Front Range Queens LLC

27/04/2023

We are not rearing queens for sale this spring

26/03/2023

Figured it was time to give this one a bump
Since I posted this Randy Oliver has put together a handy Excell spread sheet that will crunch all the numbers for you
https://scientificbeekeeping.com/scibeeimages/Nuc-calculator-May-2022.xlsx

13/10/2022

every year from late summer to late fall we hear storys of people who had a strong hive that absconded or “swarmed away”
most of the time the hive crashed form mites and the dead bees fly away to die so they don’t see them

Remember bees mostly die away form the hive…. If they queen is laying 1500+ eggs a day and bee only live 6 or so weeks in the summer, how many bees are dieing a day the beekeeper never sees?

Here is a good video showing what a crash looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgZzIJgR69g

Do you simply look for mites on bees during frame inspections or gauge apparent health based on the number of bees? Watch this disturbing video that document...

20/06/2022

How I indicate hive condition with a brick

18/06/2022

I know I said I was going to wait, but I am over run with queens that need a home!

17/06/2022

splitting a 6/3 box

15/06/2022

Fly back split day 30

29/05/2022

Virgin queen pick up mid afternoon 5/30

27/05/2022

Finishing cells in a production hive

25/05/2022

Birth of a virgin queen

21/05/2022

One of the main reasons I love this little do all box is the flexauilty that lets you fix things

18/05/2022

Catching, marking, and packaging queens for sale

for an in-depth look at the features and use of a JZBZ queen cage go herehttp://susquehannabeekeepers.com/pdfs/LJ_JZsBZs2017.pdf

17/05/2022

A quick look at using a double screened split board to divide a double deep colony in to two hives
You can find our plans for this a no power tools needed split board here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n-ZQ86uK9UqjdLC0WLtue-V5iVz7jvje/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112965721409074483692&rtpof=true&sd=true
It's designed so that it fits both 10 frame and (as used in the video) 8 frame hives

17/05/2022

Queen Avaibuilty
Updated 6/29/22
Mated queens $40 each -8 in stock, next round will be available 7/21(ish)
Virgin queens $15 each - 0 in stock , next round will be available 7/10(ish)
48 hour cells $5 each, next batch(s) ready eve of 6/30

The breeder was a virgin in a cast swarm 2021, do to a known history, I made 6 daughters from her to overwinter and evaluate their performance
The hive she came from was started from a swarm in 2020
that came from a hive that was started by a swarm in 2019 by a different beekeeper which in turn came from a hive that overwintered in 2018 ..
so this line overwintered for two different 1st year beekeepers back to back (a task in its self) and has been "in state" for at least 4 years..

16/05/2022

placing ripe queen cells that will emerge in 36 or so hours

16/05/2022

I have 2 mated queens left, pm me , they get installed in nucs other wise
Talked the beekeeper who wanted them in to waiting IE
https://www.facebook.com/FRQueens/posts/pfbid02F8EsdC3HNvpDMHur4C8W2ty5D1Q7GpBXC1hAigDkgciKaWkrfjPpXMgyYfjAuPp1l

Its swarm season!!!
This time of year I spend hours on the phone with beekeepers who “Need a queen, NOW!!” and are feeling something went wrong and they have to fix things.

after talking them down (there are few real emergency situations in beekeeping that need ASAP action, save capped cells and a queen still in the hive) and running the bee math on their dates, 85-90% or so of them just need to wait a week or so and let nature take its course.

Here is a spread sheet calculator that will give you the dates of what and when to expect things as a hive is rearing a queen

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y5UYu6Ic95YWeIhdism-vUK5RtruQUc-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112965721409074483692&rtpof=true&sd=true

15/05/2022

I like to direct release queens as I feel it lets me better judge the bees reaction rather than letting them chew threw the candy and hopefully things work out..
In this clip I am direct releasing a laying queen just removed from a mating nuc in to a hive that has been queen less for 6 days.. this is usually fine (as long as the queen is still laying) and I had done a bunch of others before grabbing the camera.

As you will see I clearly misjudged the bees reaction to the caged queen
You can watch the video and see the agitated and runny behavior, that I don’t pick up on, well I had been in a bee suit for 4 hours catching queens and had run out of water and was “done” and made a mistake ! cooled down and rehydrated, watching the video is a bit painful, as its clear they are not calm on the cage, while not “stuck to it” they are runny and agitated

But, in this case the direct release showed me I had made a misjudgment and gave me a chance to correct the issue…
a candy or worse, a fast marshmallow release wile I am gone gives me no chance in this case

13/05/2022

Fly Back Split Day 2, direct release of an accepted virgin (banked ie
older) queen

12/05/2022

So that people can see the (usually-bees prove me wrong all the time) explosive growth on a fly back split, I used one to syphon off the forage bees from one of our mini queen factories
good or bad, lets folow its progres for a season

10/05/2022

Mated queens for sale $40 each Pick up is 5/14, 11-noon, Belview and Sims area

48hr queen cells $6 each or 3 for $15

We are sold out of virgins, next batch will be available 5/20

These will be fresh unbanked queens that are still laying.
Local stock, locally mated, caught and caged earlier the same day.

this is your opportunity to buy "fresh from the field" as it were after 5/14 any left overs will be banked and available for pick up by appointment.

The breeder was a virgin in a cast swarm 2021, do to a known history, I made 6 daughters from her to overwinter and evaluate their performance

The hive she came from was started from a swarm in 2020
that came from a hive that was started by a swarm in 2019 by a different beekeeper which in turn came from a hive that overwintered in 2018 ..
so this line overwintered for two different 1st year beekeepers back to back (a task in its self) and has been "in state" for at least 4 years..

06/05/2022

Split board plans, no power tool needed!!

On of the techniques I will be show casing at the CSBA Spring Clinic- Enhanced Splitting Techniques this Sunday is double screen split boards.

They are a very fast and easy way for a backyard beekeeper to make a vertical split and not have to move the hive to a new stand. As they allow you to remove the forager bees (about 1/3 or the hives population) they are a fast way to put an end to an pending swarm and a great way to requeen as you leave the box with only the more excepting nurse bees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z62UwOLfdMo

Here is the plans if you want to make one of your own

You will need
One 8' 1x2
One 8' 1x4 both can be cull lumber (80% off at Home Depot) other wise the bill is about $10 for the 2 boards
Two 15"X11" sections of window screen or #8 wire
Staple gun
1.25" nails or screws

Cut the lumber it to
Three 13" 1x4 boards
Two 16.25" 1x4 boards
Two 20" 1x2 boards
One 13" 1x2 board
One 11" 1x2 board

Place the 13" boards inside the 16.25" boards as shown and put 3 staples in each joint
Staple on the screen over the holes
Gently flip and repeat

Place the 20" 1x2s long ways as show the 11" at one end to form the entrance, the 13" to close in the back.. Nail or screw the 1x2s in place and your done

as an alternative you can make two 11" 1x2s and a 16.75" down the middle to set it up for a pair of 4 frame nucs or a divided deep

You could also easily reconfigure the system to take a single 5 or 6 frame Nuc, 8 frame box, etc

the dimensions aren't "prefect" there is no need to worry about 1/6" or 1/8", the bees won't care and there is euff built in overlap to handle the variations of hand cutting the lumber.

Not meant to be the best split board you can build, just the fastest and easiest, ideal for a club work shop day

01/05/2022

Its swarm season!!!
This time of year I spend hours on the phone with beekeepers who “Need a queen, NOW!!” and are feeling something went wrong and they have to fix things.

after talking them down (there are few real emergency situations in beekeeping that need ASAP action, save capped cells and a queen still in the hive) and running the bee math on their dates, 85-90% or so of them just need to wait a week or so and let nature take its course.

Here is a spread sheet calculator that will give you the dates of what and when to expect things as a hive is rearing a queen

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y5UYu6Ic95YWeIhdism-vUK5RtruQUc-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112965721409074483692&rtpof=true&sd=true

27/04/2022

Virgin queens are ready to go $15 each

If you are unfamiliar with Virgin queens please read up on them so you understand the methods, risks, and rewards before choosing to purchase.
http://www.wicwas.com/.../American_Bee.../ABJ2010-10.pdf
http://www.wicwas.com/.../articles/Bee_Culture/BC2012-05.pdf
https://www.beeculture.com/requeening/
http://www.wicwas.com/.../articles/Bee_Culture/BC2010-08.pdf

21/04/2022

Virgins are here!
As of today we have virgins for sale $15

Mated queens should be ready in about 2.5 weeks(depending on how many of the virgins we sell!) $40

I got the mother as a virgin in a cast swarm last year..
the hive she came from was started form a swarm in 2020
that came form a hive that was started by a swarm in 2019 by a difrent beekeeper witch in turn came form a hive that overwintered in 2018 ..
so this line overwintered for two 1st year beekeepers back to back (a task in its self) and has been "in state" for at least 4 years...

I made 5-6 daughters form her last year and liked the results

20/04/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTl_DZAkLtk

at this point the cells are portable and can spend 10 hours outside the hive, with out bees as long as they don't get overly hot or cold or dry out.this is ...

19/04/2022

grafting day

14/04/2022

1st cells of 2022 should have some virgins for sale weekend of 4/22

02/04/2022

Every year there is some fokes on line saying we can’t winter singles or nucs here on the front range because we are “too cold”, and they are often very loud about it
people over winter nucs and singles in Canadian and cold zone 3 VT
as an example here are my numbers for the winter of 2021-22

singles alive 7 , dead 3, a 30% loss
doubles alive 14, dead 2, a 12.5% loss

4f nuc alive 1 dead 3, a 75% loss
5x5 nuc alive 5 dead 1, a 16.6% loss
5f nuc 1 alive
3 box warre 1 alive
stacked mating Nuc system alive 1 dead 1

management squews the numbers a bit… (as it always does)

2 of the 4 framers were lost as they were in pairs inside divided deeps being fed over a excluder, I didn’t get the feeders off fast enuff and they picked a side when it got cold leaving one of the queens stranded

Some of the singles were impacted by being used as single deep production hives leaving them little stores post-harvest and with the drought the later flow didn’t hit and I was way behind in feeding them, and some of the singles went in to winter as singles because they had been doubles that were doing poorly (likely do to late feeding…)

the 5x5 while having the same comb volume, were mid summer increase colony’s and kept close to home (instead of outyards) and well managed, and there survival showed it... gentincs may have also player a role

In side the cell builder is this years breeder queen
I got her last year as a virgin in a cast swarm.. the hive she came from was started form a swarm in 2020, that came form a hive that was started by a swarm in 2019 by a difrent beekeeper witch in turn came form a hive that overwintered in 2018 .. so this line overwintered for two 1st year beekeepers back to back (a task in its self) and has been "in state" for likly 4 years...

I made some queen form her last year and liked the results, you guessed it, the 5x5 nucs!!

25/02/2022

It time to start planning your splits

30/11/2021

University of Guelph is posting videos again!
this is a great resource for both the new and seasoned beekeeper
https://www.youtube.com/c/UoGHoneyBeeResearchCentre/videos

The University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre conducts research focused on honey bee health. Since 1894, the Centre has provided apiculture education. T...

04/06/2020

Spring Increase & Swarms, Doolittle Nuc Making, Dr Larry Connor -NY Bee Wellness

Spend some time learning from NYBW and Larry Connor!

Spring is the time for colony increase, whether it be by the beekeepers management or the bees natural tendencies. Join Dr Larry Connor's 3 part presentation...

02/06/2020

A quick look at grafting

battery died... more detailes next time

30/05/2020

I have been struggling a bit on how to teach grafting with out people staring over your shoulder/less then 6' away

USB microscope for the win
Can even hook up to a projector

This scope + the nano scale kit could make a cool virtual class
see step one done live (loading the starter with 2 cups of bees) with Q&A, go do it your self, come back online and debrief an hour or 2 later
Then move on the next step
I am going to have to give this some thought!

27/05/2020

The Front Range Cell Builder

The FRCB is a single box do all queen rearing system (and resource hive!)
Basically its 3x3x3 queen castle box with a modified bottom board and some add ons

Features
Queen less starter
Queen right finisher
larva timing box
Nursery (Incubation, emergence, banking)

Lastly (and most importantly to me) its a net gain system like a resource hive. Unlike a “Joseph Clemons” (nuc box queen less free flying starter/finisher) http://doorgarden.com/2011/11/07/simple-honey-bee-queen-rearing-for-beginners/ that you need to constantly feed frames of brood, this system produces frames of brood that are harvested and used to boost other hives, make nucs etc.

I work a chaotic and unpredictable on call schedule. 2018 was ruff, getting home from work late some nights and driving out to the main yard, grafting in the truck cab at 10pm in a thunderstorm was no fun.

I wanted a small, flexible, self-contained system I could stick on the side of the garage and work when I had time, no driving. So I developed this system (based on what some of the old masters had done, there is very little “new” in beekeeping, just new twists) I added a umbrella I can pop up if its raining and a few red lights to turn on for working it in the dark.

It made things SO much easier, only taking a few min after work most days. No hunting for the right age larva(often by headlamp, what a PITA), Grafting on the garage workbench in a comfy seat and good lighting made thing smoother and faster then a head lamp and steering wheel.

Grafting on a weekly basis allows this small system to produce a bar a week and simplifies the schedule so you do the same task on the same day all season.
The week looks something like this
Thursday- Place target frame Pull last week’s cells and place in nucs (or leave the to emerge in the cages)
Saturday- Catch and mark virgins if they were left to emerge. Move Mondays capped cells down to the cages
Sunday-(or Monday morning)Place solid division board to cover the queen excluder, remove back door plug
Monday-Graft
Tue- Remove solid division board, replace back door plug

While it looks like a bit much most of the tasks only take a few min, and the set up gives you some slush factor on some of your days if life/ weather gets in the way.

There are a myriad of ways to run this box such as keeping the queen on a single comb for timing and banking virgins up against open brood on the far end of the box (back).

One that comes to mind to try would be moving the target comb to the grafting frame position and letting them draw emergency cells on the age controlled larva. From there place push in cages over the cells on Saturday and rotate them to the back to emerge in the cages.

Doing this may overcome some of the main drawbacks with the use of emergency cells.. Mainly poor-quality queens resulting from older larva and lack positive selection pressure ie not making enuf queens from the “good” one you have.

25/05/2020

1st round of grafting frames for the "Nano Scale" queen rearing kit are out of the mold, who is ready to learn to graft this summer!!

22/05/2020

The Queen Corner May 14st (woops late lol)- What does “locally adapted stock” mean…and do they really exist?

I would say they exist, but don’t persist in many places do to the sea of incoming queens each year and the lack of positive selection and distribution at the local level.

lets take a look at a bell curve (math warning, skip down to short answer) and the fact that we (CO BYBK) loses about 50% of our bees a year.
for the sake of argument we will call overwintering a indication of fitness for our location, and yes I am ignoring a lot of things to keep this simple
So the worst ½ die and the best ½ live to be split the next spring and your stock gets better as your breeding from what lives right?
Sadly, that’s not how it works, the TF folks have been trying it for decades… here is why it fails

As 68% of the hives are “average” at the start, meaning 68% of what lived isn’t any better then 68% of what died. So to improve local stocks.. Yes, we need to stop importing a whole bunch of queens, but we also need to be making queens from at a minimum the top 32% that overwintered, and realy it should be closer to the top 2-5%. Then with those queens make your increase/replacements AND re queen the bottom 68% of what lived so those hives throw improved drones..

looking at the bell curve lets say
average performance is 50% losses the “same as others” lose 50%
below average performance is 75% loss
well below average Performance is 90% loss
above average performance is 25% loss
and well above average performance is 10% losses

@50% loses 68% of what lived is no better then 68% of what died…
if you make queens form that 68% (or mate with those drones) you get
68% of average bees (50% will die the 1st winter)
16% crap bees that will all die
16% that are above average

but if you propagate form the above average overwintered
you get
14% extremely above average
68% above average
14% average
2% below average. you have shifted the bell curve

yes its "not that easy" but it illustrates the point that splitting what lives is unlikely to improve your stock

The short, short answer is just because a hive made the a winter or 2, doesn’t make it breeding stock.

My breeder this year is from a hive I caught as a swarm in 2016 (meaning they overwintered 2015) Never marked the queen, don’t know how many times she has turned over but I have never had to requeen the hive. That’s the kind of local performance I am looking for.

This is why I am suggesting we support /enable micro breeders as most of us can likely buy much better genetics then we can select for given the small sample size (a few hives in the back yard) of most beekeepers.

if we bring in (or select) and used better local queens, we will be outputting better local drones,if we shift the DCAs we start to develop a truly localy adapted bee.
We need to propagate from the best of the best, and distribute those genetics. that likely means getting together and sharing. A change from a split what lives and let them make poor quality E queens culture, to one of getting things like 48 hour cells at $5-10 a pop to put in our splits and working together to select, propagate, and distribute

We know from a mountain of study's that locally adapted stock do better/live longer/make more honey and are far better suited for a nonmigratory beekeeper.

Got a queen that has been a rock star for 2+ winters?
lets talk about grafting off her and spreading the genetics across the front range

20/05/2020

Incubator to Mating Nuc

A quick look at incubator care and stocking mini mateing nucs
I HATE leather gloves but my stash of nitrile ones is getting low, enjoy watching me fumble
Sorry for the wind noise, there was a good bit more to this video by it was just got too painfull to watch so cut it out

Who is rearing queens this year?????

16/05/2020

Molds For the Mini Nuc Grafting Frame beta test are curing!!!

14/05/2020

fixed

Now we are cooking with gas!!
Had to wait 3+weeks for replacement parts but the printer is backup and running.
We should have a few mini nuc grafting frames up for grabs next week and I am finalizing a venue/date for a "nano scale" queen rearing class in the near future!

07/05/2020

Failed livestream- A behind the scenes look at prepping virgin queens to be placed in mating nucs.
Evaluation of your queens starts with the selection of the queen mother, then the quality of cells, then virgins, and finally the laying pattern of the mated queen.
Its some times hard, there was a part of me that wanted to save the runt!

Imaging if that runt was the 1st out in a split, you likly won't notice till she is laying, likly poorly, but will you pinch her? or wait and see?
Haveing extra alows you to chose only the best
This is why we(beekeepers) cellbuild and use mating nucs, so we chose the best to head up our mainhives