[NUBE]

Nice, going to try some grafting myself this weekend. Do you feel the open brood is necessary? I’m planning to form the grafting nuc very similarly to how you described, but to leave out the open brood and add the grafts within an hour or so of forming the nuc.

 

[NUBE]

I’m going to stock the nuc with bees from one hive and graft from another. There will be several frames of bees shaken off of open brood frames to occupy the nuc. I was hoping that by having little open brood, if any, other than the grafts, that they would be inclined to flood those with royal jelly shortly after they are introduced.

 

[NUBE]

I see the idea behind using the open brood frame, but time constraints have me wanting to have the grafting frame in there the same day I make up the nuc. I’m only planning to do 10 grafts. Hoping to be able to come back the next weekend and, gently, remove the capped cells, place them in a cell protector, leave a couple in with the cell builder hive, and move a couple to a hive that is aggressive and is pissing me off after I pull the Queen.

I’m planning on moving that cell builder hive into an 8 frame deep when I place the cells in, then pull the Queen and a frame of brood from the aggressive hive and place them in the nuc to keep her on life support until I’m certain I have a mated queen return to either the cell builder colony or the colony I’m requeening due to aggression.

I consider aggression getting stung when I do inspections. That large hive I’d like to requeen has hit me once each of the last three weeks, so it’s not absolutely imperative that she be replaced as they aren’t “chase you out of the yard” aggressive, but they are definitely not as relaxed as my other 3 colonies. While I’m not terribly happy with that queen, I’d rather keep her alive until I’m 100% sure the big hive has requeened. If I don’t get a mated Queen back to one of the two hives I’ll have cells in, I’ll just reintroduce that queen back to her hive, and plot to kill her off first chance I get next year.