Signs of life
Apr. 15th, 2011 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doodlemaier posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bee_folkFour days in and honeybees from Lada and Brigid (the Froyal hives) are bringing in pollen, albeit, at a generally lackluster pace. Nonetheless, a good sign that the queens have been released, accepted, and are laying!
Chuck's discovered another beekeeper near him in the the Ft. Valley, Frank Tilco, who raises his own queens (did I say no more packaged bees?) Frank went out to Chuck's bee yard sometime on Thursday to pinch the queen from his Carniolans, the mean-as-shit but productive hive. Frank is, apparently, all about the Russian strain which are bred for their particularly gentle traits. The plan is to replace the queen on Sunday morning with one that Frank bred from his Russian stock in hopes that his new queen will pass along some of those sweet, loveable traits to the rest of his stock, so they've invited me out to the ranch to observe. It dawns on me now that I took for granted my having all my bee gear in the handbasket I usually keep in the back of the Sube (does most every beekeeper drive a Subaru?) but I left it behind. I think Chuck's got a extra veil that Emily uses when she's out there.
Queen rearing and the whole fiddling with genetics through queen replacement, for all its outward simplicity, is a little beyond the scope of my beekeeping goals so far. It makes perfect sense, though, that locally bred bees would be more productive and better adapted to the climate and vagaries of weather and, therefore, ought out-perform packaged shakes from Georgia and Kent-yucky every time. Emile Warré, who I've apparently adopted as my personal beekeeping savior, made concessions for rearing queens, so I know it can be done with the equipment I'm working with and I need to re-read that section of "Beekeeping for All (y'all)" more critically. Decidedly, I'm not there yet but actually seeing someone grafting queen cells will go a long way to breaking through some of the motivational inertia I have to adding frames to future hives. Chuck tells me Frank's a real personable guy who'll "talk your ear off if you're not careful" (I'm bringing two) and I look forward to meeting him.
Chuck's discovered another beekeeper near him in the the Ft. Valley, Frank Tilco, who raises his own queens (did I say no more packaged bees?) Frank went out to Chuck's bee yard sometime on Thursday to pinch the queen from his Carniolans, the mean-as-shit but productive hive. Frank is, apparently, all about the Russian strain which are bred for their particularly gentle traits. The plan is to replace the queen on Sunday morning with one that Frank bred from his Russian stock in hopes that his new queen will pass along some of those sweet, loveable traits to the rest of his stock, so they've invited me out to the ranch to observe. It dawns on me now that I took for granted my having all my bee gear in the handbasket I usually keep in the back of the Sube (does most every beekeeper drive a Subaru?) but I left it behind. I think Chuck's got a extra veil that Emily uses when she's out there.
Queen rearing and the whole fiddling with genetics through queen replacement, for all its outward simplicity, is a little beyond the scope of my beekeeping goals so far. It makes perfect sense, though, that locally bred bees would be more productive and better adapted to the climate and vagaries of weather and, therefore, ought out-perform packaged shakes from Georgia and Kent-yucky every time. Emile Warré, who I've apparently adopted as my personal beekeeping savior, made concessions for rearing queens, so I know it can be done with the equipment I'm working with and I need to re-read that section of "Beekeeping for All (y'all)" more critically. Decidedly, I'm not there yet but actually seeing someone grafting queen cells will go a long way to breaking through some of the motivational inertia I have to adding frames to future hives. Chuck tells me Frank's a real personable guy who'll "talk your ear off if you're not careful" (I'm bringing two) and I look forward to meeting him.
