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Virgin Queen Diet Question
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<blockquote data-quote="Alastair" data-source="post: 13113" data-attributes="member: 13"><p>Thanks for the replies, awesome!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I am keeping them without nurse bees. The reason is my house, and where I do the inseminations, is in the suburbs. My neighbours have a problem with bees, I can only have no bees at all, or (sneakily) a very small number. Having a queen bank at the house won't work due to neighbour issues.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I know this is the ideal. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I have done a lot of experiments with this over the years. I had queens in incubators die at brood nest temperature (34 degrees) in just a few days, I believe it is because if they are fed candy and relative humidity is 50 - 60 they dehydrate. At this time I am keeping them at 34 degrees and RH around 80 to prevent dehydration, this has good success. I know this is not natural, but it is what works. In addition, after the insemination, the queens need to be in a temperature close to 34 degrees for around 50 hours for the sperm to properly migrate to the spermatheca.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, of course, we have all seen that. However my question was about what else they may eat, and therefore what else I should perhaps give them. Honey is pretty much just carbs.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes that is the best. Just, for me, I can't do it at my property, I have to develop a different method. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That is what I have been doing for years, but for AI at my house it is just not practical. The other problem with queen banks is the bees can damage the tarsal gland on the queens foot. This reduces her ability to spread her queen substance around as she walks on the comb and can cause the bees to supersede her early.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Depends what you call a long time. For the purposes of inseminating them it needs to be for 7 - 8 days until they can be put in a hive. The method I have developed can keep newly hatched virgins for this amount of time with no bees, and at the end they seem vigorous and healthy.</p><p></p><p>I am just looking to improve the method further, what I do now "works", but I am wondering what I could add to their diet to improve things.</p><p></p><p>Hey much thanks for the responses I appreciate it hugely. I suspect one of the problems is that nobody can go inside an unopened, naturally functioning beehive, and see what the queen actually eats or is fed. The assumption is royal jelly but I would like to know for sure, is it some kind of special royal jelly, or the same as what is fed to larvae, or what. And can we reproduce it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alastair, post: 13113, member: 13"] Thanks for the replies, awesome! I am keeping them without nurse bees. The reason is my house, and where I do the inseminations, is in the suburbs. My neighbours have a problem with bees, I can only have no bees at all, or (sneakily) a very small number. Having a queen bank at the house won't work due to neighbour issues. I know this is the ideal. I have done a lot of experiments with this over the years. I had queens in incubators die at brood nest temperature (34 degrees) in just a few days, I believe it is because if they are fed candy and relative humidity is 50 - 60 they dehydrate. At this time I am keeping them at 34 degrees and RH around 80 to prevent dehydration, this has good success. I know this is not natural, but it is what works. In addition, after the insemination, the queens need to be in a temperature close to 34 degrees for around 50 hours for the sperm to properly migrate to the spermatheca. Yes, of course, we have all seen that. However my question was about what else they may eat, and therefore what else I should perhaps give them. Honey is pretty much just carbs. Yes that is the best. Just, for me, I can't do it at my property, I have to develop a different method. That is what I have been doing for years, but for AI at my house it is just not practical. The other problem with queen banks is the bees can damage the tarsal gland on the queens foot. This reduces her ability to spread her queen substance around as she walks on the comb and can cause the bees to supersede her early. Depends what you call a long time. For the purposes of inseminating them it needs to be for 7 - 8 days until they can be put in a hive. The method I have developed can keep newly hatched virgins for this amount of time with no bees, and at the end they seem vigorous and healthy. I am just looking to improve the method further, what I do now "works", but I am wondering what I could add to their diet to improve things. Hey much thanks for the responses I appreciate it hugely. I suspect one of the problems is that nobody can go inside an unopened, naturally functioning beehive, and see what the queen actually eats or is fed. The assumption is royal jelly but I would like to know for sure, is it some kind of special royal jelly, or the same as what is fed to larvae, or what. And can we reproduce it. [/QUOTE]
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