In our haste to complete our weekly tasks around the apiary we often forget that this time of year is perfect for queen rearing.
The drones are well fed and nourished, unlike earlier times of the year when the first drones are less than cared for.
Nature should show us what to do, the hives nearly all have drones in smallish number 300-500 to many is a problem, the hive cannot care and nourish the drone brood resulting is poor quality drones.
If you have experienced Queen failure or supersedure the likely cause is the lack of well-nourished drones or just the lack of drones due to drone culling, although drone culling can be a useful tool in your armoury against varroa but like everything else we do it has a reaction.
Queen rearing from now until August will/should produce well mated queens, don’t be put off by initial failure or things not happening as you think they should.
There is nothing better for the local bee population than locally produced queens, don’t start with ambitions to rear 20 queens, keep it to a manageable size of maybe 6, if it fails just keep trying you will be pleased with the end results.
Practice really does make perfect.