The aim of the garden beekeeper for the year 2018 is to learn queen reproduction by breeding frames.

Now the first attempt to breed queens on the basis of breeding material from the mother station of the LVWI (Landesverband Württembergischer Imker) has taken place. The larvae come from performance-tested queens and are the result of the selection of positive traits (including breeding behaviour, gentleness, Varroa tolerance, honey yields, comb continuity, swarm drive).

 

The larvae are placed in queen bowls on a breeding frame in the nursing colony, which was formed 10 days before from brood combs of several colonies. At the time of giving the breeding material most of the young bees have hatched, the colony literally overflows: Thousands of young nurse bees are waiting to take care of the noble larvae.

In order for the larvae to be accepted, all replacement queen cells must first be broken, so that the care of the added larvae is the only remaining possibility for the colony to get a new queen.