Transporting queen cells

[Chef Isaac]

I was wondering how ya all that have bee yards away from the house trasport newly capped queen cells to the house to the incubator?

I bought a converter for the incubator to take with me in the car but I am affraid to take them home with me because the ride back is rough.

any thoughts? (I am not looking for "just keep them in the bee yard" or "move the cell builder hives to your house". Not options at this point!)

[bleakley]

Here's the method taught to me by SimplyHoney:

Use an insulated cooler. Soak some towels with boiling water before you leave home. Be sure to use only enough water that the towels soak it up. Transport the towels to the cell finisher in the cooler. Wrap each cell bar frame in a towel; have another as padding on the bottom of the cooler. The steamed towels maintain high humidity and temperature for the cells until you get them to their destination.

I use the Jenter method for queen rearing. As our humidity here is sooooo low, I even use the above method to hold the donor egg comb box while I am transfering larvae to the cell cups and cell bar frame. :cool:

It works.

[jean-marc]

I transport them in a nucleus with adhering bees. Careful not to overheat the cells with hot water and hot water bottles. You can keep cells for hours at 5 degrees below normal temperature but not 5 degrees above normal temperatures. You'll cook the cells.

Jean-Marc

[Nick Noyes]

If you use jzbz plastic cell cups. You can take the styrofoam bullet holder from .44cal. or .45 cal. box I can't remember which cal. Anyways put the cells in one half then stick the other half on bottom put them in a cooler they will stay good for an hour or two.

Someone please explain this better I don't do a very good job of explaining. But this works.

[Velbert]

Hi Nick was wordering how long have you been using the mini nuc,and do they seal up the holes in the bottoms and do they chew at the entrance hole very bad.mine have done some chewing and do you put any thing on top of the frames to keep them from building bur comb to the lid, I really like them, want to buy a lot more but was needing to the good and bad points on them. could you let me know where you buy yours. Thank you very much
Velbert

[Nick Noyes]

This is only our third year with the minis. They work pretty good. We have not had a big chewing problem and they don't plug the holes in the bottom up to bad. I think that would maybe have to do with the local climate but I don't really know. We get ours from Mann Lake But I think there was a post on here a while back with a link to a cheaper source.

Hope this helps. Nick

[Chef Isaac]

Nick:

Mine came with just peices of wood for the top bar. What did you do for yours? I like plastic frames really.

did you just start them on starter strips?

[jean-marc]

Chef:

I plan on cutting up plastic foundation and hot gluing them into the frames.

Jean-Marc

[Nick Noyes]

We just used a strip of foundation it works. Let me know how the plastic works it might be the way to go. You wouldn't have to redo them if the wax moth got into them.

[Chef Isaac]

do you all like how the feeders work inside of the mini mating nucs?

[Nick Noyes]

Yes

[tecumseh]

I utilize a very common egg carton with a bit of cotton or toilet paper to provide some cushion and a towel to wrap and insulate the container. when I was handling a lot of cell I had cigar boxs with the foam insulation (kinda has the same shape as an egg carton) that is commonly found in hard gun cases. If I was a bit concerned about the temperature I simply place the container on the floorboard of my truck near the heater/ac exhaust duct.