# Queen rearing calendar



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Bdfarmer555 said:


> It'd stink if it was no longer available.


Indeed, I use it all the time. It would be a drag if it isn't updated. It's just so easy to plug in your grafting date and print it out, highlighting the removal and date of emergence. It's a good record of the season's queen rearing info.

Although I rarely refer to them after placement, they have been handy to have even a couple years later when daughters performance is clear and referral to their rearing info was available. Sometimes all I can make out on the faded hive tape is the date of cell placement. I can refer to the calendar records and figure out what line is in the hive. Especially if it is a good one and I would like to graft from her.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

When you raise a few queens, the calendar is simple. Once you want a larger number of queens, or a continuous supply of fresh queens, things get a bit more complicated. Too many things to do with too tight a schedule. Years ago, Kirk Webster came up with a schedule. I follow it, with a few changes. It was published in the ABJ.

On a calendar, the days are numbered 1-8, 1-8, etc. Day 1 is when the first cell builders are setup. All day 1s are cell builder setup days. 10 days later is grafting day...or is a day 3 on the calendar. All day 3s are grafting days. And all day 4s are queen catching days, and all day 5's are cell harvest day. There are other chores to do in queen rearing, and they fare on other numbered days. Like, day 6s are the day you add a comb to the breeder. 

So with the Webster schedule, you harvest queens every 8 days. I need queens more often then that. So, I run two 8 day schedules at the same time...but 4 days apart. So, day 1 and day 5 are on the same day, etc. I get to catch queens every 4 days. One thing...the schedule is a *itc*. No days off. Very intense. 

I can elaborate if you want, but you get the idea.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

I don't pretend to be anywhere the scale and organization that y'all are, but with row crop farming full time, I rarely know what day of the week it is, much less day of the month. 

I try to raise a few every week, just for practice maintaining cell a cell builder and for making nucs. Sometimes the farm allows me time to graft on a Monday, sometimes a Thursday. 

Guess if they don't update it, and I don't find a replacement, I can always use it, and just set alarms on my phone. The days of the month will still apply, just not the days of the week. Lol


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## Scott Gough (Dec 10, 2015)

Michael,

I have a few questions.

How many sets of mating nucs are you running? It looks like it would take 8 sets. 

How many rounds through each nuc does your climate allow?

How do you handle days that it just rains all day when you have to keep such a tight schedule? Tents? I would think those would be challenging days to say the least. 

Is queen catching day when you catch queens in the morning and place new cells in the afternoon or is cell harvest day the day you place the cells after the mating nucs have been queenless a day?

Do you ever sell virgin queens or are all the queens you sell mated?

I need to go back and watch the youtube videos that were recorded of you at the National Honey Show. They were all very informative. 

Thanks.


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## JoshuaW (Feb 2, 2015)

Michael Palmer said:


> I can elaborate if you want, but you get the idea.


Yes, please! :applause:


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

>>Scott Gough;1606130]Michael,

>>I have a few questions.

>>How many sets of mating nucs are you running? It looks like it would take 8 sets.<<

I'm running four groups, with 160 mating nucs in each group. We catch one group every four days. It takes 16 days from giving cell to catching queen, so four groups, one every four days.

>>How many rounds through each nuc does your climate allow?<<

Three. I could go another round longer but we get too busy with requeening production colonies and harvest.

>>How do you handle days that it just rains all day when you have to keep such a tight schedule? Tents? I would think those would be challenging days to say the least.<<

Yes, to say the least. We set up canopies. 

>>Is queen catching day when you catch queens in the morning and place new cells in the afternoon or is cell harvest day the day you place the cells after the mating nucs have been queenless a day?<<

Queen catching day we catch queens for most of the day. If the following day is bad weather or something is happening and everyone wants to be busy...thing VBA meeting or July 4...then we give the cells after catching the queens. Cell harvest is scheduled form the day after queen catch, but that date can go one day either way.

>>Do you ever sell virgin queens or are all the queens you sell mated?<<

Only mated queens


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## Cuttingedgelandinc (Mar 3, 2015)

I have made a Queen Rearing Calendar in excel that is very similar to the beeyard calendar but has a few added features. If anyone wants it, let me know.


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Bdfarmer555 said:


> I use "The Beeyard Queen Rearing Calendar". Enter when I graft, take a screen pic of the calendar to keep track of sets of queens. Just thinking bout trying a run next day or 2, and noticed they haven't added 2018 to the list. Yet, I hope. I've never looked at it this early. Can anyone tell me if this is normal and they usually don't get to it till later?
> 
> It'd stink if it was no longer available.


I ran into the same issue. A quote from our little farm blob website here:- https://www.rozehaven.ca



> When raising queens, it’s very useful to have a calendar to lay out the timing for the various steps in the process. For a number of years I have used the calendar available at the beeyard.org website, but, it doesn’t allow for setting dates beyond 2017, and appears to not get updates anymore. So, to address this minor problem, I have written some javascript to re-create that calendar with dates that go beyond 2017 for use in planning our 2018 bee season.
> 
> To use this quick and dirty little app, just select the date of your graft in the drop down, and the fields in the table will populate with day of week and date for each step along the way


It has the same fields as the original one at beeyard.org, the only difference, dates can be set for this year


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

grozzie2 said:


> I ran into the same issue. A quote from our little farm blob website here:- https://www.rozehaven.ca
> 
> 
> 
> It has the same fields as the original one at beeyard.org, the only difference, dates can be set for this year


Thank you


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Lauri said:


> Thank you


Your welcome.

Just an fyi, I did change the day numbering slightly, making graft day 'day 0' on the sheet, otherwise it's all taken from the same stuff as beeyard.org setup. I didn't make it go into a separate window to be 'printer friendly', I could if that's something folks would find useful. This was just a quick hack for my own reference originally, threw it together a few weeks ago when I was sitting down to work out some schedule issues for this year.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

Thanx grozzie. Using it today.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Bdfarmer555 said:


> Thanx grozzie. Using it today.


I wish I could.
I have beautiful weather and nice long range forecast. Plenty of bees, normal amount of new worker brood & eggs, but until I see more drone brood, I'm holding off.
My usual graft start date is first week in April in my neck of the woods.


















Was a little late getting on wet patties due to bad Feb weather. 









March, so far, is looking great. Lots of feed coming in from natural vegetation.

I tried to get an excluder on a couple potential cell builder colonies today, but it's a bit too early for that too with my Carni types. 
2 more weeks and it will be time if weather patterns hold.

I'm also open feeding dry Bee Pro & light syrup. Hives still have very good weight. Some too heavy, but will be good nuc makings. 

I'm ready to get started for sure.


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## Bdfarmer555 (Oct 7, 2015)

I'm pushing it a little myself, but i found purple eyed drones today. I figure if the weather turns less than workable, I'll just throw the cells away. For all I know, I may be so rusty that my grafts today may not be accepted.


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