16 days to develop and leave her cell, depending on the temperature. Bees usually raise several queens at the same time. The first queen to emerge from her cell will immediately sting the unhatched queens to death while they are still inside their cell. If there is more than one queen in a colony, the queens will fight to the death. After about 4-7 days, the virgin queen is ready to mate. The newly mated queen can commence laying eggs after two to three days. I admit I am still an amateur and this is the first time I encountered this problem in actual that when I opened the hive and found the queen cells, I was tempted to destroy them as a swarming prevention measure. It is just lately that I've realized while having a chat with our bee technician that not all queen cells are necessarily swarm cells. As I mentioned previously, there are three types of queen cells. Only the presence of swarm cells indicates that the colony is preparing to swarm. The other two types are present for different purposes. Destroying queen cells may lead to queenlessness and it is vital to be able to identify and understand the different types of queen cells to perceive what is happening. Identification of Queen Cell Types: 1. Emergency cells are built when a colony becomes queenless. The queen may have been killed accidently, or dropped onto the ground during hive manipulation. Emergency cells are also started if the queen is removed from a colony by the beekeeper when making an artificial swarm. 2. Supersedure cells occur when the colony has decided to replace the current queen. The supersedure cell is started as a natural queen cup. The colony raises only a few cells, commonly 1 to 3, and they tend to be nearly uniform in age. They are typically raised on the face of a brood comb and in the same comb, not along the comb edge and near the bottom bars like swarm cells. These cells are usually long and heavily covered with beeswax. Supersedure cells can occur any time in the active season when a queen is failing. 3. Swarm cells are the most common type, built from queen cups for raising new queens when the bees preparing to swarm. Swarm cells are the most numerous; about six to twelve are generally produced. Some colonies build up to 50 of them. These cells are typically located on the bottom portion of the comb or in gaps in the comb within the brood area. In general, several cells are started at intervals during a period of several days and are seen at various stages of development. Our bee technician went to see the hives that I have a problem with for consultation on what to do, by that time we found that the queen is there, the queen cells that the bees had developed on the hive was a supercedure cell and 2 emergency cells, the bee technician decided to split the hive into 2 since the bees develop a supercedure cell and the 2 emergency cell was eliminated, a close brood and a cell full of honey and pollen goes into the nuc box. now I have 7 colonies to maintain. |
Dilan's Apiary
Address: Kagudoy Road, Basak, Lapu-Lapu City Archives
June 2022
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