F1 queen rearing
Good beekeeping practice: Every beekeeper should try to rear a few queens in order to maintain and improve the quality of their stock. In this short course, I will attempt to present a queen-rearing technique that incorporates certain tips used by royal jelly producers. This method requires only minimal investment, and no queen is lost.
F1 queen rearing without losing the resident queen: structured starter–finisher approach
The document presents a practical F1 queen-rearing method designed to improve colony traits without sacrificing the existing production queen. The objective is to maintain or enhance characteristics such as gentleness, productivity, disease and Varroa resistance, and reduced swarming tendency. The technique follows a clear sequence combining grafting with a two-stage system: starter and finisher.
The process begins with the preparation of a queenless starter colony (day J-1). A well-ventilated nucleus box is densely populated with young nurse bees shaken from several brood frames, together with pollen and honey reserves. No queen is introduced. The temporary queenless condition stimulates strong feeding behaviour. The starter is kept in a cool, dark place for several hours to reinforce this response.
On day J, very young larvae (not older than 24 hours) from a selected breeder queen are grafted into artificial queen cups. A small drop of royal jelly may be added to improve acceptance. The graft frame is placed into the starter for approximately 24 hours.
On day J+1, the starter is united with a strong finishing colony. The production hive is divided using a queen excluder partition so that the resident queen remains confined to one section. The queenless section receives the graft frame and continues raising the queen cells. The colony should not be disturbed until the cells are sealed. Supplemental feeding may be required during nectar scarcity.
On day J+5, once the queen cells are capped, they are protected with cages to prevent early-emerging queens from destroying the remaining cells. Between days six and nine, the cells are particularly fragile and should not be handled.
From day J+10, mating nuclei are prepared and populated with approximately 150 g of young bees, supplied with candy feed and temporarily stored in a cool place. On day J+11, one mature queen cell is introduced into each unit. After a short confinement period, the nuclei are transferred to a mating yard ideally saturated with selected drones.
Between days J+25 and J+35, egg-laying is checked and successfully mated queens are marked according to the annual colour code. The included calendar outlines the full sequence from starter preparation to onset of laying over roughly four weeks.
In summary, this method provides a structured and resource-efficient approach to F1 queen production while preserving the original colony queen. Strict adherence to timing and careful management of the starter and finisher phases are key to successful queen rearing.
See also:
- Principles and Methods of Queen Rearing
- Choosing the Queen Type (F0 or F1?)
- Creating Nuclei and Rearing Queens
- Drone Rearing
- Queen Rearing in the Carnica Population: Genetics, Selection and Practice