I find between 1 or 2 deep frames of bees shaken off is enough to populate 1 mini. So 100-200 frames of open brood would be needed to collect enough bees to populate 100 minis. I keep about 100 full-sized hives within a couple miles of the mating yard and I have very little problems with Queens not being mated. Ideally you want between 13-20 drones per virgin queen for mating and a full sized hive will produce many more drones than that.
I make my own mini nucs that are about twice the size of the ones you use. I would like to get a couple of hundred going this spring-summer. It’s just having enough bees to stock them is the challenge. I like your channel, keep it up
I'm going to be adding some video elements to the podcast going forward. I'm pretty new to editing so it's been a learning curve and I've been moving into this pretty slowly. Thanks for the feedback!
What I have found people do not take the time to let a queen lay a round or two to really check to see IF IF IF she is any good . They just hatch her out an when they see ya there is a few eggs in there so they stick her in a box and send her out . ( WRONG ) .
Totally agree. Caging Queens at the capped brood stage is the earliest she should ever be caged. Anything earlier isn't fair to the beekeeper getting that Queen.
Very interesting and useful information. Thank you
To run 100 minis how many full sized hives do you need to support the minis? To supply bees to the minis and drones for mating
I find between 1 or 2 deep frames of bees shaken off is enough to populate 1 mini. So 100-200 frames of open brood would be needed to collect enough bees to populate 100 minis.
I keep about 100 full-sized hives within a couple miles of the mating yard and I have very little problems with Queens not being mated.
Ideally you want between 13-20 drones per virgin queen for mating and a full sized hive will produce many more drones than that.
I make my own mini nucs that are about twice the size of the ones you use. I would like to get a couple of hundred going this spring-summer. It’s just having enough bees to stock them is the challenge. I like your channel, keep it up
Maybe, in the future, you can edit more pictures in to go along with the audio.
I'm going to be adding some video elements to the podcast going forward. I'm pretty new to editing so it's been a learning curve and I've been moving into this pretty slowly. Thanks for the feedback!
What I have found people do not take the time to let a queen lay a round or two to really check to see IF IF IF she is any good . They just hatch her out an when they see ya there is a few eggs in there so they stick her in a box and send her out . ( WRONG ) .
Totally agree. Caging Queens at the capped brood stage is the earliest she should ever be caged. Anything earlier isn't fair to the beekeeper getting that Queen.