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Author Topic: How much room to mate a queen?  (Read 5663 times)

Offline Steel Tiger

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How much room to mate a queen?
« on: March 31, 2013, 11:43:08 am »
Assume you have two hives that you want to crossbreed, taking a virgin queen from one hive and a bunch of drones from another hive. How much room would they need for a successful mating?
Could it be done in something...say...the size of a large aquarium with a screen top? Would a small greenhouse work...or some sort of screened tent be better? If so, what size?

Offline bud1

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2013, 12:19:58 pm »
she mates while flying you outa luck on yo plans unless you can do artificial. and she needs to mate with drones from diff. hives
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Offline Steel Tiger

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2013, 01:30:34 pm »
This is more for information than something I'm setting right out to do. I'm guessing using an aquarium is out.

Offline rbinhood

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2013, 02:45:32 pm »
Yep it is out, if you had something like the superdome you might be successful.  They breed in areas where drones congregate in large numbers while in flight.
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Offline Jim134

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2013, 09:10:39 am »
Assume you have two hives that you want to crossbreed, taking a virgin queen from one hive and a bunch of drones from another hive. How much room would they need for a successful mating?
Could it be done in something...say...the size of a large aquarium with a screen top? Would a small greenhouse work...or some sort of screened tent be better? If so, what size?

IMHO you need to being with about a square mile and you need the top of the screen
house about 30 to 40 feet off the grounded (this is not a guess on the high) this is just a guess on the size. You can do artificial a lot cheaper.





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« Last Edit: April 22, 2013, 09:38:23 am by Jim 134 »
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Online Michael Bush

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2013, 09:30:40 am »
>Assume you have two hives that you want to crossbreed, taking a virgin queen from one hive and a bunch of drones from another hive. How much room would they need for a successful mating?

About six miles...

They will not mate in a small space.   This has been tried many times over the years starting with Huber back in the late 1700s.  The only successful method of forcing a particular drone to mate with a particular queen is Instrumental Insemination (II).
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Offline tecumseh

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2013, 07:52:26 am »
a table top and a lot of fancy equipment and some knowledge and experience on how to II queens.
I am 'the panther that passes in the night'... tecumseh.

Offline Jim134

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2013, 09:28:04 am »
a table top and a lot of fancy equipment and some knowledge and experience on how to II queens.

More like this a few 1,000 dollars to pay for the instrument and the training and now you need a few years of experience
 
http://latshawapiaries.com/index.php?page=latshaw-instrument




                       BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may  remember,involve me and I'll understand"
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"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."
 John F. Kennedy
Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

Offline beek1951

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2013, 11:57:44 pm »
Since the chances of your virgin mating with a drone from your hives is small,
the concept of deliberate crossbreeding by open mating is irrelevant.

Offline alfred

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2013, 10:16:44 am »
So for the most part even the "Queen Breeders" that most of us buy our queens from have no control over Genetics??

I mean I have always assumed so, but is this true?

So then how does one "breed good queens".

Alfred

Offline beek1951

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2013, 12:26:18 pm »
Well, you an have mating yards that are some distance from your
main yard and all have quality genetics. Still, a mutt might sneak in
to the 'drone congregation area'. But for the most part, the only way
to come close to insuring a good genetic transfer is to isolate your
mating yard.

Offline Nature Coast Beek

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Re: How much room to mate a queen?
« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2013, 07:26:36 am »
It is possible to saturate an area with specific drones. Locating drone hives over vast distances (over 1/2 mile) isn't necessary. It's been proven through the use of the Cordovan marker trait and what Dadant did to produce their Midnite and Starline bees back in the day.