IMN Queen Rearing System

[Roger Maddrell]

Has anyone tried the I.M.N. System of Queen Rearing advocated by Mel Disselkoen at http://www.mdasplitter.com/ and would like to comment on it It seems so simple that I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it earlier.

[beedeetee]

Do a search on here. You will find many, many comments about the method.

[Jon11]

I believe he calls it OTS (on the spot) queen rearing now. I haven't tried everything, but this past summer I had a couple of hives go queenless and I placed a frame of young brood in each one, notching them in the appropriate places, and they both have laying queens now. However, I never checked to see if the queen cells were made at the notches. And I'm pretty sure they hadn't just swarmed and were waiting for the virgin queen to start laying. It was at least 4 weeks after I added the frames that I found eggs and brood.

[Hillbillydog]

Roger the OTS method is what I have chosen for queen rearing
I am in my 3rd year of beekeeping last season I had 3 hives in the beginning of season Made 3 OTS splits the queens are doing much better than my purchased queens this far but winter has just began. It's to early for me to say more than it works and is simple.

[DonShackelford]

I used OTS this summer with good results. It doesn't produce as many cells as grafting, so that's probably why you don't hear more about it.
I have found using the corner of my hive tool allows more precision in breaking the bottom of the cell without disturbing the larvae.

The biggest issue I have with Mel's writings is they always start with "remove the old queen and 2 frames of brood". With my eyesight, that is quite a challenge. I use excluders to isolate the old queen and then remove that box. Blind beekeeping at its best!