Queen right cell builders

[WG Bee Farm]

In reviewing the comments of this list, I have not heard of many that use a queen right cell builder.
Is there anyone that uses this approach.
Frank Wyatt

[Chef Isaac]

Dan does.

A cloake board works very nicely.

[peggjam]

I don't. I might start taking the cells out when capped and putting them into an incubator though.

[Dan Williamson]

I use the Cloake board as Chef mentioned.

I put the Cloake board on about 4 days to a week before graft to get the bees accustomed to that entrance. I move as much young larvae above the excluder 2-3 days before graft as I can....1 day before graft I slide in board to make the top box(es) queenless. I take out the young larvae leaving young nurse bees in starter/finisher. i put cells into polish and make sure there is enough pollen/nectar. The next day I graft and 24 hrs later I remove the slide after cells where started making the cell builder queenright. They stay in the queenright colony above the excluder most of the time until I pull the cells and place in nucs. If I need to do another graft I have always waited to move them when the cells are capped.

This has worked well for me. I basically follow the method Sue Coby outlined in a 2 part article that she wrote for ABJ.

[WG Bee Farm]

The method I am asking about uses a two story hive body set up and a queen excluder. No slide is used as in the cloake system.
I have been using this set up since '99 and have yet to see anyone else that has tried it.
Just curious?
Seems natural with less disturbance to the hive and I can even continue to collect honey from this starter during a honey flow.
Good day.
Frank Wyatt

[bjerm2]

I take the queen right hive, put all the brood in an upper story without the queen. I then put the queen on the bottom box with empty frames and some sealed brood, next queen excluder, next an empty box with frames, next the box with all the young and sealed brood.
Now what happens is all the field bees go to the bottom and take care of the queen. She can not come up to the top to the brood. The empty box keeps her separated from the nurse bees who now think they are queenless. I then give them queen cells to work on. There is no loss in production since there is no disruption in colony growth or strength. If you want to play you can then set another queen excluder above the empty box and allow one queen to emerge to help in doubling the hive population for the fall and winter. You can replace the old queen then.
Dan

[Brandy]

I would be interested to have you expand a little on your set up Frank. There are many ways but obviously one's with minor disturbance would be interesting to hear about.

[JohnK and Sheri]

Frank, I think we use the same system you do but we use a double excluder for added insurance. We start our grafts in a queenless broodless nuc then after about 24 hours transfer them to the queenright colony to finish until ready to put the cells in mating nucs. Works great.
Sheri