Italian Queens

[TJ]

Hi Kurt, I ordered two Italian queens at the last meeting, but only want one. Can you change my order (not sure who's looking after this). Thanks, Tracey

[Kurt Bower]

I am sure this wont be a problem.

Kurt

[Locust&Honey]

When would they be in??? I may take the other one if it will be soon. i have one hive that may need to be split soon...

[Kurt Bower]

Queens is queens.
It all depends upon the weather.
Best guess is around the middle of April.

[Locust&Honey]

Can't quite commit to that...yet. When would be the latest I could let you know??? Of course if someone speaks for it let them have it. I was hoping to have most of my needs for a queen done by then but I am still new.

[bdloving]

speaking of queens, is anybody considering raising their own queens?

[Kurt Bower]

I will be keeping the extra queen. If it is still available after it comes in, I will post it for sale.
As for raising queens, yes I will be raising some. I will be raising them via swarm cells. Nothing fancy but it seems to work well with minimal effort.

Kurt

[Locust&Honey]

Could you give a little explanation of the steps you take to do this?

[Kurt Bower]

Well when you have as many bees as I have you tend to have a few with swarming tendancies no matter what you do. While I try to maintain my bees, occasionally I will have a couple to build swarm cells.
Everyone knows that swarm cells produce the best queens. So why not take advantage of this?
I am going to use the queen castle by brushy mountain. http://beeequipment.com/products.asp?pcode=687. It is fairly self explanitory.
I was doing this with regular sized nucs but thought this might be fun.

Kurt