Queen cells on PF-120

[tsk]

About 1 week ago I noticed a lack of eggs in one of my hives and following some advice from Mr. Bush, I tossed in a frame of eggs from another hive. A few days later I repeated with another frame because I hadn't noticed activity on the first frame. Now I've got about 15 queen cells on the 2 frames. I'd like to salvage at least a few of these queen cells for another nuc, etc. I'd cut them out but they are on PF-120 plastic frames. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to best save some queens?

Thanks.

[Joseph Clemens]

Grow them in cell cups or on all beeswax combs instead of combs with plastic foundations.

[stajerc61]

Try a surgical scalpel and a strong steady hand and like Joseph stated get beeswax combs next time.

[Bees&Wood]

You said "save some for another nuc"....you may mean more than one, but why can't you just take one frame w/ cells out of their current hive and stick in the nuc? At least that way you should be able to produce 2...

I'm glad you brought up this "problem" to the forum, I had been thinking about getting some plastic foundation and introducing to my hives to see how it worked. But if you try to raise your own queens on a smale hobby scale, the plastic foundation frames may give one less options in terms of introducing eggs and using cells...

[David LaFerney]

There was another thread showing where someone put push in cages over the cells and then used the virgins after they emerged. Or just use one frame to each nuc. Getting them off of plastic without damage would prob take a surgeon.

[tsk]

I used the plastic frames just because an "emergency" arose and those were what my hives have mostly right now (trying to regress). For real queen rearing I'd use foundationless.

I'm hoping to get more than 2 queens out of this (I realized I could put the second frame in a nuc). I think I'll try making up some screens. That's what I had thinking was the best option. I'll give it a shot and see how it turns out. I'll definitely relocate one of the frames out so even if things go awry, I'll end up with 2 queens worst case scenario.

Thanks.