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Queens 2010 |
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We plan to start grafting
(February 2nd) . So weather permitting we should have the first
cells by the 12th of February. For the most part we will be
grafting each Monday or Tuesday, and cells will be available for
pickup on Friday or Saturdays. The grafting schedule does
fluctuate according to our nuc needs and customer requests, and
Zack's desire to sail. Sometimes, we'll fit two grafts into a week, so if you are in
need of cells call ahead to schedule our graft at least ten days
in advance, other wise we will try to accommodate you with any
leftover cells we may have from week to week.
Our last Queen cells will be available in the third week of April. |
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Our queen cells did not start out any better than the bees did, our cells suffered severely from the effects of CCD. Fortunately we did find the cure about four or five weeks into out grafting schedule, amazingly by the end of our next graft the cells were coming out great, we even had a couple near perfect racks of cells towards the end (for the recipe). One of our biggest battles early on was the cold; this winter was recorded as the coldest in over 20 years. We had whole weeks were every night it froze, and during the day it would not get above 50. Despite our many trials early on this year we were able to sell a few queens and over 300 nucleus hives.
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Our future grafter holding a perfect rack of cells.
Zachary grafting |
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( Upper left) Chris preparing
to blow bees off a rack of cells just pulled from a finisher
colony, (Upper right) Young larvae floating on bed of royal jelly 12 hours after graft, and ready to be put into finisher colony. (right ) The final cells of 2010 (a nearly perfect rack) |
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If you were sitting on one of the two benches below, could you find the Queen trying to hide on this frame?
Our three frame mating nucs are modified 6 5/8th supers, and deep brood chambers. At the end of the Queen rearing season we can pull the dividers on this box, add a tenth comb, and put it on a pallet, and then it is ready to ship to Wisconsin. |
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Africanized Bees in Florida Up to this time, we have experienced no Africanized bees in our area of Lake, Orange, and Sumter Counties where our bees are kept. The Florida department of Agriculture is testing our queen mothers for Africanized genes, as they are all queen breeders here in Florida and we would be glad to supply you with a copy of this certificate if you so desire. I should point out that these certificates only verify that our queen mothers are , in fact, free of Africanized genes. There is no way to guarantee that the drones our open mated virgins mate with are not carriers of Africanized genes. We do, as we've already indicated , select for gentle behavior and will continue to maintain drone donor colonies and queen mothers for our mating nucs to hedge off the potential threat Africanized drones may pose in the future to our mating nuc locations. In addition, the other queen breeders in our area are also diligently following this same program. Remember, it is our lively hood and good name that is on the line with every shipment of queens that we sell, we will therefore, vigilantly patrol our breeding program to ensure high quality stock that will not pose a threat to your business or your neighbors
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While in Florida, all colonies are treated for Nosema, using nozevit in our pollen patties and in a douse form, especially since there seems to be a correlation between CCD and Nosema Ceranae, a new and more virulent form than the old Nosema apis. Foul brood has not been an issue in our operation for years but we do put an 8oz Tylan medicated sugar patty on each hive during maple and willow build up here in Florida as a precaution.
To date, we have had very little occurrence of small hive beetle. there is a likelihood that you will find a rogue in any nuc as the beetles can fly and no matter how vigilant we are we cannot guaranty that there will be no small hive beetles. There will not however be any beetle larva.
We altered our essential oil treatment last year, for varoa control, incorporating thymol, menthol, eucalyptus and camphor oil, into a sugar and shortening patty and have been experiencing good success with it. (see 'introducing queens')
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Our motto stays the same, quality over quantity. We do not sell any, queen cells, or nucs that we would not be willing to use ourselves.
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We always want to see capped brood present before caging, all of our Queens are guaranteed to be well mated.
To the left are pictures of Queens being made ready to ship.
We us Rightway shipper boxes and JZBZ's Queen cages. Queens are shipped via UPS next day air unless other wise requested by customers.
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You are welcome to call us on our land line (352-429-0054 from 8am-8pm EST) or leave us an email here at info@indiansummerhoneyfarm.com with any questions or comments. |
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Thank you for visiting our site, there is a map at the top of the home page. Just click on our winter or summer address, we always welcome visitors on “terra firma” also! |
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e-mail:
info@indiansummerhoneyfarm.com Updated May-10 |