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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, FEBRUARY 2017
REPLY FROM FRANK LINDSAY The short answer is yes: it's a genetically inherited trait.
a worker cell in the middle of the brood frames into a queen cell bud. The queen is encouraged to lay in these cells. Once the egg hatches, the bees enlarge the cell and feed the larvae exclusively on royal jelly so that it becomes a queen. Generally the larvae in these cells are of different ages and are constructed in case the first queen to emerge is lost during mating, so there are back- ups. If a beekeeper removes these cells, the bees will continue to construct replacement queen cells until the queen is replaced. This process, and swarming, are the natural ways a colony replaces its queen. (Emergency queen cells are a response to a queenless condition.) The cells are big and well fed and produce good queens; however, we beekeepers don't like leaving things to nature. We prefer to replace queens on a yearly or two-yearly basis so we know the genetic origin and age of our queens. (First- year queens don't generally swarm.) Some beekeepers use 10-day-old protected cells to do this as it's less work. The cell has a sleeve of plastic pipe or tape covering the top three- quarters of the cells so the bees can't tear it down. The cell is placed in the hive, either in between brood frames or, if it's later in the season, in the lower honey boxes where there are bees during the day and night to keep the cell warm. If this is too much work, some beekeepers put the cell onto the bottom board where the brood nest bees hang down on to the bottom board. Queen cells have to be handled very carefully because the queen's wing buds can be damaged with jarring. Within two days the new queen emerges, kills the older laying queen and takes over. (The queen is dead: long live the queen.) This works about 80% of the time, so the beekeeper needs to follow up those that didn't requeen with another cell, or add a mated queen or unite a nucleus to the colony. (We know this thanks to Murray Reid's research in the 1980s, when he was an Apicultural Officer for the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.) Other reasons for seeing two queens There are other times when you will see two queens in a hive. I have seen what looked to be an old, tattered queen with no wings or hair covering her body. This queen made a mistake and returned to the wrong hive after mating. The guard bees balled her, chewing
THE INTERNATIONAL CODE FOR MARKING QUEENS
Some beekeepers do not like queens that supersede. They contend that you do not improve the genetic quality of the bee; i.e., with supersedure the current standard of bee is maintained or could get worse as she only carried half the genes of her mother. Also, it's likely that the queen that is produced, when mated with local drones, will produce a vicious/defensive bee or will be inbred, resulting in a lesser number of viable brood emerging. Personally, I like queens that have a supersedure tendency and select for this ability in my own hives, but they must come from a superior queen. Personally, I like queens that have a supersedure tendency and select for this ability in my own hives, but they must come from a superior queen. Some hives with this genetic trait will maintain two working queens (mother and daughter) for the summer season. It's hard to see the benefit of this if a single brood nest is used, although you might observe that the queen has 'wall to wall' brood in a 10-frame full- depth super. If a queen excluder is not used and with two queens laying, you will see brood filling two supers (sometimes extending into the third super) and your honey crop is likely to be much larger with that hive. Sometimes the older queen stays in the bottom super and the new queen is in the super above. There is generally less brood in the bottom super if this is the case. It's only when queens are marked (use the five-year international colour code) that you observe what is going on in your hive. It's only when queens are marked (use the five-year international colour code) that you observe what is going on in your hive.
A quick way to remember the code:
When
White 1/6
You
Yellow 2/7
Requeen Red
3/8
Get the
Green 4/9
Best
Blue
5/0
Overseas reports suggest that with varroa mites and treating colonies, nearly 50% of queens are changed during the season: some by swarming, some by supersedure and some through emergency queen cells (perhaps by the rough replacement of frames or the hive toppling over from wind or stock). That crunching sound when the frame drops in is the queen being squashed. Supersedure takes place when the bees notice a drop in mandibular pheromone level from the queen when she has passed her peak and is losing her fertility. We sometimes see this in the number of bees in the queen's retinue (those surrounding the queen) when she stops to feed. A large retinue suggests a young, healthy queen. Supersedure can also be caused by age, stress (nosema), injury and some other causes. A reduction in queen pheromone that normally suppresses ovary development in worker bees stimulates the ovaries in a few worker bees to grow (worker bees have between two and 12 ovarioles). The workers then start constructing approximately five queen cell buds around the edge of the brood nest, or will modify
A balled queen. Notice the missing part of her leg. Photo: Frank Lindsay.
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