Tennessee Queens and Nucs - Boost Your Beekeeping Fun!
Queens
In my typical need to learn, raising queens was another one of those things I just had to learn. I failed couple times and had little success for a while. Finally having more of an understanding and learning from my previous mistakes, I think I got lucky! Also while searching for queens, I felt a hole in the area that needed filled. Because of my apiary location along the West Fork river and between the mountains, we are not close to any large row crop farming and therefor our bees are as pesticide free as possible.
Quick story on my start in bees. I mentioned to a sheep friend who had bees that I had been planning to get some. He talked me out of it. This went on for a couple years and he finally quit himself. His kids left home and he had just too much going on to stick with bees. Then one January on way home from a sheep conference, I had told him I was listening to a bee podcast! He said no way, you will never get any if you don’t already have some on order for spring. I immediately went to Facebook Marketplace and searched for bees and bought the first nucs I could find! I had been kind of studying bees for 8-9 yrs but now I was committed financially with a deposit! So then I went to local Amish beekeeping supply place to buy boxes, etc. and he asked me what kind of bees I bought….lol, what? The kind that fly, I don’t know…. I just needed to buy some quickly so I wouldn’t procrastinate and not do it.
Turns out I got lucky and my first bees come from a guy who sold lots of bees and was helpful in getting started. My bees were Italian mutts. Mutts are bees that are open mated and could be anything but queen was of Italian descent. Shortly after I started splitting and buying some queens. Bought another open mated Italian. Then a couple Saskatraz queens. Let me start by acknowledging I am the type of person that if the entire town had red pickup trucks, I would like a blue one! So being that everyone had Italians, the Saskatraz sounded cool. Those queens made an immediate impact on my colonies. They were developed with USDA Research to be have strong varroa resistance. My mite washes were a lot lower once I added Saskatraz queens.
Next up I wanted to add some Carniolan stock. Like the Saskatraz they were developed to handle more weather swings in winter which I think tends to cause a lot of winter loss in middle TN. We can be 65 all week and tomorrow morning drop to 30 with snow. They say the best queens are the ones you raise to adapt to your environment. Just like sheep! The fact that Carniolan are awesome brood rearing bees, that is a trait I like to see. Seems not matter what livestock you choose, maternal traits are key.
The Italian honey bee is the most common type of honey bee. The Italian bee subspecies is popular as starter bees because of its docile nature and ability to produce copious amounts of honey.
Italian bees originated in moderate to semi-tropical conditions on the Italian peninsula, known for its long summers and mild winters.
The Italian honey bee has adapted by delaying their brood rearing until late winter, and they continue to produce brood until the beginning of the winter.
The most notable characteristics of the Italian honey bee are the following:
- They do not swarm excessively.
- The Italian bees are not as defensive of their hives.
- They are generally calm when their frames are examined.
- Italian honey bee queens can be easily identified by their orange-gold abdomens.
Carniolan bees are beloved for being gentle bees. They start foraging as soon as spring comes rolling around, resulting in abundant produce of honey and plenty of food come wintertime.
Carniolan bees were originally from the Carniolan Alps, located in parts of Austria and Slovenia. Thriving in this unpredictable environment, Carniolan bees can withstand cold winters and quickly adapt to change.
The most notable characteristics of Carniolan honey bees include the following:
- They are dark in color.
- Carniolans swarm early.
- They are the gentlest of all honey bees.
- They are calm when their frames are being examined.
- They tolerate typical beekeeping management tasks.
- Carniolan bees can rapidly increase their population.
Saskatraz honey bees are the newest hybrid variety of honey bees, created at an apiary in Saskatchewan, Canada. The main purpose of making this hybrid was to create a “Super Bee,” or at least a bee that had the beneficial traits of several other honey bees.
Being that they have the positive characteristics of all the common honey bees, it is believed by many that Saskatraz bees would fare well in any location and could be raised by beekeepers of all levels.
The most notable characteristics of these bees include the following:
- They have fast spring build-up.
- They are good honey producers
- They have good over-wintering ability.
- Saskatraz bees are naturally resistant to varroa mites and tracheal mites.
Nucs
A bee nuc, short for nucleus colony, is a small-scale beehive used to start a new colony or maintain an existing one. It typically contains a laying queen, a few frames of brood, and a small population of worker bees. Nucs are an essential tool for beekeepers, allowing them to quickly establish new colonies or strengthen weaker ones.