14 May 2015
An important segment of the beekeeping course is the topic of Queen rearing.
This comprises two elements: a classroom session where we will explore the various opportunities and
techniques for raising Queens and, separately, a practical field event where we each graft some very young
larvae into especially prepared Queen cups ready for the bees to draw out and mature into some virgin
Queens.
As you are aware the swarming season is now upon us – this is the most conducive time to start our artificial
Queen raising activities. The proposal is that we juggle the course syllabus around and use next
Wednesday’s (20 May) classroom session for the background introduction to Queen raising and, then, a day
of the following weekend, either the 23rd or 24th May, to complete the grafting of the larvae that we hope will
develop into virgin Queens.
Generally, the process involves preparing an isolated and broodless nuclei a day or so before; on the grafting
day, opening the selected hive to remove frames containing some very young larvae; grafting individual larva
into artificial Queen cups; and, finally, placing these Queen cups into the broodless nuclei – all, of course,
weather permitting. The aim is that each of us will graft a larva and thus observe its development in the
Queen-raising nuclei. The successful Virgin Queens can then be transferred to other nuclei for emergence
and mating, thereby creating new colonies of Oxleas Apiary origin.
I suggest that we all congregate around the Apiary from
about 1:00 pm on the chosen day – as before I have to
limit the number of individuals in the active part of the
apiary to 4 to 5 but everyone will be able to undertake
the grafting – would you therefore agree amongst
yourselves whether it is Saturday or Sunday that is the
best day for this ‘creative’ activity.
Successful grafting the larvae is very sensitive to the local environmental conditions, particularly
temperature and any wind chill, so it would be useful erect some temporary cover on the lawn by the Apiary
– for this, does anyone have a small garden marquee or similar that we could borrow and erect for the day ?
John Large
John Large