Beginner Queen Rearing using the Joseph Clemens Starter/Finisher

David, thank you for working on this thread. I have studied your info and read 3 queen books this winter. I live in south west Florida and it is early Spring here. 80degrees during the day now and 60 at night. I have used a version of the Clemmons system 3 rounds so far. The first try I had 4 capped cells and 2 hatched .#1 (Eve) hatched in the incubator on day 10. I introduced her to a new nuc by direct introduction on top of the frames. She had a full frame of brood on both sides at day 15 following introduction. #2 went into a nuc and is now laying also. The other two never hatched and when I opened them up they were partially developed and died in the cell.round two, I had twenty cells capped at day 5. I was really excited. When I went to take them out on day 10 all were chewed open. I neglected to check for starter queen cells. I took the virgins and bees from the starter nuc and made up a ten frame hive and she is laying now, so all was not lost.round three and I had 19 started cells and 13 were capped and removed at ten days. I installed them today into nucs and grafted round 4. I really feel like I am getting the hang of it. I am send this to you to THANK YOU for your work and for sharing the knowledge with all of us on the forum. I thought you would like to hear what I think is a success story, only possible because others shared info and took the time to help others. Jim

I appreciate you saying so, and your experience really highlights the great thing about learning with a system like this - you can easily use it over and over to sharpen your skills. Sounds like you are doing great.

BTW, If I had an incubator I would put cells in it as soon as they are capped I think. A friend of mine who is an actual queen producer does that to eliminate the chance of capped cells being torn back down in the finisher. I think he also uses some kind of cell protectors to keep an early bloomer from spoiling a batch. An incubator would be good to have.

what temp and humidity would you keep an incubator with queen cells in it?

Optimal 92.2 - 93.2 F
RH is less sensitive 50-70 is probably fine.

What happens to the cell builder after you removed the first round of capped cells on the 10th day? Is it ready to be used right away? Do you split it up and put a fresh one together? Or do you simply keep adding fresh frames with capped brood to have a steady supply of hatching brood in the cell builder? Thank you for your time in putting this together David. I sure am excited to try grafting for the first time this spring!!

You can use it again right away, but as long as you are continuing to use it you need to give it at least one good frame of brood per week. When you place your new grafts you want them to be pretty much the only open brood in the hive, so ideally you give it frames of capped/emerging brood. Although there is almost always a few larva that they build queen cells from, so you have to check for those once a week too. Still, the maintenance doesn't take much time at all.

When you're finished queen rearing for the year just remove the queen includer (if used) and let a queen hatch into the cell builder - although you might want to put it into a larger hive setup first so that they don't immediately swarm.

I'm looking forward to this season too. Good Luck.

David what is the queen includer used for?

It's between the bottom board and the hive body - to keep a lost virgin from taking over. If you have a separate mating yard it is less needed than if your mating nucs are close.

I am SOOOO thankful that there's this kind of info here and it isn't deleted after a given ammt. of time. Barry hat's off to you!!! :applause: Here is a thread I was following a couple years back. There's a TON of good info on this thread from Joseph Clemens and others.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...o-great-queens

David, I would like to echo all the words of appreciation that have already been shared here. I am preparing to start 'down the road' of queen rearing this Spring. And this thread has answered a lot of my questions. Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Thanks for a great post Dave. Im going to try my hand at it this year. Really appreciate the tread. CU Dave

David,

Can you inspect too often?

I like Deans configuration. I am wondering if frames of stores flanking the cell bar & stores overhead would be a good way to go.

What is your pollen sub/syrup recipe?

When nurse bees become foragers, move cell builder & replace with weak nuc? Assuming you maintain a store supply.
Sponge w/H2o? for hydration?

Cage capped cells & leave in starter?

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Originally Posted by lakebilly

Can you inspect too often?

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I don't think you are too likely to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lakebilly

I like Deans configuration. I am wondering if frames of stores flanking the cell bar & stores overhead would be a good way to go.

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You should try it.

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Originally Posted by lakebilly

What is your pollen sub/syrup recipe?

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8% protein mega bee candy

1.25 cups water
1/2 liquid oz veg oil or shortening
5 pounds sugar
1 pound straight mega bee powder - without sugar already added.

Even though you don’t have to heat this to the very high temps that some recipes call for it will still burn you very badly if you get it on you – wear gloves, safety glasses, use a long spoon to stir, and if you use a mechanical mixer of any kind protect yourself from the possibility that you will slop some out. For Pete’s sake don’t do this in tee shirt and shorts.

a cordless drill with one of the blades from a powered hand mixer chucked in it is very helpful – almost essential, because it will be very thick after adding the megabee until you get it mixed.

In a large container bring the water and oil to a boil.

Leave heat on high.

Add 5 pounds of sugar, bring the mixture back to a boil stir pretty much constantly.

Remove from heat and add the mega bee. mix then pour out into mold. I use brownie tins sprayed with pam. In a few hours to a day or two it will set to the consistency of a sugar cube and will come out neatly.

This is what I feed as pollen sub, and it keeps really well in this hard candy form and isn't likely to be infested with hive beetle larva. To make patty to feed to weak hives or cell builders I crush some of this up and add a little bit of syrup to get the consistency I want

You can easily scale this up to make 30 pounds at a time - 25 lb sugar 5 lb megabee.

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Originally Posted by lakebilly

When nurse bees become foragers, move cell builder & replace with weak nuc? Assuming you maintain a store supply.
Sponge w/H2o? for hydration?

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No, you just keep adding emerging brood every week to keep the nurse be population up. It will get really strong with foragers too, but it isn't really a problem. But if you want to you can certainly move it to a new spot to leave behind the foragers if you want to.

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Originally Posted by lakebilly

Cage capped cells & leave in starter?

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I don't but it's probably a good idea.

Sorry I didn't see this question until just now.