Adding Bulk Bees to a Cell Builder

[Chef Isaac]

Is there any negative ramification on the queen of a cell builder if you shake in bulk bees?

[Velbert]

Make sure there is not a queen (would let them stay queen less over night)

If I had cells in the process of being built I would wait after they were finished ,THEN add the bulk bees

I would cage the queen just to be on the safe side (pace her in a cage by herself and fill the candy hole about half full just before put in the bulk bees.

Also I would take my small spray bottle filled with diluted syrup and give both the bulk bees a good spraying and also the cell builder. Then dump them in.

[Michael Palmer]

Is there any negative ramification on the queen of a cell builder if you shake in bulk bees?

Velbert gave some good tips. I would add one more.

When adding bees to a cell builder...before graft, not after...you should use a shaker box. This is nothing more than a wood bound excluder nailed to the bottom of a good hive body...no holes. Place on cell builder, and shake nurse bees from other colonies...off open brood. You never know when there may be a second or even third queen in your donor colony. If you fail to see her, your cell builder will be a failure.

[wayacoyote]

So, Michael, this is just a way of making sure the queen isn't shook in? Something like that is used when making a package, too?

[Michael Palmer]

So, Michael, this is just a way of making sure the queen isn't shook in? Something like that is used when making a package, too?

Sort of the same thing. Same principle, anyway. With a package, if you happen to get a queen, its not really a big deal. Loss of caged queen I would guess. With a cell builder it means disaster. Finding the queen doesn't insure that there wasn't a second queen.