In this episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey gives a pre‑winter walkthrough of his 2022 F0 breeder queen colony. He shows that the queen is still present and has been accepted by the workers, highlights the unusually calm temperament of the nurse bees (a trait he specifically selected for in the breeder), and evaluates the brood pattern, rating it about 7 out of 10 – solid but not perfect given the season. Edwards points out the back‑filled stores of pollen, nectar, and honey that the colony is amassing for winter, and outlines the upcoming heavy‑feeding schedule, varroa management with an Apivar strip, planned apibioxal vaping, and fondant supplementation. Throughout, he emphasizes his breeding goals of gentle, disease‑resistant, high‑honey‑producing bees and notes that final judgment on the queen will come after a full season, but the early signs are promising.
Chapters
Today I'm going to give you an update on my 2022 breeder queen going into winter. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. I said when I did the first part of this video I would do you an update before we went into winter, and it is still a little bit premature because we're not even into October yet, but we're really seeing the colonies getting ready for winter now. I'm going to move over to heavy feeding very, very soon. As soon as I move over to heavy feeding, I'm not going to be pulling frames out of any of those colonies because I don't want to damage the queen. So I thought I'd give you a last peek inside my breeder queen for 2022, see what some of her own bees are like in terms of the brood that's emerged, see what some of the frames of brood are like in terms of the brood that she's been laying, just take a look at the colony before we wrap them up for winter. So I'll get inside the colony now and I'll show you my 2022 F0 breeder queen. Right, let's get inside, take a look at our 2022 breeder queen and some of the bees and the brood inside. Okay, so here's my colony, looking really, really nice. It's come on a lot since the last time we looked in here. Got me Apivar strip in there, that's got about another 4 weeks on it. I'm gonna get inside and I'm just going to pull out a couple of frames. I want to assess the temperament, although I can't judge the temperament just yet because I've got all bees buzzing around me from other nucs the moment. And obviously it's only about 4 weeks since I put this queen in here, so there's going to be loads of the old queen's bees in here anyway. We'll assess the temperament next year, but I really— what I really want to get in there and have a look at is the laying pattern, see what some of the frames of brood are like on this new queen. So I'll get in and I'll pull out a couple of frames and I'll show you the breeder queen once again. First thing to have a look at is we've still got a queen. So the breeder said to me, you need to be a little bit careful with them Superseding artificially inseminated queens, and it can happen. Sometimes it does, but luckily this one here, they're not looking to supersede her. Not entirely sure why they do try and supersede her, something to do with the pheromones. I don't fully understand that, but all I know is we've got a queen. She's still on the frame. She's really, really nice looking queen, and the bees have well and truly accepted her, so that's great to see. Also, what I'll bring to your attention on this frame as well— I know I've got a couple of bees buzzing around me, but you have to believe me, they're not from this hive. The temperament of these bees, it is quite astonishing. Like, they're very, very calm on the frame. And this is why I chose this breeder, because I said to him, I want the most gentle bees. I want disease resistance, I want good honey production, but I want nice, calm, gentle bees because I want to try and improve my stock because my much as I possibly can. And I think people who are buying nucs, beginner beekeepers who are going to buy nucs, they want nice calm bees as well. So it's really interesting there how calm they are on that frame and how calm they are down there as well. They're not flying up, they're not coming at me. Really, really good first inspection once a few of the bees have hatched out. This is really, really good to see. So first things first, we've got the queen. Great news. I'm going to pop this frame back in there now. I'm going to pull out a couple of the other frames and show you the brood pattern. So I know people get really, really caught up on brood patterns, and if they're perfect then the queen is amazing, and if they're really bad then the queen is, is really, really bad. But I would say that's a pretty decent brood pattern. It's not, it's not perfect, it's definitely not bad. Nothing wrong with that brood pattern at all. I'd probably give it like a 7 out of 10 for the first inspection there. A few missed cells, but it's not the time of year where they're going to go crazy on it anyway. But it's just one of the factors that you look into when, when you're looking into a queen and breeding from it. I think really indicates a bit better how well the queen is mated. Um, but anyway, I'm happy with that brood pattern. I think that's a good solid brood pattern, and I just wanted to pull out that frame there and show you what it's looking like going into winter. It's an interesting one though, isn't it, in terms of how they're backfilling that brood nest now. This is a central They're putting the stores in there. Got a little bit of pollen in there as well, little bit of fresh nectar. That's probably ivy. They are getting well and truly ready for winter. Very similar on the other side, few missed cells in the middle. You can see it's just the time of the year. They're backfilling that with stores now. They're kind of thinking we need to get as much stores in here as possible. But very nice looking frame, and I'm sure this queen is going to do the business for us all of next Yeah. So there we go, that's my 2022 breeder queen. I'm really happy with her. You can't judge a queen after putting her in there for 4 weeks because probably 80% of these bees have got the DNA and the genetics from the previous queen. What I can judge is the brood pattern, which I think is good. Wouldn't say it's perfect, I think it's definitely good. What I can judge as well is how the nurse bees are acting on the frame, because the nurse bees are going to predominantly be from this new queen. They seemed very, very calm on the frame, which is something that I'm looking for. I will reserve judgment to this queen until middle of next year, but from what I've seen so far, I'm really, really happy. I'm sure I'm going to get many nice queens off her next year. So there we go, looking really, really good, that one. I almost wish I'd put an extension brood box on when I put that queen in there, because I can't quite believe how well she's taken off. The frame's looking fantastic. Not that much space for her to lay, but she's over 4 frames of brood, which for me going into winter, as long as they're on 4 frames of brood, I'm happy with that. Don't need to do anything with that at all. Just going to monitor them, feed them up nice and well for winter, make sure that come December do my varroa treatments. I'm going to do some apibioxal vaping and I'll get some fondant on there just to make sure the colony doesn't starve. So there you go, nice short video just showing you my 2022 breeder queen. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
