Are you breeding the honey bee on a genetic basis? Or interested in seeing the different traits of the races of honey bees in your apiary.Several races of queens are now available within the UK from BICKERSTAFFES.
The next page lists them all, together with the traits of her progeny.Study it with care. Beekeepers often look for different characteristics and the Greek queen breeding centre has described them for you.
All queen bees are mated in the region of Epirus at the north west corner of Greece.
*To watch the streaming videos you will need Windows Media Player 9 or later and broadband.
Pictures from EPIRUS -
http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=8756&CID=59649
A family based at Ioannina is responsible for producing the queens. Founder John and his wife Margarita, their two sons Jim and Zacharias, daughter Labrini and husband Panagiotis.
The BuckfastXCecropia,Carnica, Caucasia, Cecropia, Macedonica or Ligustica may be ordered at any time but there will need to be a fortnights notice for any bee that is not a BuckfastxCecropia.
Price £16.95 inc P&P and marking.
The queens are sent out from the Greek breeding station late Monday evening to be flown early mornings Tuesday from Athens airport which usually arrive Tuesday evening in the UK. They are mailed straight away to be with the British beekeeper between Thursday and Saturday.
Because of unforseen events it is best to track ordered queens from the QUEEN TRACKING page.
Every queen is sent in a small plastic cage with attendant worker bees and a hive tag with a note of the breeding date, race and suggested date of replacement. This is pinned to the crown board to ensure that the hive is always headed by young first class queens.It is best not to run a Queen beyond two seasons heading a hive. Older Queens should not be killed, instead place in nuc boxes or spare equipment to continue to provide bees and brood for your other hives.
Because the water based spot placed on the queen can wear off it is advised to remark her perhaps later in the season to ensure the original queen is still heading the hive. When bred with drones from an unknown source the results can be variable.
Try to give a good laying queen like the BuckfastxCecropia the equivalent of two deep National hive bodies, with plenty of empty supers to take away pressure from honey congesting the brood chamber. Run an `open brood nest`
discard all poor drawn comb or any holding granulated honey to ensure room for a good queen to lay to her full potential. Restricting her room especially in the Spring is to invite swarming.If the weather is poor or changeable leave bakers fondant/candy with the hive to help provide stronger stocks for when a honey flow may occur.
The best way to introduce queen bees is to make up a nuclei using bees and brood from three different hives together with a food frame and moving to another apiary, leave queenless overnight and then introduce your new queen using the Bickerstaff cage.
During the season lightly sugared water from a hand sprayer can be all that is needed when working the bees in reasonable weather,it is a good idea to add a few drops of peppermint oil to the sprayer to help knock out some Varroa mites, but do not rely on it alone!
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In the Spring, to help control Acarine, Varroa, Nosema it will help your bees if you add thymol to your sugar syrup (dilute 30 gm thymol crystals in 150ml surgical spirit or vinegar....add 5ml of the solution to 13.5 litres syrup) repeat in early Autumn with entrance blocks in place.
In the late Autumn Oxalic acid is used by heating the crystals in a copper tube using a blow lamp.
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The season starts in the Autumn.
Ensure stocks are equalized in strength,headed by young queens, treated against Varroa,Acarine and Nosema which are endemic ,with plenty of stores for the winter, and in a sheltered spot that catches the winter sun.
Autumn is an ideal time to requeen.Acceptance is higher at this time of year. There is no set back the following Spring.The hives will now be much healthier, stronger,earlier.Young bees are laid for stronger over wintering and as the Queens are recently mated they will still give two seasons productivity.If in doubt add Fumidil B to the Autumn feed for healthier bees.
If you live in an area with an early spring flow have the colony go into winter with the equivalent of one and a half National brood chambers together with two supers of honey without a queen excluder ,the BuckfastxCecropia will then be in a strong shape when oil seed rape is in flower.
Ioannina is a beautiful lake side town in the North West Region of Greece (3min 54sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClSeHMrOAcE
City of Ioannina (2min 45sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qXu1CZnwh4
