# Easy no grafting method for rearing a few queens



## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

The very first time I grew a batch of cells, I'm afraid I grafted. But, I could have let them complete without grafting, though I wouldn't have gotten the genetics I wanted.

My first batch of cultured queen cells were produced in a strong colony that I had made queenless a few days before. They had several new foundationless combs that were with eggs and newly hatching eggs (young larvae). After the queenless bees had begun many queen cells throughout the hive, I went through the hive and destroyed all the queen cells except those that looked the best and were on just one frame. I also destroyed any cells that seemed smaller or were too close together. Then I removed the resident larvae and grafted/replaced them with tiny larvae from my chosen mother queen. After they were ripe I harvested all but one, leaving one to requeen the cell growing colony. This process could have been performed by giving a strong, recently queenless colony a frame of eggs from my chosen mother queen, and avoided the grafting step, just eliminating any cells that appeared less than ideal, or which were in too close of proximity to each other.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

Any way you can hang one day old larva vertically will work if you keep them covered with nurse bees and excess resources and eliminate queen pheremone!


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## n1rcv (Dec 8, 2010)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

Check out http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm. 

Michael Bush has a nice web site about beekeeping and a lot of info about no graft queen rearing. I plan on trying his system next spring.

Have a good day.

William


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## BiG T (Oct 25, 2010)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

Check out this where you notch the cells looks pretty easy ...http://www.mdasplitter.com/


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## delber (Dec 26, 2010)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

http://www.beesource.com/resources/...queen-cells-without-grafting-cut-cell-method/

This is a GREAT read and option. I've tried it this year w/ success. I only needed 1 queen so the process was a bit refined, but I pretty much followed what "oldtimer" said only I didn't use a starter / finisher, but allowed the hive that needed the queen to rear their own w/ the genetics that I chose. Very cool!!!


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## oldreliable (Jan 29, 2011)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

Split a hive..the new now queen less hive with produce several queen cells...a day or 2 before they are due to hatch..cull (cut out )several of the nice cells out and place on in each not nuc box with 2-3 frames of bees, brood and stores..in a couple of days you have a new virgin queen.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

The Nicot method is my non-grafting preference. It has a few drawbacks and costs around $80 or so. Mann Lake and Better Bee offer it. Jetner is similar and Dadant sells an EZI queen rearing kit.

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*



oldreliable said:


> Split a hive.


If you read the MDA Splitter information, Mel is rather adamant to NOT split a hive. It is better to remove the queen and a frame of bees to a "nuc in repose" leaving a strong hive to build several queen cells. Once queen cells are capped, then split. You end up with better queen cells than if you asked a 2-frame nuc to try and make them.

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

Here is a way that I like that has produced good queens for me.
A healthy 2 box hive, split the boxes with a queen excluder. In the top box, put the frames of youngest open larva and eggs, with frames of pollen/open nectar in between each frame of larva/eggs. The queen goes below in the bottom box. Put a frame of foundation in the bottom box aso, in the center, with the rest of the frames that were not used in the top box. 

In 7 days, remove the bottom box to a new stand. Leave the top box in place, checking each frame very carefully and destroying any queen cells found. Also, take that frame of foundation you put in that queens box a week ago and and lightly shake it or brush off most bees and make sure queen is not on it, and put it in the old top box on the old stand in the center of the box. This frame should now be drawn, it is a tender virgin wax frame, with eggs and hatching larva on it. This box now has all the field force bees so feeding should not be needed unless you are in a dearth. It also is a full box of nurse bees as this box had all the pollen needed to feed larva, so nurse bees from both the old boxes will be in it.

Now in 8 days you can inspect and count the queen cells on that frame. Choose the best looking ones. Make up nucs for them and give them a cell that you cut out of that frame. Be sure to leave one cell behind for to make a queen there too. I say in 8 days so this can be done on weekends, 7 days would work, but 10 days is better, the cells would be emerging the next day.

Now come back in 14 days to inspect for queens and eggs. If no eggs, wait one more week and check, there should be eggs by then. Then check again in three weeks, the queen should be stable and laying well then.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

Some good ideas. Some ways are more efficient when raising many queens, but overkill if a person just wants 2 or 3.

A basic to bear in mind, is that when "emergency" queens are raised and are inferior, it is usually when the larva is worked out of a cell sideways until the bees can eventually start extending the cell downwards. But an emergency raised queen can be perfectly good, if she is raised in a cell that points downwards from the outset. The bees will sometimes do this themselves by raising queen cells at the edge of a comb, or at a damaged part. But the best part of the comb for a queen to be raised is in the centre, where temperature is right, and there are max nurse bees.

This is easily done by a small beekeeper wanting maybe a couple of queens. Take a comb of eggs / just hatched larvae, and using a knife or similar, scratch some sections of cell walls away, right down to the foundation, immediately below some suitable larvae to raise cells from. The bees can now build high quality cells by hanging those larvae straight down the comb.

The cell building should be done in a strong hive that you have temporarily moved all other brood from, and the queen. Give this hive a couple of days to get the cells started, then soon as you see they are started, the hive can be reunited with it's brood and queen, with the queen below an excluder and the cells above. No newspaper is needed, the bees have not been seperated long and will unite peacefully. You should also put at least one frame of unsealed brood on each side of the frame with the queen cells to attract nurse bees to the area.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

I've read the main problem with emergency queens is not being able to tear down the cell wall on older comb. With Rays idea using fresh foundation there shouldn't be a problem.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

*Re: Easy no gratfing method for rearing a few queens*

This past season, this year, I did this with very good results.
This is emergency queen cells, but I call it the enhanced walk away split method because a couple of things 'stack the deck' in our favor for getting better queens from emergency method.
I choose a hive that is not going to be a gangbuster hive but is a so-so hive. The queen I don't want so I pinch her. This was a 8 frame deep single box hive with 6 or so frames of bees. I moved 3 frames with open nectar and pollen into a 4 frame nuc and put in the fourth frame eggs and just hatching eggs and young larva. I left this nuc in place of the hive and distibuted the rest of the frames to other hives, after shaking off all the bees into the nuc.

3 days before this, I had gone to my strongest most crowded hive that I wanted queens from, and inserted a frame of foundation into the center of the broodnest where there were eggs found, so that is where the queen is laying. The bees drew out the frame and the queen started laying in the frame.

4 Days after making up the cell builder nuc, I check the queen hive with foundation to see if any eggs were in it. This was during a good nectar flow and the bees have been drawing out the foundation and there were eggs and some were hatching. I took it and gently moved the bees off with my hive tool (the hive lifter tool or J tool has a straight edge, I use it as bees don't like to be brushed) and took that frame to the nuc. I opened the nuc and inspect all frames for queen cells. The frame with eggs had cells. I remove that frame and then insert the virgin wax frame with hatching eggs.

Ten days later I make up nucs in the morning. Then I goto the nuc and remove that frame and it has many nice large queen cells... They were made on virgin wax, and when that frame was inserted, the bees in the cell builder were fully producing royal jelly, as I had left them in emergency mode with a frame of eggs 4 days before. And being made in virgin wax, it is more easy for them to tear down the wax and make a down hanging queen cell more easily. Also, it was virgin wax on plastic foundation. I cut out 3 or 4 nice cells just using my hive tool and put them in nucs, and left the frame back into the cell builder with few good cells still left on it.

I checked back in 4 days, and the virgins were very large and nice looking, very large for virgins I thought, so they were obviously very well fed when reared.

I got this idea from several sources, some of it came from the older books you can read on Michael Bush's website and some of it came from people posting in the forums here, in particular Joseph Clemens thread postings have been very helpful. I've found the most important thing, or one of the most, is the cell builder. It took me a few tries to be good at setting up a cell builder and getting it in shape to draw queen cells imediately.


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