Making increase with Mel Disselkoen's OTS, On The Spot Queen Rearing

 July 23 was the day to go back into the starts and check for new queens.  In May, I had one hundred percent success, queens in every start.  June 23 I dispatched all of the queens.  It took a lot of trust in the OTS system of queen rearing for me to leave every hive queenless, but I did.  From the nine hives I had, I increased to sixteen. I could have made more starts based on the brood I had, but chose not to.  On July 23, fifteen of those hives had newly mated OTS queens. These queens are also post solstice queens, mated after June 21.  I was able to break the brood cycle in each hive which in turn knocks back the mite population while the honeybee population  soars with a newly mated queen who won't shut down laying into the fall. Each hive will go into winter with younger, stronger bees.
I will give another week to the start that did not have a queen yet and check again.

Each start is building  up quickly and already needs a second deep box. I love to find the new OTS queens and see them draw out beautiful new comb! OTS queens that were raised by their own colony, mated naturally,  never touched by human hands, never shut down, never caged.  The bees do it all, the way they were created to.  I think that's why OTS is such a great success, it works with the bees and their natural behaviors. For more information on OTS, checkout Mel Disselkoen's website www.mdasplitter.com or his book, OTS Queen Rearing.

OTS Queen middle of picture. She had been near the brood, but scurried up to the honey near the top of the frame when we tried to get her on camera. Thanks to my bee buddy, Mary, for these great photos of my OTS queens.

Another OTS queen, just starting to lay. Look closely in the center of the cells and you can see the eggs she is laying.  It looks like a very tiny grain of rice.