Your last line says it all!!
I need it. I first tried grafting in 2015. The bees in my apairay still whisper rumors of the year of carnage. I gave up and tried Oldtimer's cut strip method in 2016. I tried grafting again in 2017. Since then I've gotten better at causing less carnage in the brood nest, but my kill to graft ratio is about 1:1. This is my third graft this year, each graft was 14 cups. First graft yielded one cell. Last graft yielded three cells which will be emerging in a couple of days. Fortunately I don't need a lot of queens, so I can get a few by grafting a lot. If I get three out of this graft I'll have all my nucs in use.Your last line says it all!!
I don't have a foam mini, but I do have a short three frame nuc box. It can't be too costly.splits can cost you....
a cup of bees in a foam mini (now on its 3rd round of queens) doesn't really
Even a rich cell starter is costly. Fortunately I had a packed hive. I found the queen, set her aside, and shook in six frames and it still looked like I hadn't taken any out. So I waited a few minutes and while the frames filled back up and shook in some more. Its the richest cell starter I have ever set up so I'm going to go ahead and let it be the finisher and then bust it up for the mating nucs.splits can cost you....
a cup of bees in a foam mini (now on its 3rd round of queens) doesn't really
its only costly if you use it to finish and bust up , the bees can go back to their hive in 24 hours so you only barrow them for a bit, once started the cells can be finished in a queen right hiveEven a rich cell starter is costly.
2 frame Dcoats nuc.... and now a whole gen is saying "barnyard".....lolI use Barnyard bees style two frame mating nucs. Those also aren't especially costly but that way I don't have to deal with what to do with mini-frames.
many of the issues with grafting have to do with the builder try some cut strip cells to check.I still suck at grafting and not getting better. I think I'm killing the larvae when I graft.
I used to have the same problem. I still may suck but I changed something this last time and got 29 of 43 acceptance. I watched Kamon's (Tennessee's Bees) youtube video on grafting where he used the RJ from queen cells that were started in the cell starter hive to prime the cups for grafting. It made grafting a lot easier and the grafted larva even looked a lot better in the cell cup floating in RJ.I still suck at grafting and not getting better. I think I'm killing the larvae when I graft.
Thanks for all that msl. I did try Oldtimer's cut strip method a couple of years back. I could certainly work for what I need. What I didn't care for was the need to first get some comb drawn, then sequester the queen to that one frame, and then cut and mount the strips with eggs in them. That turns out to be more work than just finding a frame with 1/2 day old larvae and grafting a bunch of it to cups, even if I have to graft a lot of cups to get what I needed. If I can get my acceptance rate up then I could do it with just one set up of a cell starter.many of the issues with grafting have to do with the builder try some cut strip cells to check.
https://beesource.com/resources/ele...queen-cells-without-grafting-cut-cell-method/
With the above thoughts in mind I've been considering a new (for me) approach, as although the weather forecast for the first week in September is looking fairly good, I'm none too confident of success this late in the year.Tim KS: Okay, now you guys got me in the mood to try a late split to see if I can get a couple of new queens mated..
msl : splits can cost you....
a cup of bees in a foam mini (now on its 3rd round of queens) doesn't really