Logo primary
Logo secondary
No Small Dreams
No Small Dreams
Details
Commenced:
01/06/2010
Submitted:
06/02/2011
Last updated:
07/10/2015
Location:
Graceville, Queensland, AU
Website:
http://nosmalldreams.net/
Climate zone:
Sub-tropical





My Projects

(projects i'm involved in)

No Small Dreams

No Small Dreams

Graceville, AU


Followers
Ben Hamley Bron(wyn) Elliott Chief Phillip 'Cloudpiler' Landis Deborah Farrell Derik Keith Frank Gapinski Grahame Eddy Jonathon Coombes karl tuite Kirsten Bradley Luca Sichel Turco maria baltazzi Mark Brown Merry Cox Millie Hrdina Pedro Franco Pete Blake Ruiz Chris Salah Hammad Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper Stephen Koen Steve Gardin Tom Kendall Valeria Andrews Vanessa Monge Augusto Fernandes Zak Partoredjo

Back to No Small Dreams

A naturally raised queen

Project: No Small Dreams

Posted by Tim Auld over 12 years ago

First time letting a colony raise their own queen!

Since splitting off my first colony last year, I have been ordering a queen bee from a breeder. This is much faster (saves almost a month of no egg laying), safer (no risk of a bird eating the queen or being poorly mated), and has an assured quality (the queen is artificially inseminated).

When one of the top bar hives I manage swarmed on the 5th of February, and I saw queen cells being built, I decided to see how they go without assistance.

There were around 6 queen cells made, and the first one out killed 2 or 3 others. There were some queen cells that seemed to be left alone, but later were destroyed and dismantled by the workers.

I inspected once at about the 21 day mark and did not find the queen or any eggs. After checking the queen development timeline again, I realised she was probably out mating. The top bar hives produce copious numbers of drones, so I expect the queen quality to be good. Today, on day 29 after the swarm, I inspected again and found eggs first, then found the queen laying eggs! There's also plenty of fresh comb, honey and pollen as the workers had not been idle while waiting for their new queen.

I've seen a bought queen introduced and fill the comb with eggs in no-time. Is there little benefit to doing this because she will soon run out of empty cells to lay in? Perhaps a naturally raised queen will soon catch up and be locally adapted. Workers live longer when they don't have nursing duties, so perhaps the population doesn't decline much. Maybe nurse bees graduate to foragers and so nectar and pollen gathering is maintained.

Img 8296 Img 8441 Img 8445

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to comment.

Courses Taught Here!
Project Badges
Urban Residential
Administrators
Tim Auld - Admin
Team Members

Report No Small Dreams

Reason:

or cancel

Hide No Small Dreams

Reason:

or cancel

Hide A naturally raised queen

Reason:

or cancel

Legend of Badges

Note: The various badges displayed in people profiles are largely honesty-based self-proclamations by the individuals themselves. There are reporting functions users can use if they know of blatant misrepresentation (for both people and projects). Legitimacy, competency and reputation for all people and projects can be evidenced and/or developed through their providing regular updates on permaculture work they’re involved in, before/after photographs, etc. A spirit of objective nurturing of both people and projects through knowledge/encouragement/inspiration/resource sharing is the aim of the Worldwide Permaculture Network.

Member

Member

A member is a permaculturist who has never taken a PDC course. These cannot become PDC teachers. Members may be novice or highly experienced permaculturists or anywhere in between. Watch their updates for evaluation.

Male memberFemale member

Permaculture Matchmaker

One of these badges will show if you select your gender and the "I'm single, looking for a permaculture partner" option in your profile.

unverified

PDC

People who claim to have taken a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course somewhere in the world.

verified

PDC Verified

People who have entered an email address for the teacher of their PDC course, and have had their PDC status verified by that teacher. Watch their updates for evaluation.

pri_verified

PRI PDC

People who’ve taken a Permaculture Research Institute PDC somewhere in the world.

pdc_teacher

PDC Teacher

People who claim to teach some version of PDC somewhere in the world.

pri_teacher

PRI Teacher

With the exception of the ‘Member’ who has never taken a PDC, all of the above can apply to become a PRI PDC Teacher. PRI PDC Teachers are those who the PRI recognise, through a vetting board, as determined and competent to teach the full 72-hour course as developed by Permaculture founder Bill Mollison – covering all the topics of The Designers’ Manual as well as possible (i.e. not cherry picking only aspects the teacher feels most interested or competent in). Such teachers also commit to focussing on the design science, and not including subjective spiritual/metaphysical elements. The reason these items are not included in the PDC curriculum is because they are “belief” based. Permaculture Design education concerns itself with teaching good design based on strategies and techniques which are scientifically provable.

PRI PDC Teachers may be given teaching and/or consultancy offerings as they become available as the network grows.

pri_teacher

Aid Worker

The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to be involved in permaculture aid work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture aid worker experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.

pri_teacher

Consultant

The individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to do paid permaculture design consultancy work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture consultancy experience. Watch their updates for evaluation.

community

Community Project

Community projects are projects that help develop sustainable community interaction and increase localised resiliency.

Report A naturally raised queen

Reason:

or cancel