Queen Cell Production Drop off

Here in Mississippi all the breeders quit raising queens when heat hits in June. I don't know if its a problem getting starter/finishers to work or problems with the mating nucs.

Noticed that Bweaver doesn't have any to ship after end of June.

I would like to raise a few for fall requeening but don't know if it will work.

Johnny

Yuleluder said:

Its time to try some different techniques.

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How are you setting up your cell builders now?

Michael Palmer said:

How are you setting up your cell builders now?

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Previously I was using five frame nuc deeps with a frame of pollen/honey, frame of honey, three frames of emerging brood along with shaking bees into the nuc. A few weeks back I broke down a four deep colony into a single and got some really nice sized cells. I tried the same thing a couple of weeks back and only got 8 cells out of 50 and then again this week I got 5. I also setup another builder using two five frame deep nucs with plenty of honey and that particular builder rejected all 50 of my grafts, but built five cells on one of the frames. Go figure.

Yuleluder said:

Previously I was using five frame nuc deeps with a frame of pollen/honey, frame of honey, three frames of emerging brood along with shaking bees into the nuc.

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Are you feeding them thin syrup until the cells are sealed?

Michael Palmer said:

Are you feeding them thin syrup until the cells are sealed?

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I'm going to make up a couple cell builders today and add a deep frame feeder with 1:1 syrup. Hopefully I will get some good cells. I'm also going to setup a two deep hive with a cloake board along with a deep frame feeder.

I assume you are keeping the grafts covered with a damp cloth if grafting in excessive heat?

I use the cell starter then move into a cell finisher(two deep with queen confined to the bottom box with an excluder). My cell starter works great nearly all the grafts get accepted, however the cell finisher gave me queen cells that have little to no royal jelly. Anyone have some tips to get better fed cells?

Leave them in the starter til capped.

Michael Palmer said:

Are you feeding them thin syrup until the cells are sealed?

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Michael what do you consider thin syrup? and should you start feeding them before you add the grafts?

My last batch did have a reduced take, only about 65% of the grafts were built out. And it has been getting very hot so thinking maybe I should start feeding them a day before placing the grafts in the cell builder?

BerkeyDavid said:

Michael what do you consider thin syrup? and should you start feeding them before you add the grafts?

My last batch did have a reduced take, only about 65% of the grafts were built out. And it has been getting very hot so thinking maybe I should start feeding them a day before placing the grafts in the cell builder?

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I feed 1:1. Start feeding the day before grafting and feed until the cells are sealed...5 days after graft.

I should talk about my cell building methods. I'll start another thread.

Thanks Michael, your comments are greatly appreciated.

>The flow has come to a screaming halt and we have not had rain in a few weeks along with temperatures above 95F.
>A few weeks ago they were producing cells like mad women, now nothing...

Well you already figure out the cause. No flow. Food has to be abundant to get a lot of cells.