Hi,
How do you know when it is safe to start grafting queens in a given area.
Timing in beekeeping is everything here.
You can do a test graft to see how they react to this process. When the weather
and condition is right then do more grafting. There is no 'safe' time frame here only
a continuous experiment every year to learn from. This year's weather is different from that of last year for queen rearing. Every year, either mental or calendar track down the month and date for this process will help.
what are the signs or signals that say it's time to start grafting?
Consistenet day temp in the lower 80s and upper 70s. A continuous blossom of flowers providing plenty of nectar and pollen. Seeing plenty of capped drones in your hives.
Time it down for the good weather mating flight.
When the bees are carrying resources in during the early Spring time plus continuous nice weather will do.
Is it when the day and night time temperatures reach a certain mark?
Yes, if it is too cold and rainy the queen and drones will not go out to mate.
So timing of the weather pattern is very crucial to this process. With consistent
temp. in the 70-80s would be ideal.
Is it when you see pollen coming in?
Not necessarily true because you can artificial feed to stimulate brood producion and drone production too. It all depends on how strong a colony you have coming out of the winter. In some area pollen come and goes while other areas have a continuous flow. It will help though if you can graft during a good flow. Hey, more resources will make better queens, right. Everything would help in this process.
Is it when the hive you want to graft from has X number of frames full of sealed brood....
Yes, seal brood it is but not the regular worker brood. We are looking for 5-6 frames of sealed drone broods. Also, other stronger hives already have released their drones into the area so by the time you start your graft it is too late. So time it down for your area is the key here. Timing, timing, timing!
I know there has to be drones flying by the time the queen is ready for here mating flights.
Yes, there are some stronger hives that send off drones earlier than your own hives.
Making stronger hives in the Spring time will help with drone rearing for an earlier
queen grafting.
I'm having a really hard time finding out when people in my area generally start grafting to produce queens for splits.
This is a secret that many don't want you to know in your area. Maybe too much competition I think. The old timer here that
I bought queens from every year don't want me to know either. By the time I bought queen from him in mid March he sold more than 50 of them already weeks ago in late Feb. Here I am trying to figure out how come I am so late? But I can figure that out with the pass of time.
I'm just north of Toronto in Ontario Canada.
In colder region with shorter season, timing is everything.
there is so much info on why and how to graft queens but not when to start specifically. I don't want to start too early or to late.
This is the timing part that you have to look for every year as the weather pattern is different from one year to another.
