Section 7.1 – The Mating of Queens

Mating of queens

Let us now turn our attention to queen mating.

Keeping in mind our aim which is to work with our local bees to improve and eventually build a sustainable local eco-type.

Be sure when moving bees around that they are fit and healthy. Pay extra attention to the foul brood diseases. If suspected it is incumbent on you to report it to your Regional Bee Inspector or the National Bee Unit.

Any colony chosen for the supply of bees must be given a full health inspection and if it is your intention to keep the doner colony as an active unit then be sure it is strong enough to give up some of its stock.

We require where possible, that our queens mate within strain. But control of mating can pose a difficulty especially if you happen to be working on your own. So, let’s take a look at some possible answers.

Firstly, there are three possible methods we can use to get our queens mated; Instrumental insemination, Isolated apiary mating, and Open mating/drone flooding.

Realistically two of these would be difficult for the average beekeeper to adopt especially if you are relatively new to the craft.

Instrumental Insemination although giving complete control over the choice of both the male and female line, requires specialist equipment and specific knowledge to carry out the delicate procedure.

However, having said this I don’t wish to discourage anyone from having a go at learning the skills…..so this maybe the approach for you.

The Isolated mating apiary method, uses a chosen area where the queens that require mating are placed, in the knowledge that the drone population is of the same strain and is not compromised by hybrid Drones. The difficulty here is the lack of suitable sites within the British Isles to ensure this method is successful.

This then leaves us with Open mating and Drone flooding.

The queen is sexually mature for mating some 5 to 6 days after she as emerged from her cell. Her initial flights will be orientational flights before she eventually takes to the air on her mating flights. There are two forms of open mating one being known as ‘Apiary Vicinity Mating’ and the other is ‘Drone Assembly Mating’. The former, as the title implies, tends to take place in close proximity to the hive and can happen at a time when the ambient temperature is lower than that of the drone assembly mating.

It is believed that this form of mating favours the native bee Amm which generally tends to fly at lower temperatures. It also creates the possibility of Amm queens mating later in the season and mating within strain.

Both these options rely on open mating and it is here where we need to select how we are going to hive the virgin queens to enable them to take their mating flights. There are a few options which include a mini nuc, standard nuc or a full queenless hive.

Mini Nuc

The Mini Nuc is a very small box; Apidia being a popular choice. These allow the beekeeper to produce a mini hive environment with a small number of bees …. approximately 300 ml. There is a need to keep a close eye on the use of these boxes simply because of their size but with careful management they work well. Although they can be used for producing small numbers of queens, they lend themselves towards getting larger numbers of queens mated because they require less bees so giving the option to set-up a greater number of mating hives without being too much of a draw on your existing bee stocks.

Advantages:

• Uses small number of bees
• queens tend to get mated and begin to lay a lot quicker
• Queen easier to find and a larger number of queens can be produced on minimal resources

Disadvantages:

• Can be susceptible to wasps and robbing
• Need careful management
• Need feeding
• Greater chance of the bees overheating and absconding.

METHOD


If your mini nucs have been used previously then start by cleaning them out and cut back any wax in the frames just leaving a little wax at the top for the bees to rebuild. Building fresh wax helps with hygiene and also helps the bees to bond as a small unit. If your mini nucs are new then a thin wax starter strip approximately 20mm deep is put into the frame and a solidified bead of molten wax holds it in place on the top bar.

Stock the feeder with fondant. Syrup can be used but creates an obvious difficulty when introducing the bees which is done with the box upside down

Care needs to be to be taken when stocking the mini nucs with bees. This is done by choosing a strong colony. Using the bees from a colony that does not fit into your bee improvement plans is also a good option.

If you intend taking your mini nucs to a designated mating apiary then you will need to be sure there are no unwanted drones amongst the bees you stock the mini nucs with. One method you can consider to facilitate this is to shake the bees off the brood frames that you intend to use. These frames are then placed into another box and this is put on top of the existing brood box with a queen excluder between them. At this point close the hive up and leave it for a couple of hours or more. This will allow the nurse bees to move back to cover the brood on the shaken frames. The bees on these frames, now minus the drones, are the ones used to stock your Mini-Nucs.

The recognised number of bees is 300 ml a measurement that can be achieved by marking a small plastic container with a measured mark. Try to be fairly accurate with your measurement because over or under stocking such a small unit can mean that it doesn’t function.

We now need to take our prepared mini nuc with its frames and feeder in place and turn it upside down. The floor is then slid out to its furthest point and the box placed to one side ready to take the bees.

A larger amount of the bees needs to be nurse bees so should be taken from the brood frames. If the colony you are taking the bees from is fully functioning then the first step in collecting them is to find and temporarily cage the queen. Now take the selected frames and shake the adhering bees into a holding container or bowl. Spraying the bees lightly with a little water will help to keep them in the bowl. Speed is of the essence to ensure the bees don’t start to leave the container. But speed must not be to the detriment of the bees welfare.

If it is the intention to introduce a newly hatched queen to the prepared mini nuc then while she is in her cage give her a gentle spray with water and have her ready to drop into the melee of bees immediately having tipped your 300 ml of the bees into the mini nuc. Without hesitation carefully slide the floor closed and turn the box gently back to its correct orientation. If it is a queen cell you are going to use in the mini nuc this should be introduced a few hours after the stocking of the nucs to allow the bees to dry out. It is also a good idea to protect the cell with a wrap of silver foil leaving just the tip showing for the queen to emerge from. This would be placed in the accommodating hole in the plastic cover board.

The nucs are now placed in a cool, dark, dry place for around four days. each day a spray of water is given through the ventilation grill at the front of the box. This enables the bees to use the fondant to build wax and helps them to control the temperature especially if it is hot weather.

After the four days the mini nucs can be brought out and placed on their prepared stands, this is best done in the evening. Just as the light is failing carefully open the entrance making sure it can’t slide back shut by wedging it open. The queen can now go on her mating flights when she is ready.

Full sized Nuc

A full-sized Nucleus holds 6 BS brood frames for a National hive. This can be stocked using frames of Brood and stores from a strong full-sized colony. However, using six frames is not needed for a mating nuc and is a drain on your bee stocks taken from other hives.

It is better to make up a nuc with two/three frames taken from your doner hive and use a wide dummy to fill the vacant space left in the nuc by the missing frames.

Remember to replace the frames taken from the doner hive with frames of drawn comb or failing this foundation and release the queen.

If you have a full colony whose bees are not what you are looking for e.g. they lack your choice of desired traits then use this for stocking your nuc; taking note of the opening reference in this article on health.

Advantages:

• Able to stock with frames of brood taken from doner colonies
• Option to develop the colony further
• Option to make use of the nuc in other areas of the apiary
• Less likely to overheat
• Possible to overwinter if required
• Used to bank a spare queen or breeder Queen

Disadvantages:

• Needs greater quantity of bees for stocking

 

METHOD

With regard to any unwanted drones the same applies as with the Mini Nucs. If it is your intention to use your mating nucs in an isolated mating apiary that holds the desired genetics, then you will need to be sure there are no unwanted drones amongst the bees you stock your nucs with.

A similar approach to that used to stock the mini-nucs can be adopted. But with the full sized nucs you will be transferring the complete frames, with the brood and the bees plus, frames of stores and shaking in an extra frame or two of bees as well. Therefore, to be drone free all these frames initially require the bees to be shaken off and the frames placed into another box. This box is then put on top of the existing brood box with a queen excluder between them. At this point close the hive up and leave it for a couple of hours or more. This will allow the nurse bees to move back to cover the brood on the shaken frames. These frames of bees now minus the drones are the ones used to make up your nuc.

Find the queen in the hive you will be taking the frames of brood from and temporarily cage her.

After this select two frames of mainly sealed brood and place them in the nuc along with the adhering bees. Attach your queen cell between the two frames close to the brood. It is good to use some form of queen cell protection in the shape of a proprietary produced cell protector or you can use a small square of tin foil that is put around the cell and exposes only the tip. This is to stop the bees from tearing it down.

Then select a full frame of stores and place this next to the brood frames. Shake an extra two frames of bees into the nuc and move your dummy up next to this.  Complete by putting on the cover sheet and roof.

If you are keeping the nuc in the same apiary as the hive which you have stocked the nuc from. Then make sure you shake in enough bees to compensate for any flying bees which will simply return to the parent hive.

In both these systems it is better to leave each queen in place long enough to be sure that she has mated and is producing worker brood by waiting until the eggs she has laid are capped as worker brood.

As you begin to produce queens from your breeder colony /colonies this will help to improve the quality of the drones produced. The drones produced by the daughter queens of your chosen breeder colonies will produce good drone stock. The reason for this is the drone only has half the chromosomes which are inherited from his grandmother the breeder queen. This means he carries the desired traits to pass on to any subsequent queen he mates with.