[MWillard]

How long should you wait to introduce grafts in to a cell builder?

This past weekend, I created a cell builder and added grafted cells about and hour later. I checked the cells the next day and they did not accept any of them. As a matter of fact, the cells were empty without any sign of the grafted larva, they were removed.

Is there a rule of thumb on how long you should wait to introduce grafts?

Thanks

 

[beedeetee]

How did you make the cell builder? Was there brood in the cell builder? If so, then wait at least a couple of days to see which cells they are making into queen cells. Remove them and then perhaps wait a day before you introduce your graphs.

 

[BEES4U]

It helps if the cell builder has been fed for 3 days prior to grafting.
The bees removed the grafting because it was to early.
Most of us will work the cell builder the day before we graft the cells.
Make sure the cell builder has plenty of bees to produce royal jelly.

Ernie

 

[manfre]

I attended a queen rearing class and they stated you want to wait 24 hours to allow the bees to know they are queenless.

 

[BEES4U]

Work the cell builder at 9:00 AM or 4:00PM and graft the next day earlier or later than 9:00 AM.
No real difference in the # of cells accepted.
You have to consider a lot more in the answer than just time
Ernie

 

[bennybee]

I had the same experience this last week and it turned out that there was another queen in the cell builder above the excluder so I made another cell builder and put a graft in about an hour later and I had about 90% sucess rate. I always make my cell builder up 24 hrs. in advance but I didn't this time because I needed queens. I would recommend doing the cell builder the day before, this could have been a fluke.

 

[BerkeyDavid]

I remove the queen the day before. I do NOT remove open brood. IN fact I move some open brood up to the top box next to the cups that are in there to be polished (grafting frame), then next day when you graft and put the cups in with the grafted larva there will be lots of nurse bees close by ready to take over.

 

[beedeetee]

I do NOT remove open brood. IN fact I move some open brood up to the top box next to the cups that are in there to be polished (grafting frame), then next day when you graft and put the cups in with the grafted larva there will be lots of nurse bees close by ready to take over.

Do you leave the brood in there after you put your frame of grafts in? Strange how experiences are so different. When I made up a cell builder (with all capped brood) the day before adding graphs I got 40 cells (from eggs scattered over the frames that I didn't notice). Just none on the cell bar. Every frame had multiple queen cells. One frame had 13.

This year I made the cell builder by moving all brood to the upper box and move the queen below with an excluder between. After 9 days I moved the box that had the queen to another location leaving the cell builder queenless for a day. This method worked great.

 

[BerkeyDavid]

Maybe we're saying the same thing. I do leave the open brood next to the cell bar. I use the same hive for the starter / finisher. You do need to check for Q cells though. It is like using a cloak board. except queenless for one day.