# Peculiarities of Wax Queen Cups



## djastram (May 1, 2011)

http://youtu.be/TndhwzduIao

Marginally informative.


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## dbest (Aug 9, 2005)

His guys put them side by side. 17 to a bar 3 bars on a frame.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Jay Smith says 1/4" gap between...


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I've read 7/8" but that may be 'on center.'


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

That would come to about 7/8" o.c.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Good video Djastram, that's pretty much what I used to do when I was commercial, although the cells were closer together, and they got attched to the bar via melted wax, not a soldering iron.

Wow you bought a pound of cells Sol? Look out America!! Sol's queens are on the way!


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## BGhoney (Sep 26, 2007)

I have been dipping my own cups for a couple of years now, dont see the reason to buy any. Just take a plastic cup down to the hardware store and slip your plastic cup onto the correct sized dowel. then I cut them about 4 inches long and smoothed the ends. I hand dip them 1 at a time but it goes quick. I can make a batch of 50 in about 15 minutes. dip your dowel in water to keep the wax from sticking to it. Then i drip hot wax on my bar and stick the cups on it, draw a line on your dowel so you don't dip them to deep, its much easier to graph into a shallow cup than a deep one.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

I used all wax last year. I did find it beneficial to dip the bars in syrup and place them in the cell builder 24hrs before grafting. The bees smoothed out the cups nicely. I made my own cups, but the ones I have bought in the past had weird inconsistencies in the base of the cells, so would probably benefit as well.

I make mine like Malka Queens. BGhoney, do this and you can increase your output by at least 5 times. see http://youtu.be/w5LzXXVkA10


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Nice video of a very efficient technique.


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

When I did mine I held each cup gently with a curved pair of needle nose pliers and used a lighter to heat up the bottom and stick it to the cell bar. Worked out pretty easy. I just spaced them out with maybe a half inch between each one. Got 16 cells on the bar.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

MichaelW said:


> I used all wax last year. I did find it beneficial to dip the bars in syrup and place them in the cell builder 24hrs before grafting. The bees smoothed out the cups nicely. I made my own cups, but the ones I have bought in the past had weird inconsistencies in the base of the cells, so would probably benefit as well.


I'm concerned about the white powdery stuff that's on the wax. Will that cause any problems? Anyone else recommend putting them in the hive for a day?


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

I made up my starter hive in the morn. I did go ahead and place the cups in the hive at that time. I left them closed up until after I picked up my son from school that afternoon. Because he wanted to help. The bees did clean up the cups during that time.


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