Native Queen Bees

I checked a few Apideas over the weekend and now have the first few queens mated of the 2014 season.

I set up a new Brinsea Octagon 20 incubator which I will be using for queen cells.
I have it set at 34.2C

I set out the first Apideas with virgin queens today.
Only 8, but it would be good to have a few queens mated before the end of May.
Queen rearing in Ireland is very much weather dependent.

I got 10 grafts started in a queenless hive on 30th April. These queens are due to emerge on 12th May and will go into Apideas on 11th May.

Got another dozen started yesterday on the 8th May and these queens should be emerging from the cell on the 20th.