How 2 make own Q-cells and how to use them?

[wayacoyote]

I have a wonderfully calm hive. I may want to breed a few queens out of this one for other hives. I read that one can make their won queen cups. How would I do that? And how would I go about getting her to lay in them and the bees to produce queens from them?

Or would there be another, easier way? Say remove the queens to be replaced. and a few days later give them frames of eggs from THis hive while removing any queens already started from their own stock...

[magnet-man]

Say remove the queens to be replacedThat is the easiest way if you only want a few queens. It is fast easy and free! It would be a good idea to move any frames with eggs and hence young brood to the hive that you took the breeder frame from. You will reduce the number of queen cells from the undesirable stock. Once the queen cells have been capped be very careful with the frames. Do not tilt the frame or the queen can be damaged.

[Joel]

An easier method which does not have a loss of queen egg production is to locate the queen on frame and set that frame aside. Take a frame of eggs and put in the top brood chamber with brood in other stages. Now place your queen in the bottom super and place a queen excluder between the supers. The nurse bees in the top super not having contact with the queen phermone will draw out numerous queen cells. Meanwhile your queen is still laying in the bottom. When the cells are capped ( 8 days) you can transfer the cells into your nucs, new hives or mating nucs.

[Hook]

The easiest way to do this, is take a frame with eggs and some open brood, and put it in a nuc box. The bees will make a queen.Or, you can remove the queen from ou good hive, and the bees will supercede her. If you get lucky, there might be 2 or three cells scattered throughout the hive on different frames, put those frames in separate nucs, and you have virgin queens. They have to mate, so they are aready separated in different nucs. Wait about 10-15 days and look for eggs!

Now, you can buy various queen cups, or make them, but it is much more time consuming if this is only a one time thing.

[roger eagles]

Its no science if yore a hunter.Joel is right.Put the queen to the bottom.Screen her off.On top yew wants eggs and day old larvae.Take a 30-30 bullet an open the cell of a few day olds,and a couple of eggs what ever.They will make queens.Simple,and quick.

[Joel]

Hook, I agree you're method would make the queen easy to find as you only have to identify her in a confined area. The problem is that for about 26-27 days your hive is depopulating after the nuc brood hatches due to no queen laying for that period. (21 days for queen to hatch, 5-7 days for mating). I'm asuming you run yours like mating nucs resupplying brood or nurse bees. It might be helpful for any beginners reading this to hear how you do that part of the process.

[bjerm2]

What I used to do is take a 1/4 inch wooden dowl. Round out the bottom into a nice round shape, cut them about 2 inches long and have up to 6 of them nailed or glued to a top frame. Melt some wax, take the dowls first and dunk them into some water to wet them. That is important, then while they are wet dip them into the melted wax up to about 1/4 inch deep, then dip into water. Repeat this several times. Now you have made queen cup cells. Next step is to attach them onto a frame and graft larva into them. Place the grafted larva into a queenless hive and your all set.
Another way is to take a frame of fresh eggs cut out a 'v' section out of the frame and place the frame into a hive that is queenless. They will take the eggs along the cut and make them into queens.
Or you can do what I do now and get a no graft queen rearing kit. This is so much easier to do.
Good luck.
Dan

[Neubee]

Doesn't it only take 16 days for a queen to hatch?

APK

[Michael Bush]

It only takes three days for a queen to hatch. From the day the egg is layed it takes 16 days for a queen to emerge.

Day 0 egg layed.
Day 3 egg hatches.
Day 8 cell capped.
Day 16 queen emerges.
@Day 21 queen takes orientation flight.
@day 24 queen mates.
@day 28 queen starts to lay.

If you deprive a hive of a queen the workers will start a cell with a three day old larva so it means it will be about 5 days until a cell is capped and 13 until it emerges and approximately 25 until she is laying.

[Neubee]

I see. Thanks for the info.

APK

[Joel]

Oops, duh, did I say 21 days for the queen. Michael is right it is 16 days, I must have been in a hurry that day. Add 5 to 7 days for mating and actual laying to start. The 25 day period is about the standard. No one mentioned sytems like Jenter which actually come with cells and a unit to confine the queen on comb for a couple of days so you know the age of the larve.

[wayacoyote]

Roger Eagles
When you open a cell with 30-30 bullet, what range are you standing at? 2 meters? 100 meters? Does it matter what the tip is? do you get much splatter?

REALLY, can you elaborate on what is being accomplished and how when you say you use a 30-30 bullet?

Thanks, WayaCoyote

[roger eagles]

Yes.If ya got a problem,some times they won't draw out a queen.Yew take a frame with eggs,day old larvae and so on.A heavy frame,lots of brood.Now yew take a 30-30 bullet,and gently use the nose to stretch the cell of the day old larvae.Not much and gently.I just did 5 cells 4 days ago and 3 were pulled out.It kinda forces the cell to look like a queen cell,but they are a bee so they may still make ther own,but Ive had good luck.O ya,the distance.VERY CLOSE.ya have to be able to touch it.--

[Michael Bush]

Just cutting the bottom side of the cell out helps too. My guess is that the 30-30 breaks the old cocoons allowing the bees to be able to tear down the bottom wall to make the queen cell.

[teen-bee]

guy i did everything right from queen rearing to hatching and to the mating nucs. its been 3 weeks now since they emerges but no eggs laid yet. queen still in nucs and just walking around. no eggs.not even drone layer... got 6 colony in isolated apiary. made 4 nucs w/queen. any suggestion on my next game plan???? thnaks guys....

[Michael Bush]

Two weeks is the minimum expected time. How many bees are in the mating nucs? How cold is the weather lately? Has the weather been too rainy for the queen to have mating flights? It takes a certain number of bees to be able to raise brood.

[Jon McFadden]

A good reason for using a 30-30 bullet is that the nose is flat. Most traditional 30-30 rifles had tubular magazines and it wasn't safe to put pointy bullets (especially full jacketed ones) on the primer of its neighbor. Flat nose means it doesn't penetrate to the same depth as a bullet made for a box magazine.
Neat trick, Roger.

[davlanders]

So, in the method with moving eggs above a queen excluder, could you also just add a top entrance and let the queen emerge there, and mate and essentially have a two queen colony?

If this is feasible, once they are built up, could you separate them from the other colony below and thus make a "split" with very little effort?

[Michael Bush]

If you put a super between the top and bottom with an excluder on the top and bottom of the super, yes, it would probably work. With just one excluder the two queens could still meet at the excluder and harm one another.