Queen rearing: What are your methods for grafting, cell building/finishing colonies..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oldtimer

Very interesting JBJ, I've tried various methods of starting cells in a queenright hive, with mixed results. Never put the cells in the 4th box among brood though, but can see it may work, I'll give it a shot.

To me the main problem would be rogue cells on the upstairs brood, I guess you'd have to go through it every few days. How does it work during a heavy honey flow, when the bees have lost interest in swarming and want to choc out that top box with honey?

---

If you give them plenty of cells to work promptly their impulse will be satiated and they do not start many rogue cells. By the time the unit is up to its second graft there is only one box with eggs to monitor and we like to check it on day three and again on day 6. We have never had a problem during a flow. The cells are only in there 6 days and then the unit is reworked ASAP. There should be so much brood up there they can not plug it out until it hatches. On really intense flows it helps to give some foundation to reduce webbing between the cells. We want to see the units making lots of fresh wax, otherwise they will be challenged in making decent cells.

Reworked? As in made back into a normal hive, or more brood lifted up?

Depends on the time of the year. If its go time and we need a lot of cells fast we just catch the queen and start the cycle over. Depending on how hard we are pushing them we may have to add some brood periodically to keep them jam packed. I like to see so many bees festooning in the slot to receive the grafts that the frame barely fits and can just gently settle in.

Oldtimer,

I have seen pics of your queen contaiment excluder. how did you get such a clean & precise bend for that?

I would love to use that. like to see in detail how you made it.

Lakebilly, this link might help. Mine is a Mann Lake plastic queen excluder cut up, hot glued, and nailed in place.
http://s1110.beta.photobucket.com/us...tml?sort=6&o=3

How often do you check in
You check 2 days after graft,too see if they took.
Then?

If your using open brood you have to keep an good eye out for rogue queen cells. If I put open brood in it's only one frame and gets replaced with a cell bar frame when I put in my grafts.

Lakebilly, I just bent the excluder over the edge of the bench, before sliding it into the groove in the box. Adrian has made an excellent job of the one he did also, the pic he linked shows it very well.

This is a great thread. Getting to read everyone’s beekeeping strategies is a privilege. I have a question that is asked in this post but I feel like I am still unsure. Whenever I grafted a few times before I just put the cells in a queen less hive... This time I caged some nurse bees in a swarm box for the first time. Normally I don't cage the bees but since I have a well ventilated swarm box I tried it. I read contemporary queen rearing and if I am comprehending properly ... the next step is to put them over another colony with a division board keeping them caged still until I am ready to take the cells out and use them. The cells are coming out very well so far and I was wondering why I need to put them over another hive. If I continue to give them fresh syrup and keep a moist sponge in the cell starter can I keep them in there till Sunday when I move the cells to a queen castle and some mating nucs? I am only doing one round of grafts. Can I keep the cells in the cell starter with caged nurse bees and one frame of emerging brood till the end? I realizes on page 70 a starter can be a finisher so I guess I will be alright. Still getting my head around this.. Thanks. :)

The reason they are normally transferred to an unlocked hive is because level of care drops off if the bees are kept confined, generally, the bees work well for the first 24 hours then things start going down hill after that.

Thank You for responding Oldtimer. I appreciate you taking the time to help me with my uncertainty. Caging the bees worked so well to start the cells that it seemed like I could leave them caged although instinctually I want to see them with an entrance. It is day 4 now and the cells are looking close to capped so I opened the entrance up so the bees can get out and back in. It is raining now but tomorrow they will be able to fly. I am excited to what these new queens look like.

Thanks, and I've been following those videos you post on youtube! :)

Just make sure they are not close to another hive, the bees will drift if they can find one with a queen in. It is important the capped cells are kept at the right temperature, so if you feel the bees are drifting & there aren't enough, just transfer the cells to a normal hive, between two or more good combs of brood, over an excluder, with the queen below the excluder.

Keep us updated! :)

:) Thanks and Thanks for checking out my videos:) I'll post more. I will be working all day tomorrow so hopefully they won't drift too much. I was wondering why the cell starter goes over another hive... It is for the temperature control... plus lets the young bees visit the cells if they aren't capped. That makes sense. It has been cold here so I instinctively have been aware of the coldness on the larvae and stuff. I will let you know how it goes. This is the earliest I have tried to raise queens and the coldest too. I really hope it works out that is why I have been re reading and asking questions and things. It seems like the questions never stop. I appreciate the help. I really love the bees. They are in my dreams and things:)