two questions on queen rearing

[Chef Isaac]

1) if you were to put cell cups into a hive for them to polish, does it have to be the hive that you will be using for the cell builder?

2) I have read that shaking bees in a swarm box will make better quality queen cells. Is this true? If so, the books recomend placing the cell bar with grafted larvae into the swam box for 24 hours and than placing them into the bigger colony but why not just keep them in the swarm box and maybe provide an opening after 24 hours???

[jean-marc]

Chef:

1) Probably not. I only tried once. It does not seem worth the effort.

2) Swarm boxes make better quality cells. Queen right colonies tend to finishing off better when the cells are above an excluder.That is why they are finished in queenright hives. The queen is below the excluder. I think most california queen breeders use free flying queenless starters and finishers (same hives)for cell building. These are constantly supplemented with bulk bees from shaking packages.

3) check your pm's

Jean-Marc

[Michael Bush]

>1) if you were to put cell cups into a hive for them to polish, does it have to be the hive that you will be using for the cell builder?

In my experience it doesn't matter if it's the same hive or not.

>2) I have read that shaking bees in a swarm box will make better quality queen cells. Is this true?

Lots of queenless bees make better quality queen cells. A swarm box is one way to get that. I keep meaning to do a swarm box but I have fine luck with using a hive and making it queenless the night before.

> If so, the books recomend placing the cell bar with grafted larvae into the swam box for 24 hours and than placing them into the bigger colony but why not just keep them in the swarm box and maybe provide an opening after 24 hours???

Because the bees in the swarm box will die of thirst unless you water them a lot or let them free fly. The class I took recommended a large sponge soaked in water in the bottom of the swarm box and when we did it in the workshop the sponge was very dry the next day. The bees used a lot of that water.

[Jon McFadden]

Here is a way to make a queenless cell builder and create a queenright finisher using the same hive with a "Cell Door" or "Cloake Board".

http://nordykebeefarm.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=6&PN=1