[irishstars]

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

 

[irishstars]

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. 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. Highly recommend Queen Reaing and Bee Breeding by Harry Laidlaw Jr. and Robert E. Page, Jr. They have a practical, but thorough book.
Will update as we progress. Hopefully we will have some sucess. Where in IA are you? We have lived in SC, IA and in Quimby, near Cherokee.
Barb