[zathrus]

We did it! This afternoon I graphed 24 tiny larvae into homemade queen cells. The the frame was put into a queenless nuc box that had honey and some brood, and bees. Here's praying we're sucessful. I understand that the commercial queen rearers have a 25-60% sucess rate. Time will tell what we get. Anyone else rear their own queens for splits, etc.? Barb

Hi Barb,

I've never done it or learned much about it. Let us know how it turns out. I'd like to know of any good books on the subject. I've checked Amazon.com, but found only a few, and many had never been reviewed, so it's hard to say if they are any good. What did you do to prepare for this venture? Did you take a class, study some books, get training from another beekeeper? Are you raising them for your own use, or do you plan on going into business doing this? Inquiring minds want to know. Best of luck!

Sean

 

[zathrus]

Hi Barb,

Thanks for the response.

Hi Sean,

Dh raised bees in Sioux City, IA in '70s with his hs bio teacher, but no queens. We are starting a pollination business, but off to a slow start as bees, nucs and packages were very hard to find in this part of NC. Also weather has set back the honey flow by at least 1-2 weeks.

Are there good opportunities for a pollination business here in northwest Iowa? Sorry to hear about your slow start and bad weather. I've been out to NC to visit some of my wive's relatives and for business, it's beautiful country. Hope you have better luck in the near future!

We both have taken the first course through the NCS beekeepers assoc., but that barely covered queens. Since re-queening for commercial people gets expensive and I have 2 hives needing to split and queens are hard to find right now, we decided to experiment.

I guess I can check with my county/state extension service about a queen rearing course. I took the state course in beekeeping in March and it was informative and great for getting in contact with other beekeepers. Iowa State University is big into every aspect of agriculture, one of the advantages of living here in Iowa.

Highly recommend Queen Reaing and Bee Breeding by Harry Laidlaw Jr. and Robert E. Page, Jr. They have a practical, but thorough book.

That was one of the books on queen rearing I saw on Amazon.com that looked, good, but again, no one had reviewed it. I will trust your opinion on it. Harry Laidlaw has written many books on different aspects of beekeeping, so it stands to reason that he must know something about it, 'cause he keeps writting books. I would assume that people or buying them and they are useful or he would have stopped. Maybe that's a bad assumption...

Will update as we progress. Hopefully we will have some sucess.

I for one would be interested in hearing about it and hope for your success.

Where in IA are you? We have lived in SC, IA and in Quimby, near Cherokee.

I live near West Bend, located just south of HWY 18 between Algona and Emmetsburg. If you were originally from Iowa, you've more than likely heard of as it is home to the "World's Largest Grotto". West Bend would be north and east of Cherokee about 90 minutes and about 2.25 hours north and east of Sioux City.

Thanks again for writting back and best of luck in all your enterprises!

Sean