Thanks to everyone who has given such insightful responses. It's good to know there are several individuals on here that are so interested in helping.
I use one queenless nuc box to start and finish my cultured queen cells. . . Even if there is plenty of pollen coming in, I still like to feed pollen substitute patties of my own recipe.
I have been reading about the advantages and disadvantages of using a queen-less cell builder with a queen-right cell finisher over using a queen-less starter and finisher. Generally, from what I have read, the queen-right finisher has the ability to provide better nutrition to the grafts. I may end up trying a queen-less finisher, but the jury is still out on that one.
Like others on here, I would be interested in knowing your patty recipe. If you are willing to share it, that is. I've tried feeding patty supplements in the past, but I've found the bees will only take them if it's too cold to fly (late fall and early spring [or winter]). Right now they can get pollen off of weeds, which still tastes better than any substitute I can give them. If I knew of a better mixture, however, that may be different.
specialkayme ; I think more bees in the starter. . . I also put a wet sponge in the bottom of the nuc box they need moisture to make RJ. Also two days prior to shaking the bees I feed Honey-B-Healthy with 1:1 sugar water
when there is no flow going on I feed 1;1 sw with HBH AND POLLEN sub about four days befor I put together my starter
I have been putting as many nurse bees in the starter as could fit. I don't know if I would say it was FOUR POUNDS worth (as I was going with Dr. Connor's estimate of one pound of nurse bees for every 10 grafts, so if I was doing about 20 grafts I would put in about 2.5 lbs of bees, to be on the safe side). I guess I could always ramp that up a little more.
I havn't been putting a wet sponge in the bottom of the nuc box . . . and I don't know why I hadn't. I'll have to start doing that.
I'm assuming that with shaking 4 lbs of bees in the swarm box you are taking from multiple colonies, correct? So when you start feeding with HBH two days prior to the shake, do you feed all your colonies? Or just the ones you
know you will shake from? Obviously, same issue goes when there is no flow on, do you feed all your colonies pollen substitute and HBH, or just ones that you suspect you will shake from? Even with no flow on, do they still take the pollen substitute? Try as I might, they just won't touch the stuff if they can get ANY pollen from the outside.
So when there is no flow the finisher should be drip fed constantly, without a break.
I have noticed queen rearing in the spring (with the really only flow we have - tulip poplar) is much easier than the rest of the season. The challenge for me is since after May, we don't really have any flow. That's a long time to try to simulate a flow.
It sounds like several of you feed for multiple days BEFORE you graft. I hadn't heard of that before, and that may make the world of a difference.
In the starter, it's best to use combs of freshly gathered, unsealed honey, as this has a higher moisture level than capped honey
I don't know why, but for some reason I thought capped honey was better. Kinda like the difference between a cake and cake batter, lol. Very good to know from now on though, and when I can use uncapped honey, I will. Do you know of any suggestions to help the bees break down the capped honey though? For times when you don't have any uncapped available? Or would a wet sponge in the nuc box be sufficient?
But they will not become monsters in a 2 frame nuc.
My desire is not only to get large queens, but large cells as well. My cells thus far have been small to average. My swarm cells are larger, which does tell me I'm not doing something right. But I'm aware that the queen in a 2 frame box will not be as fully developed as a queen in a full colony. However, for evaluation purposes I'm not able to put EVERY queen that I raise into a full colony before I cull the small and undesirable ones.
Consider setting up your drone hives 2 miles from your queen breeder hives
I wish I could JRB, lol. I don't really have access to that kind of land though. I'm working on keeping hives at surrounding farmer's lands, as a type of mutually beneficial agreement. But that takes time, and I don't know I'll be able to do it two miles in EVERY direction. It would be nice though.
just because a queen is big and fat doesn't make her a great queen.
I'm not in disagreement that there are a number of outliners, in both directions, but studies particularly done by Dr. Tarpy at NC State University have shown that larger queens on average have more ovarioles, can produce more eggs per day, and can produce more pheromones. Again, while this isn't always true, the trend appears to be that the larger, the more potential.
I noticed that you said you don't prime your cells. Consider trying it for a few batches.
I have considered it, but again the jury is out. I don't have an inexpensive and reliable source of RJ to prime with. I will start collecting it from my own swarm cells and culled grafts next season, but that still puts me one session behind, if you know what I mean. So, for the time being, since I don't have RJ available, I can't really prime with it. I've also heard of using a yogurt mixture, but I've heard just as many bad things about it's use as good things.
I've also heard that RJ doesn't keep it's nutritional content for very long, so once you capture it and freeze it or refrigerate it, it isn't as good any more. Probably better than nothing, but half nutritional content RJ isn't as good as full nutritional content RJ (which the nurse bees hopefully should be able to develop themselves).
I think if I knew of a not so expensive and reliable source of RJ, I would try it next season. Good thing I have all winter to find it, lol.
How many queens do you want to raise?
Right now I'm interested in learning. I want to make enough queens to supply my growth and get the foundation laid for making good queens. Once I can make great queens and I'm satisfied with the output, I intend to sell them. Eventually I would like to make about 10 queens every two weeks. Once demand catches up with supply, I'll probably double that, and see where it goes from there.
Not a simple answer, I know, and I'm sorry. But if I were to break it down, I think about 20 queens a season for this year, 20-30 queens for next season, and 10 a week for the following season. Do you think that is a good, yet slow and reasonable progression?