# Queen Cell Incubator



## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Any incubator will work fine. But you can hatch them with better results and with the nutrition necessary for quality queens if you place the cells in a "hatchery frame" and place them in a queenless colony... 

Here is one that honeyrun apiaries sells...
http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/store/nursery-frame-p-242.html

You can easily make one out of a standard frame and use California mini cages to put the cells in... this will give you the option of taking however many queens that you need, when ever you want and installing them with ease... very convenient...

Honey run also makes an incubator...
http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/store/queen-cell-incubator-frame-p-248.html

I strongly recommend finishing cells in a finisher instead of an incubator... and even more strongly recommend hatching virgins in a bank frame or "hatchery frame" in a strong queenless colony so they can be cared for immediately after emergence... 

Hope this helps.


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## NY_BLUES (May 14, 2009)

Dr Russell,

Thank you for your incite and wisdom. I am looking into options for expanding my queen rearing operation and this information will be very useful. I do like the idea of the hatchery frame, that's a great idea.


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## LT (Aug 17, 2006)

When I was asking questions about queen rearing I mentioned an incubator. The knowledgeable old timer said what if a storm comes thru or something else wipes out the power. You have lost all income for that batch. Wonder who gave that advice?


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

I've used the hatchery frames by Honeyrun Apiaries and a homemade similar cage. They work very well if placed in a strong queenless hive as Mr. Russell said. My only problem was in introducing the virgins to the mating nucs; didn't have near the success as just giving them a cell.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

LT, lol. You should have seen his face when I first converted a gqf incubator with a dc (cigarette lighter adapter) into a cell incubator for transporting cells to islands and out yards...  I had used swarm boxes packed tight with bees up till then, but there was always a concern of too much heat for the bees and too much banging around for the cells. 

Fish, I have found that keeping the nucs just a tad on the "needy" side made them accept virgins much better... but since shb, that is not really a possibility anymore, so a full 24 hrs caged in California mini cages and sometimes a full 48 hrs works well for me.


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## johnblagg (May 15, 2011)

a small inverter and a car battery will solve power issues ...get one of the computer ups systems and use it ..power goes off it takes over automaticly.I alway get into mine and add new leads so I can use it with a car battery ....charger is built in as well


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## adamf (Jan 28, 2006)

NY_BLUES said:


> I am thinking of building a queen cell incubator for use in the coming years. I would like to build something, modifying a egg incubator.
> 
> A little background:
> 
> ...


The estimate above is accurate for 100% take/mating.
I'd beef up the number you graft and mate, to cover the unknown.

Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com


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## adamf (Jan 28, 2006)

rrussell6870 said:


> Fish, I have found that keeping the nucs just a tad on the "needy" side made them accept virgins much better... but since shb, that is not really a possibility anymore, so a full 24 hrs caged in California mini cages and sometimes a full 48 hrs works well for me.


Yep. 
There's a myth that introducing virgins is difficult. Not so: introduce to needy, queenless bees, and time the emergence with amount of candy you place in the cage. You'll be surprised how good your take will be. I've never had good luck with mini-cages though. I find having 5 or so attendants in a jzbz cage is just right.

Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

What exactly do you mean by needy? Weak population?


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Weak as in "off balance"... low on population, brood, or food... basically any of these will cause them to be "needy"... the most effective means is to make them low on brood and food... this can be done by exchanging brood or honey frames with empties in the nucs... my father used to explain this by simply saying that "the more you keep them messed up, the harder they will work to correct it"... and he was right... by knocking them off balance, they will move into "correction mode"... this is when they seem to work double time at every task in the hive, whether it be comb building, relocating stores, cell production, or in this case accepting and caring for a new queen. For example, if you pull a brood frame from the center of the cluster before there is ever a nectar flow, they will create a new one in its place in record time... if you place an empty super between the brood chambers and the honey stores, they will move the stores down or the chamber up to get back into balance, even if it means aborting the latest eggs and small larvae to do so...


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## NY_BLUES (May 14, 2009)

Adamf-

After reviewing my numbers again, and rethinking my method, I seed that you hit the nail on the head with my numbers, I was not counting on unknowns, like loosing queens on mating flights, weak brood, non emergence and other countless things that can happen. It seems I should graft 20-25 queens a week for the summer, not 15-20 like I previously stated. Thanks for helping me see my error.


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