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Buying Local Queens

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  • 27 Jan 2021 11:45 AM
    Message # 10038730

    Yesterday evening we were blessed to have Tom Seeley speak at our club meeting.  One of the recommendations he made, one that I've heard made by our local experts, was to use local queens.  This recommendation always brings up the question, "Where do I get a local queen?"  With this post, I would like to start a list of local queen suppliers. The list below is of suppliers I've purchased from.  Hopefully, others can add to the list.

    1.  Starr Farms, Pleasant Hill, Oregon, 541-953-7856

    2.  Old Sol Apiaries, Rogue River, OR  541-582-2337 olsolbees@gmail.com

    3.  Jon Edwards, West Linn, 503-737-9350 hiveandgarden@gmail.com (I believe Jon gets his queens from Old Sol Apiaries.)

    4. Pacific Northwest Bees, Battle Ground, WA  360-574-5624, robert@pnwbees.com

    Moved from General Bee Topics: 8 Feb 2021 5:01 PM
  • 1 Feb 2021 5:20 PM
    Reply # 10054874 on 10038730
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Just because a business that sells queens is local... Doesn't mean they are "local queens"...  It would be nice if this supplier list was vetted for queens of hives that had over wintered in the Willamette Valley (or at least near-by). 

    I asked a question last fall about getting local queens when I thought I had a number of failing hives...  I ended up doing nothing and hoping they weren't queen-less. They all seem to still be alive today, so I'm hoping it was just a ladies choice to be brood-less for a period in the early fall. I looked at some of these same sources at the time, but it was too late in the season (Sept) to get them from most commercial apiaries.

    Ideally, as a club, it would be nice if we could pool some resources among us and raise our own queens. It's not all that hard to get the bees to do this, but there is a bit of equipment and access to a number of colonies to support making a strong builder to raise the queens. Then running the queens through mating nukes and banking them for later use.

    I've love to help raise queens... I've considered doing it myself but really didn't have an large enough operation to try it last spring.

    Maybe instead of splitting in the spring I could donate some nurse bees to the cause. The first step to making the builder is just like the queen-less part of a split except that one prepares some eggs to be queens for them vs. letting they select/create emergency queens cells. These eggs should be from what we would consider to have the "best generics" (not necessarily from any of the nurse bees put into the builder)

  • 2 Feb 2021 3:47 PM
    Reply # 10057263 on 10038730
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    I am happy to see good discussion coming from the Tom Seeley presentation. One comment - while there can be many folks who raise local queens from what is perhaps termed local successfully overwintered "survivor stock," there is no way to change the way the seasons roll in Oregon.

    The window for locally produced queens is anchored by colony strength, with foundations of plentiful available nectar and pollen resources, plus robust numbers of neighborhood drones for complete mating. So as was mentioned in the chat after Dr. Seeley's presentation, our part of the world has a pretty narrow window between Spring and Fall to rear and/or introduce queens. If hives have problems before something like June and after August, there is not much likelihood of rearing or purchasing a local queen - unless what is being done involves creating and stockpiling "resource hives." These are small sort of nuc colonies with enough bees to support a well-mated queen until she is needed for whatever emergency. The club will be talking about this topic from meeting to meeting.

  • 5 Feb 2021 8:09 PM
    Reply # 10064984 on 10038730
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Two years ago my hive went queen-less in the summer and so I bought a little brown bag with a queen and 6-10 attendants from "Bridgetown Bees Supply" in Portland. 

    The beekeeper running operations their kept all the queens banked in a single resource hive.  Basically all the queens were in little wooden/screened queen cages with a wood vs. candy plug (which they provided if you purchased one) in a single frame that was modified to hold numerous queen cages with some separation.  All were mated and ready to go.  

    I would think we could build the same as a club and thus extend the time queens could be made available to TVBA members.   Of course each queen needs to be free to fly off and mate from a separate mating nuke to start...  But she doesn't necessarily need to stay separate or be able to lay from what I observed. (Caveat: I've not looked into banking queens in this way yet)  I think the way this works is that their is no brood pheromones and so all the bees in the resource hive believe they were recently queen-less and all the new queens will sometime soon duke it out and start laying... which they can't because they are cages.

    Anyone in TVBA have more specific knowledge of how this works?

  • 6 Feb 2021 11:36 AM
    Reply # 10066131 on 10038730
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    A typical queen bank is very similar to a cell finisher colony.  It’s a queen-right colony bubbling with bees, but where the queen is confined to the bottom box(es) with mostly sealed brood and plenty of space to keep laying.  Above the excluder there is a source of honey, pollen, and mostly open brood draw the nurse bees up.  The colony should be healthy and well feed.  A frame with queens in cages can be inserted in the middle of the brood nest in the upper box and will get great attention by nurse bees.

    But will all things like this, the question is who provides the resources and labor?

    Who is going to create and maintain a cell builder colony?  Colonies like this need close attention to keep hive resources properly distributed.  Open brood should be rotated upstairs periodically, and feeding is usually performed.

    If queens were to be purchased and then banked, who is responsible if any of the queens die?

    Does the person managing the queen bank have time to accommodate those interesting in obtaining queens?  Where would such a colony reside?

    All this stuff can be done, but attention to detail and timing is critically important.  It is worthy of discussion.

    The next step of instead of just banking queens is to produce queen cells or queens.  Queen breeders usually have cell starter colonies (to tend to grafted queen cells) and cell finisher colonies (to provide an environment for the queen cells to mature).  Some use the same colony for both.  A bee club can do these sort of things,  but it takes dedicated and diligent volunteers, and probably a leader.  Timing and implementation have to be done precisely or things won’t work.

    Food for thought though .

    Last modified: 6 Feb 2021 7:53 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 7 Feb 2021 2:05 PM
    Reply # 10068110 on 10038730
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Thanks Mark... Sounds like a bit more work and logistics than I anticipated... specifically the part about having to bring up brood periodically to ensure the banked queens are well looked after by nurse bees.  Might require weekly maintenance!

    It also sounds like the Builder could become the Bank by just leaving one of the new queens in it to tend shop.

    Success would certainly depend on interest from the TVBA Community... 

    I'm sure we could work out some sort of rules for who gets queens free (those that put in time and capital), who pays if there are any available (benefiting TVBA I would suppose)... and what happens if the queens die (or all die).  Especially year one I think this would be more of a community service project to evaluate how we might encourage use of local survivor queens... vs. buying queens from Cali each year.

  • 7 Feb 2021 9:14 PM
    Reply # 10068563 on 10038730

    I have been rearing queens on a small scale, using various methods, for the past 10 years.  Currently, I'm producing 3 to 4 dozen queens each year.  There are a variety of queen rearing techniques that are not very difficult on a small scale.  Rather than place a burden on one or two  people to produce, and hold a large number of queens, it may be better to have several doing it on a smaller scale.   That way,  if a disruption or disease issue occurs (e. g. black queen cell virus) all your stock is not exposed.   Requeening with cells is a less expensive alternative, but you are at the mercy of local conditions to get these queens mated,  so timing is important.  The most important thing is to get the end user educated to requeen when there are local queens available, rather than waiting until they fail.

    Here are a couple Facebook groups that regularly discuss queen rearing:

    Sideliners Education Group 

    Pacific Northwest Queen Rearing Club

  • 10 Feb 2021 9:33 PM
    Reply # 10081269 on 10038730
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Another way a small beekeeper can create queen cells relatively easily is with the Miller method.  It is still some work and requires careful planning and timing,  but it's very possible.  Here are some videos: 1 and 2.

  • 5 Jul 2021 3:14 AM
    Reply # 10728830 on 10038730

    I am rearing limited numbers of survivor-stock queens from local feral colonies through August.  Call/ message me for availability. 

    Steve Gomes, 503-956-6137 

    1 file
  • 17 Aug 2021 10:55 AM
    Reply # 10937500 on 10038730
    Deleted user

    I think one of my hives has been queen less for over 2 weeks.  How late would be too late to requeen this year?  Also does anyone have a queen or a split they are trying to get rid of? thanks

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