Exam

Enough said I think.
Didn’t enjoy it, partly due to arm hurting (op next week though!) and partly cos I don’t think I did very well. Three lots of genetics questions seemed a bit harsh – two 15 marks and then a big one. Definitions – I did some but some I tied myself in knots with – which is frustrating.
A question on miller method of queen rearing might have seemed fair but it’s one I’ve not looked at – I could have waffled a bit about it though – let me see how much I can write. They wanted advantaged and disadvantages first and then a description of it.

As far as I understand it’s the use of pointed bits of foundation in a frame – I’ve seen several different pictures of the comb before use – don’t remember seeing a photo of it after it’s been inside the hive though.
It needs to be drawn and then once it’s been laid in I think you cut away at the bottom edge until 12-18 hour old larvae are at the bottom. Then it’s put somewhere (queenless? or maybe above a QE on a prolific hive packed with nurse bees?) to turn them into queen cells. You then presumably cut off the queen cells to use them elsewhere.

Advantages – cheap as you don’t need any extra equipment. Easy.

Disadvantages – You have to still see the right size larvae and cut back. I assume queen cells can be too close together if you don’t destroy eggs on cells adjacent to where you want the QC made.

That might have got me a few points. But hopefully I will have scored enough on the genetics questions to avoid resitting.

The last question I did one about the breeder queen and record card. I hope I wrote enough of the right stuff to get lots of marks on that.

Other questions included: Egg laying. and …… funny how your brain goes blank!

First 10 questions included one about what fungus affects queen rearing …..