Keith Tignor VA Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services  Cost  Availability  Quantity  Quality  Selection Egg Larvae Cell Pre-flight Mating Queen Emergence 3 3 0 10 10 5 20 Time (days) 16 30 40 Swarming Supersedure Emergency Conditions Causes Swarming colony reproduction 15 - 20 queen failure 4–8 queen loss 15 - 20 Supersedure Emergency # Queen Cells  Swarm – depopulation  Supersedure - availability  Emergency - quality Age of Larvae: Less than 2 days - 64.7% 3 day-old larvae - 25.3% 4 day-old larvae - 10.0% Queen cells started over drone larvae - 9.3% Age at grafting 1/2 day 1 day 2 days 3 days 4 days No. Ovarioles Avg. Weight 314 -320 208 mg 321 206 mg 302 163 mg 30 - 200 118 mg  Fertilized larvae  Young workers  Food  Sugar  Pollen  Queenless hive  Walk Away  Miller  Alley  Smith  Hopkins  Doolittle - grafting  Jenter – neo-grafting  Selection  Equipment  Skill  Experience  Splits  Starter  Starter-Finisher  Swarm Box  Cloake Board Feeder Honey Capped Brood Capped Brood Pollen Open Brood - Queen Cells Capped Brood Capped Brood Capped Brood Honey • Shake 3 to 5 pounds of workers from uncapped brood frames • Establish a week to 10 days prior to need • Weekly replace empty brood frames with capped brood Queenless Excluder Queenright  When and why did Earth Day begin?  Mini – nuc  Castle  5 frame nuc  Split  Instrumental Insemination • Queen vs. Drone flight distance • Multiple DCA’s • Low source Drones in DCA • Multiple Queen Mating • Single Drone Mating Egg Larvae Cell Finish Pre-flight Mating Queen Emergence 3 1 0 10 10 2 5 20 Time (days) 16 30 40 Diseases Pests Protection • Consumer • Producer International Treaties USDA • ARS • APHIS Import/export Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services Inter-state Shipment Intra-state Sales State     Office of Plant Industry Services www.vdacs.virginia.gov/plant&pest 804-786-3515 VABees@vdacs.virginia.gov Federal  USDA – Agricultural Research Services  www.ars.usda.gov