How about this queen rearing method..

[Chef Isaac]

I read this method somewhere and I thought it was pretty interesting as it limits the time it takes to set up.

First, you take a well populated two deep hive and place the queen in the lower deep with a queen excluder in the middle of the two deeps. Than on the first day, you take a drawn out empty frame and place it in the bottom deep. On the second day, take out the frame and place it in the second deep with a frame of brood and nurse bees. (you do this so you know that all the larva that is in the frame is at the right grafting age. ) On the 4th day, take out the frame and graft the larva. place the grafting frame back in the top deep and use the top deep as a finishing colony.

What do you all think? think it will work?

[jalal]

err, yes?

i think you might be reading too much into it though...

it's a real simple process

graft, put in queenless hive

[mark williams]

I'll agree,a queenless hive will start on the graft better than a hive that has a queen with just an excluder seperating them.
If they have been queenless 24 hour's & no more larval of the correct age,Then the exceptence of the graft percentage is even that much better.
Chef, I think you are just afraid to take the plung,hehe.not meaning to sound off my friend,But I was like you also,So I know first hand what it's like,But beleive me it's not that hard.If the first time don't work out,just try again.
After I started then I was wondering why I was worried about it to start with. :D
(??Man that last paragraph was confussing to me & I was the one wrote it.)>>>>Mark :confused:

[tecumseh]

*snip*
a queen excluder in the middle of the two deeps

tecumseh adds:
actually you need a double screen or any device that will keep the workers in the two chamber from touching probiscus and passing queen substance which a queen excluder will definitely not do....

[Michael Bush]

>On the 4th day, take out the frame and graft the larva.

That all works well because you now know the age of the larvae.

> place the grafting frame back in the top deep and use the top deep as a finishing colony.
>What do you all think? think it will work?

It never worked for me. I've never gotten a queen right hive to raise queen cells. I've always had to seperate the top box with a FWOF just a piece of plywood or something to get the top box queenless before it worked.

IMO it takes these things to get a cell starter (which can double as a finisher if you like):

The right age larvae in the cells.
Food (both nectar and pollen. Lots of it)
Queenlessness (for at least overnight)
No queen cells (why I don't like to have them queenless more than overnight. And you should check them about half way through the queen rearing process to make sure there still aren't any)
Lots of bees. (overflowing the box)

I have recombined with the bottom box after the cells are sealed and I've not recombined. Both seemed equally effective from the point of view of raising queens. The advantage to recombining (Queen right cell finisher) is that the top box maintains more moral over more cycles of queen rearing. The disadvantage is they are more likely to change their mind and tear down the queen cells.

[RBar]

I'm missing something...if there is brood in both deep hive bodies, cannot one just divide them and the queenless half will make their own queen...assuming day-old larvae? In a food rich environment, that is?

[Robert Hawkins]

Yeah, these guys are going for more like 25 queens at a time. A split won't do that many.

Hawk

[simplyhoney]

How about this:

take nice big colonie preferably with lots of capped brood. Find the queen (which is the hardest part) That frame will most likely have a ton of eggs and young larva. Put the frame, with the queen in an empty deep. Go to either side and find the frames with young larva 1-5 or 6 days, don't be too picky just go for the majority. Put these frames with the frame that has the queen. Take the queen right nuc and haul it a couple of miles away. leave this "raiser" alone for about 3 days. Make your graft 1 - 3 frames. when you go to put the frames in the raiser. check and kill wild cells. put your graft between capped brood.

It sounds like alot of work, but if you want to raise 15-80 queens, I think it is alot easier than shaking bees and building a swarm box.

any thoughts?

[Michael Bush]

Lots of things will make queens. But leaving a 10 frame deep queenless for multiple batches of queens means they will peter out and lose morale and not make any honey in the meantime. If they were queenright they would last throughout the queen rearing season, not lose morale AND make some honey.

It's not just about getting queens. It's about getting the most and best queens for the least amount of bee resources and lost honey production.