Quees rearing equipment to buy

[Brooklyn]

I would like to try and raise queens this year. I have decided to use the cloak method. Other then the cloak boards what type of equipment should I look at.

I run all mediums 8 Frame.

JZBZ ? what ones? What frames to get?

I have looked at
Nucs
Mimi Nucs
Wax nucs
Wooden nucs
Queen Castles
Drone comb etc
I am still confused at what to get.

Please give me some pointers and ideas
Spring is coming fast
Brooklyn

[fish_stix]

If you're only raising a few queens for yourself then nuc boxes/standard frames are the way to go for mating nucs. Reason; reusable for other purposes like swarm traps, splits, etc. You can use divider boards in your mediums to split them into 2 or 3 mating nucs, but I prefer dedicated nuc boxes. The cell bar frame is easily made from a regular wood frame with cleats to hold the cell bars. Cell bars can be made from a bottom bar trimmed to fit the inside of the frame. Use the JZBZ plastic cell cups like 99% of others are using. Get a bag of JZBZ cell protectors for installing the cells in your nucs; the type that hang between the frames (orange color) are easiest to use. Unlike many others, I recommend you get a good stainless grafting needle and practice grafting every day! You'll learn real quick, and it will not harm your bees to steal a few dozen practice larva each day. The day before grafting place the cell bars in the cell builder and let the bees clean and polish the cell cups. Most importantly, you need a strong overflowing cell builder hive to raise cells.

[ChristopherA]

One of the things that bothers me is you have to buy video instruction seperate from the kits. One would thing they would have the video in the kit version. I plan on grafting using HnL Farms old fashion way based on their training video. I would also like to compare results without grafting, but a supply not providing a training video kind of makes me wonder if they back their products.

I have heard and watched videos of queens escaping from various breeding methods...so I do wonder.

[Michael Bush]

If you only want a few queens and don't want to spend money:
http://bushfarms.com/beesafewgoodqueens.htm

If you want to raise more:
http://bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm

What you need is something for nucs, but that can be your standard equipment and I would recommend something that takes your standard brood frames. The easiest way to set up mating nucs is a frame of brood and a frame of honey from a strong hive, or one you're willing to break up (perhaps a weak hive) into nothing but mating nucs.

[ChristopherA]

MB I religiously read your website, great source of info!