What we are reading

[jcbbsadmin]

Let's start by sharing with each other what we have found to be good reading material. It could be a web article, something from a magazine or a good book that you have found on the topic.

[jcbbsadmin]

I have enjoyed a book written by one of our speakers from last year's winter seminar.

QRBook2.jpg (74.24 KiB) Viewed 19097 times

This book, written by Dr Larry Connor has a number of ways to approach this issue. In it he focuses primarily on grafting, and then offers several ways to configure starter and finishing hives. He also describes one breeder's technique to use one queenless hive to accomplish both functions. Dr Connor's techniques focus on producing as many as 50 queen cells in each attempt.

He also explains the different ways to distribute queens and the pluses and minuses. Among these are selling unhatched queen cells, virgin queens and newly mated queens from mating nucs. There is also a discussion on how to bank mated queens.

It's definitely worth the purchase price if you plan to take on this challenge.

[jcbbsadmin]

Here's another book that I have reread a couple times now. The OTS (On The Spot) technique is one that allows a beekeeper to successfully breed many queens with no additional tools other than a sharp hive tool, a bee brush and a couple empty brood boxes.

OTS_QR.jpg (215.11 KiB) Viewed 19077 times

This method basically allows the keeper to manipulate a frame with day old brood in a way that encourages bees in a queen-less box to raise the selected larvae as queen candidates. Several prepared frames can be placed in the starter box to encourage the creation of multiple queen cells.

Unfortunately the book is a bit pricey as sold by the author himself, but if you are interested in finding out more, here is a link to the author describing this technique. If you find it interesting, the book will be a valuable addition to your library.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYz65Vquxg