Queen Rearing Kits - Review

[Joel]

We are going to add a queen rearing kit to our operation this year, my main goal is to avoid having to graft, I wear bifocals and an hour of grafting leaves me with a thumper of a headache and I think it would speed up the process not having to make cell cups ect. We raise about 600 queens a year for our own operation. 400 in the initial round - April- and then 200, for 2 queen units in May.

Never used any commercially available system although I've looked at a couple. I am very interested to hear from anyone using any of the systems out there, what the ups and downs are for your system and any shortcuts you might have picked up using them.

Since I think more and more Beeks are raising their own queens hopefully many will find this helpful.

Thanks!

[danno1800]

I got it from beeworks,com along with an excellent video explaining how to use it to raise queens. Hope that helps you. -Danno

[Joel]

One of the problems I read in past posts is queen acceptance. Like to hear if that was a problem and how many attempts it took to actually get acceptance and how? How many queens is the system designed to raise? I like the video aspect, I listen fast but I can be a slow learner!

[Brandy]

I've used the Nicot also from Beeworks or Betterbee. I found it sometimes takes an extra day for the bee's to clean it and depending on the time of the year, I've left the queen in for 2 day's rather than 1. Also depending on the time of year, they can have egg's in one day and four day's later they can replace them with nectar. It does allow for 110 cell cups, and when everything works well it can't be beat. No disruption to the larva, etc., But if you're prepared for 100 cell cups and there's a flow on you might want another back up plan just in case!! I think early on in the season would give you better odds that they won't be adding as much nectar as later on in the season. Just my .02 from the experiences I've had with it.

[HVH]

We are going to add a queen rearing kit to our operation this year, my main goal is to avoid having to graft, I wear bifocals and an hour of grafting leaves me with a thumper of a headache and I think it would speed up the process not having to make cell cups ect. We raise about 600 queens a year for our own operation. 400 in the initial round - April- and then 200, for 2 queen units in May.

Never used any commercially available system although I've looked at a couple. I am very interested to hear from anyone using any of the systems out there, what the ups and downs are for your system and any shortcuts you might have picked up using them.

Since I think more and more Beeks are raising their own queens hopefully many will find this helpful.

Thanks!

Joel,

My eyes arent getting any stronger either but I have found that dark comb, fiber optic lights that focus a tight beem right where you want and 3X glasses make the work so much easier. I bought the fiber optic light for II but found it made a huge difference in grafting. I also dip 19 wax cups at a time in a matter of seconds and transfer all 19 cups to a bar at a time. My apiary uses ony a couple hundred queens a year so I don't have to graft as many times as you do but grafting seems to take less time than setting up finishing colonies and swarm boxes. I am slower at grafting than others but I can graft 114 larvae (2 frames X three bars of 19) in less than two hours. After two hours my neck and back hurt from contorted posture but I plan on arranging my junk to make it more comfortable. If pushed, I think 228 cups would be max for me and could be done in half a day. I don't doubt that you have more experience so I guess I am just saying that grafting might be made easier for you with the right set up (assuming you don't already have the perfect set up).

[Michael Bush]

I use the Jenter and have seen the Nicot and seen pictures of the others. They are all very similar in concept and from all accounts have about the same success.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm#jenter

[Joel]

{I don't doubt that you have more experience so I guess I am just saying that grafting might be made easier for you with the right set up (assuming you don't already have the perfect set up}.

Actually HVH if I've done it more I certainly haven't done it better, your ideas would actually speed things up a quite a bit, at least at the home end in May. One problems we run into is we are doing the 1st round of queens 700 miles from home w/o the benefit of electiricty. We have however switched to black Plasticell and yes the brood is much easier to see. I already have the light, ashamed to say it didn't cross my mind!

Michael, I read your posts from last year this time and it looks like you've come a long way. The web site is great. Thanks

[wildbranch2007]

I use both the jenter and the one sold by mann lake. both work and both have advantages and disadvantages. an adavantage of jenter is if you need more eggs after all the plugs are removed, you can graft from the "dummy" cells between the plugs. Mann lakes version doesn't require the comb to be drawn out, but I find their version of the plug to be hard to remove, I found an old ?clamp? that is used in fly tying to hold the material that works fine in removing them. also found that buying new plugs for both works better than trying to reuse them.

mike

[WG Bee Farm]

I used to have two Jenters that I kept going all the time
I liked the way they worked better than the others.
I have since gone to grafting.

One day I will have to go back to them (Jenters) when I can't keep up

Frank