We're returning to the Dark Ages

I had a bit of an epiphany today. Having a conversation with a co-worker we discussed that the USA is currently involved in a civil war. It's not super violent yet but there certainly is a fair amount of violence. Oddly it comes from the people who most vociferously advocate tolerance yet have none.  Certainly the nation is divided like never before, but there is more. I say we're entering the Dark Ages again and I really believe it's true. If we look back to the 16th century what body had the most power? Then it was the Roman Catholic Church. Today it's shared by academia and news media. And both have become more religion and less objective over the recent years. Academics today focus more on theory than fact. The news media has become more opinion than news. When confronted with facts and evidence which contradicts the current idea, they refuse to accept. Much like when Galileo turned his telescope to the stars, the church and the scientific community would not accept his findings. Today it's not an earth centered solar system, or a flat earth (although there are still some flat earthers). Today it's pseudoscience like global warming, climate change and  greenhouse effects.  These are all religious items and held sacred. Just bring up any evidence against any of these and you'll have a war. And social programs like single payer health care, free college, gun control, and socialist societies. No matter how many times it's been tried, the current socialists simply say that the others just did it wrong. Fortunately for us today the new religions haven't yet amassed the power the church had in Galileo's day. We still have people with enough common sense to know that there are only two sexes. And how to tell the difference. Stand firm, the elite call us deplorables, but we can see the truth that they can't.  I've said this countless times, it's like the story of the emperor's new clothes. The liberals and socialists are walking around naked but either don't realize it or are too afraid to admit it. And if you try to tell them, like the church of the dark ages, they will not accept facts. But we need to keep trying. 

Just some ramblings

More lessons in the world of beekeeping and specifically queen rearing. I think the one item I would really stress is no brood in the cell builder. Three times this year I had queen cells on frames that I didn't see, which emerged and killed my grafts. The first was because I added a brood frame and just didn't think about checking for QC's. The others were when rogue queens got loose, then got themselves mated and started laying. It's a bit more work but I think that henceforth I'll pull and check each frame every time I do grafts. The second lesson, which directly relates to the first. Find a way to secure cages.  This is where the second and third queens got loose. I'm using nicot cups and roller cages but some cages aren't real tight. I suspect that when a queen emerges, bees gather on the cage and the weight pulls it off.  I need to make frames with a bar under the cage to hold it up.  Another item is the temperature in the cell builder.  When I first started I had some good results, late April and through May. Then it got hot in June and I vented the top of my boxes. Three sets of grafts didn't finish. Took out the vents and I had some of my best results in July and August. Recently, just this past week, again I have cells that just don't finish and the over night temps are getting below 60. Since I run all screened bottoms my thoughts are I'm losing too much heat. I put political signs under my cell builders to see what happens. I know that most of the country has stopped their queen rearing, I'm in central Florida and I still see drones in more than half of our boxes. It doesn't cost me anything and I certainly can use the experience so I  think I'll keep grafting at least four to six each week at the off chance I can get a queen mated.  Had one mate last year during Christmas week so it is possible. 

Mini mating nucs just aren't for me

This is my first year trying to raise queens. As I am the type who will do a lot of research and then action, I studied what people were using to mate queens. The one item that nearly all of the queen breeders doing YouTube videos neglect to mention is that for every cell you make you need a mating box. And bees to put in them. That's the largest problem in queen raising, getting them mated. Some people use queen castles, a large box divided in three or four compartments and each has some frames and a queen is added to go mate. Some are using full size boxes and some a form of mini. I also read a very good book that's available on pdf called Practical Queen Rearing, by Frank C Pellett. Written about 100 years ago, still has some great information. In his book Frank Pellett mentions the mini mating nuc, three frames 4 1/2 inches square. At the time of publication  they were forty cents each. Wow! I found that a lot of queen breeders use that same type of mini nuc today, just to get the queen mated.  So I decided to make some double two medium frame mating boxes. Essentially a five frame nuc with a divider board in the middle and opposing entrances. So I have two nucs facing different directions with two frames each. The theory seemed sound, I'm using almost exclusively medium frames so I have at least as much if not more area than the mini's.  The first go around was pretty good. I got 5 of 8. But then different things happened. I learned that I needed to really be on top of what's happening in the nuc. Once the queen mates, she can lay up every cell in two or three days, (assuming there is some food stores in some cells). And if one is not ready they can and will swarm. I had two boxes do this. Put in a virgin, came back two weeks later to find some capped brood and a queen cell. Two weeks might be too long but I have a full time day job and need to be able to juggle queening at the same time. I also learned it's pretty hard to catch a queen in that narrow two frame box. It took me three tries yesterday to catch one and at first she actually flew off.  I was told at bee college to leave the top open and she'll come back.  Did just that and sure enough in about 10 minutes she was back. For both the space in catching and the extra area for her to lay in, I think I'll go to three and four frame boxes. In the off season I'll convert these six doubles I have into four frame boxes, just remove the center divider board, or cut a section out of it so the bees can cross.  I plan to try at least a few three frame boxes, maybe five or six, whatever I can make from a single sheet of ply. They'd be five inches across and easier to catch a queen in. By mid April I'd like to have 40 mating nucs running so that's 120 to 160 frames, plus the actual boxes. A lot of inventory. Might rethink this and shoot for 25 this coming year and 50 the next year. I have almost six months to think about it and get ready. Guess I'll stay busy during the winter.