[aran]

So i grafted yesterday and like usual i figured i had royally screwed it up. It takes me forever, i waste a bunch of larvae, i damage the comb a ton and i always feel like none will be accepted. Thankfully my bees pity my grafting skills and i typically get 75-80% acceptance and this appears to be the case again this time.
However i would really like to feel like im getting better at this and i dont feel that way.
I see this weird tool on dadant website but i cant find any videos of anyone using it.

Has anyone tried it? does it work? IM happy to buy one if the bloody thing actually makes grafting more efficient and effective.

thanks in advance team.

 

[wildbranch2007]

I've got one if you want to try it, no matter what tool I used, I can get the lava on the tool, can't get them off correctly.

 

[aran]

I've got one if you want to try it, no matter what tool I used, I can get the lava on the tool, can't get them off correctly.

cheers Mike ill give it a whirl if you dont mind my borrowing it. The chinese grafting tool when i can get it to work is easy enough to get the larvae off. I grafted yesterday looks like 34/42 accepted. I just want to try and improve the process.

 

[JoshuaW]

I've got a master grafting tool, but the Chinese tool is my go-to.

What REALLY helps me is: (I use a queenless free-flying colony as my cell builder, with no open brood)
1) isolate the queen to get the right-age larvae: I cage her on a broodless comb on Monday evening under a cage I made from plastic queen excluder. Release her on Tuesday evening (24 hours later). Larvae are less than 18 hours old on Friday morning when I graft.
2) I place the comb into the cell builder at my convenience before the eggs hatch. The queenless bees put so much royal jelly in the newly hatched larvae that I can scoop out royal jelly instead of larvae; I don't have to hunt for proper-age larvae because the queen was confined.

Hope that helps, but I believe the real secret to a high acceptance rate is the number of young nurse bees of royal-jelly producing age.

 

[Muenster]

^^^ I put the grafting frame in the swarm box for several hours prior to grafting really seems to help

 

[AAIndigo]

The Joe May does a nice video on making the Chinese grafting tool more pliable. I hope to alter a few this week to see how it works.

 

[aran]

thanks all

 

[snapper1d]

I had a Master Grafting tool several years ago and loved it but some people I rented the other house to got into my stuff and trashed a lot of my stuff.I would prefer a master grafter over the chinese tool but then I dont graft as much anymore and chinese tools are cheap and work good.