The Honey Factory

duluthralphie · Apr 23, 2021

jerryse said:
I have seen local virgin Queens for sale recently . About 1 hour south . So I decided to check for Queen cells in my hive . Only checked the bottom of each deep . Found some cells started . 2 or 3 had royal jelly . So in about 2 weeks those should hatch . I will check again in about 10 days to maybe make a split with a cell .

Isn’t it kind of early for them to be thinking about swarming?

I need to read up on this Russian scion thing.

I wonder if they have a Canadian one for my Saskatoons?

Apis mellifera · Apr 23, 2021

duluthralphie said:
I wonder if they have a Canadian one for my Saskatoons?

You do have Russians, kind of. When beekeepers were having high losses in Saskatchewan a breeding program was developed in 2005 (Saskatraz) by bringing in USDA Baton Rouge Russian queens. The Russian bees were crossed with bees that survived the high loss period. After the program got going they sent hybrid breeder queens to apiaries like OHB. The breeder queens are grafted and the offspring are open mated. So they are a very diluted Russian/Saskatraz queen that are put in packages.

R2elk · Apr 27, 2021

The replacement bees shipped yesterday and are expected to be delivered on Thursday.

CLSranch · Apr 27, 2021

Mine were shipped yesterday. The tracking from USPS is saying they are expected by NEXT Mon. A whole week??? Hopefully they move a lot faster than that.

R2elk · Apr 27, 2021

CLSranch said:
Mine were shipped yesterday. The tracking from USPS is saying they are expected by NEXT Mon. A whole week??? Hopefully they move a lot faster than that.

Mine that were shipped via USPS on a Tuesday showed an expected delivery on Friday. They went from Salt Lake City to Denver on Tuesday. Wednesday morning I got a call from the Casper P.O. saying they were ready for pick up.

In case they do take a week to get to you, they do have sufficient food to last at least 8 days. Hope they show up early for you.

CLSranch · Apr 27, 2021

R2elk said:
In case they do take a week to get to you, they do have sufficient food to last at least 8 days. Hope they show up early for you.

I knew the food is supposed to last a week. But with weird circumstances, more than 3lbs, they eat more, Murphy's Law etc.... I'm thinking a week is Max and possibly to long if they take longer than expected.
Looking at the tracking this morn, it went from a receiving to sorting facility yesterday. I would think Live animals would have been sorted and shipped yesterday.
I hope they do to. Our good blooms for build up (a lot of trees) was 6 weeks ago.

R2elk · Apr 27, 2021

CLSranch said:
I knew the food is supposed to last a week. But with weird circumstances, more than 3lbs, they eat more, Murphy's Law etc.... I'm thinking a week is Max and possibly to long if they take longer than expected.
Looking at the tracking this morn, it went from a receiving to sorting facility yesterday. I would think Live animals would have been sorted and shipped yesterday.
I hope they do to. Our good blooms for build up (a lot of trees) was 6 weeks ago.

My apricot tree just started blooming. The forsythias started yesterday. There are maybe a dozen dandelions. The cherry trees are probably a week away and even longer for the apple trees.

R2elk · Apr 28, 2021

I actually read part of the directions that came with the first package of Italians. It said to leave the hive alone for 7 days before removing the queen cage. Today was day 7 for the first group of Italian bees. Yhe bees in this hive are looking great and are quickly drawing comb on the frame with foundation only. They are going through the sugar water rapidly. The queen cage was still covered in workers with one worker inside the cage, The marshmallow was completely gone. I did not do any farther checking. The bees were sweethearts and caused no trouble at all.

The second hive of Italians are on day 6 but as long as I was working bees, I checked them too. They look well, just not quite as dense and busy as the other hive. The queen cell was empty. They are hitting the sugar water nearly as much as the other Italian hive. They were also sweethearts. Both hives were calm and well mannered without the use of any smoke.