# Ben Harden Method of Raising Honey Bee Queen Cells



## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I'm very interested. Planning to do some grafting later in the spring.

The answer to your question is I believe contained in the article. It is not how the commercials do it. Not suited to consistently large numbers of queens.

Could you share some more of your experience?


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

The method will work when things are pumping, in fact sometimes I'll plonk a new batch of cells straight into a queenright finisher, you get a feel for if the bees will do it right. A strong finisher during swarm season will often do a good job of new cells that have not been in a queenless starter.

I suspect the reason he said it's not suitable for commercial beekeepers needing large numbers of queens will be that the method will not be consistant, because success rates will vary with the season.

I don't agree with the statements about bee numbers required, or at least feel they are misleading. Sure, 200 bees might be able to raise a queen. Will it be a good, well nourished one? Highly unlikely. A major component of raising good queens is lots of bees, and lots of food.


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## WVBees (Jun 10, 2011)

I hope to use this method in 3 weeks or so. sww can you tell me what your set up was before you began. I currently have 1 1/2 boxes and am trying to figure whether to go to 1 deep or put the extra box with the dummy frames in between. sww also what was your graft % take. I only need 10 queens so this is why I have chosen it.


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## OlofL (Jan 21, 2006)

Just be careful if you have a flow during the days after capping until you remove the cells because with this configuration the bees will build wax and honey around them which usually kill the queens. It might be a good idea to put a new super between the excluder and the cells and make sure that the supers on top are not filled.


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## sww (Jul 5, 2011)

wvbees i made two grafts last year one was in a single deep and one was in deep and a super both did really good .( was my first time grafting ) I had two hives got enough queens in two grafting to split up my 2 hives into 17 nucs all were laying and growing good till shb hit me in july ended up with 8. all 8 made it till as of now. put grafts in march 1 2012 took a peek in just now and they are drawing out nicely im not in it to sell queens so what a commercial beekeeper does dont apply to me i like the idea of keeping my hive going on as normal raiseing bees to make splits with graft take on first was 15 good/5 bad second was 13 good/7 bad as you can see i had more queens than i had frames to make splits with hope to try a cup of bees per queen this year and keep my 8 hives intack wont know till i try http://steveww.blogspot.com/ didnt take a pic of first graft not bad for first time grafter thanks all for imput


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## WVBees (Jun 10, 2011)

Sww,
70% average is fantastic for a hobbyist. If I get that I would be over the moon. I made 4 of the 2 frame mating boxes/castles to use with the cells. What would you do? 2 hives, 1 very strong and perfect for grafting but I want to get a good crop of honey from them this year, the other hive is weaker. I reckon Harden would say use strong one? Then use weaker one for frames for mating nucs? Your thoughts?


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

I'm kind of wondering why it is called the Ben Harden Method, when it's just a standard cell finishing hive as used by every commercial queen breeder. The only difference being they've skipped the step commercial breeders would do of starting the cells for 24 hours in a queenless starter to ensure they are well fed and get a good start straight off, and commercial breeders don't use the dummy boards, so they can pack more food and bees in, again to ensure the best fed queens.


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## WVBees (Jun 10, 2011)

Oldtimer
I understand your point but that could be said about nost invention or innovations around today. For me the name is just a tag to find information on a method of Queen rearing that suits a small backyard hobbyist. It could be the dummy frame method for all I care. It just sounds like a good method to raise queens for personal use and get honey at the same time. 

sww
Do you have any % on the number of queen cells that became laying queens. How many of the 28 cells survived?


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Fair enough.


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## sww (Jul 5, 2011)

wvbees I had bout 2 that didnt hatch died in cell my fault more than likely I had 17 laying untill shb slimed me. killed rest from a newbe mistake


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## WVBees (Jun 10, 2011)

Sww,
Any update on using Ben harden method this year? I hope to graft on April 5 and give it my first try. I have deep and a half with about 10 or 12 frames of brood that I will graft from and also use as my queenright queen cell builder.


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I grafted 18 larvae into wax queen cups this past Saturday in a Harden method style hive. 17 took. It's working out fantastically. http://parkerfarms.blogspot.com/2012/03/grafting-success.html They're capped now. If they come out well, this is a great solution.


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## sww (Jul 5, 2011)

wvbees queen raiseing not as easy in march as it was in mid- may of last year i found out,, first graft 0 out of 25 , second graft 14 out of 25 have let some cells get too cold i guess, 4 of them didnt hatch.one the bees just swarmed to a limb the next dayand left the cell behind ! after i caught them i saw i had my one year old queen with them (beginners mistake) im hopeing that my e cells that are built on bottom of frame and the ones they didnt have to float out to build cell will be good ones they should be ready this sunday to pick checked them today and they are some nice big ones. gave that queen and solfball size cluster some brood with bees now its rolling along ,,, so far this year, for a beginner i have got 14 virgins( some came from swarm cells i picked) each with enough bees/brood to build up with,, making their mateing flights,, one old queen start and one swarm total of 16 new starts, with my 8 hives i came though winter with still strong enough to keep making up new starts- minus the one I stole the queen from it wont be makeing babbies for a while may have 5 swarm/e cells sunday and still be able to leave them 2 good ones,,,I will make them up and wait till mid april and give bees time to recoup. Im shooting for 50 if i can keep beetles out of them. ,,,,,i think you should have good luck with that many frames of brood/nurse bees. i think my no takes has more to do with my grafting or the frames i put up with my cells either way i had more fun last year trying than i have had in many years. if this year is like last year , down here we got 2 and a half months to keep trying and haveing fun last months bee culture says you can get 3 pound of bees ever 3 weeks so lets shake,rattle &roll


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## sww (Jul 5, 2011)

solomon after reading your blog i remembered I had to get my cups polished for my second graft to take plus last year i grafted in the kitichen,, this year im doing it in open sided barn with wind blowing, think ill go back in kitichen,


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

That was the second try. The first try was done on a rainy day and 0 took. The bees just weren't interested in leaving the main brood nest.

In the future, I'll install the dummies and cell cups and an empty comb all at the same time, then come back four days later to graft from that comb (in the midst of the broodnest where it has been laid full of the correct age larvae). That's how it ended up working out this time on the second try.


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