Re: ACBA BeeTalk] OTS Queen Breeding?

[George McRae]

It worked reasonably well for me. I was a first timer with the castle and would say I was hobbled by factors I couldn't control like weather, and adequate food for the development of the queen larva in the mother hive. But for a first timer I'd do it again. One thing that I had to consider was location and drift back to the mother hive. It would be ideal in my case to move the castle to a different yard to prohibit drift. But I wanted local drones for mating. In addition the mother hive swarmed which attracted even more bees from the castle. However I did end up with three out of five. If I include the mother hive queen cells too. Not too shabby for me. I think adding queen pheromone strips for bee retention in the castle apartments would be a great help. I'd do it again esp with what I've learned.
George


Jim Veitch <jvei...@gmail.com> wrote:

I did research this before I tried it out and there are credible reports of success (e.g   https://honeybeesuite.com/how-to-start-a-queen-in-a-two-frame-nuc/ ).  I suspect that I didn't put enough nurse bees and/or ready to hatch brood in each compartment to handle our cold spring.

On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 10:42 PM Greg Mau <gmau...@earthlink.net> wrote:

While it is possible that there may be some "magic key" that we just haven't uncovered, it's also possible that people just aren't able to give up on a cool idea.  A quick net search shows loads of people showing how to make a Queen Castle but I've yet to see a report of success.  If there was a "magic key", you would think that it would be the very first thing brought up.

Four out of four...  How again does that definition of insanity go?

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