Queen Rearing Workshop in Burgessville Part 2

The beautiful view at John's bee yard

June 19, 2013

And the story of queen rearing continues.

Day 21 - 26:  The fertilized queen has returned from her fertilizing flights to mating hive and is laying eggs.  The hive should be checked at this point to make sure that she has come back safely and is indeed laying.  She can then be caught, marked and caged to be added to a hive that needs a queen.  Marking the queen tells you what year she was born.  There is an international code for marking queens:

Colour          Year ending in

White            1 or 6

Yellow          2 or 7

Red               3 or 8

Green            4 or 9

Blue              5 or 0

Take the first letter of each colour and say "Will You Raise Good Bees?" to remember the colour chart.

We practised picking up drones by the wings and then marking them.  Drones can't sting and are not as "valuable" as queens.

Marking a drone with a paint marker

The queen can then be caged with 5-8 attendant bees (young bees that care for the queen) and some queen candy (fondant).  The candy acts as a slow-release plug.  The cage is added to an existing queenless hive and the workers in the hive eat away the candy.  As they work they slowly become accustomed to the pheremone of the queen and learn to accept her.  When the candy is all eaten the queen can come out, be accepted by the population and start laying.

Queen Cage installed on frame

Plastic and wooden queen cages

It was so cool to be hanging out with a bunch of fellow bee keepers in the beautiful Ontario countryside.  Some of us were new bee keepers and some with many years of experience and we all had different reasons for wanting to learn about queen rearing.  I was there purely to satisfy my curiosity and others wanted to be able to raise their own queens to make sure that they would have a supply when queens were needed or to save money on re-queening.

Beekeepers with trainer (the one in bare arms!)

I will probably never raise queens since I only have two hives but I learned so much about the biology of bees.  I also learned to be more comfortable around the bees...John's bees are very gentle and I was working barehanded the entire day.  The most exciting thing for me was picking up a drone to mark it.  Bare hands are necessary for this fine work.  That is not to say that I will be that cocky always...I do not enjoy being stung!

Proud graduates!

We drove home after the workshop tired and fulfilled.  A great day for all of us!