# cell punching eggs



## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

Mel Disselkoen does something called "notching". Check out mdasplitter.com


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## johnwratcliff (Feb 24, 2015)

I am going to notch as well. I need to read Mel's book.


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## Stonewall (Aug 27, 2013)

This may, or may not be something you can use. Given my line of work I have and am competent is the use of stereo microscopes. One can take a frame of wet brood/eggs from any desirable queen and place the frame on a makeshift stand such that the larve/eggs are within focus range. One will see the pattern used by the queen in her duties. Between an egg and an older larve one will see a just hatched larve. This can be punched and placed on a standard queen rearing bar with very good take percentages. One can usually get 20 to 30 queens per frame this way. The remainder of the frame can be returned to the hive.


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## Arnie (Jan 30, 2014)

I saw a video of cell punching eggs. There was no follow up video documenting success or failure, so I don't know if the bees rejected the punched eggs or not. 
If you know you have an egg that is freshly laid, then you can wait 5 days to check the cell builder. The larva would be 2 days old then. 
Insert a fresh comb and check it every day, then you could make note of fresh eggs and wait three days for them to hatch. Eliminates the guessing.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

If you put in a frame in the middle of the brood with one or more triangular tabs of unwired worker foundation attached to the top bar, the bees will draw out nice fresh comb and the queen will lay it up with nice near uniform age eggs which will be easy to cell punch or cut up for strips for cell starting. You wont worry about wrecking a frame that has other brood in progress. This one I was preparing to cell punch but had another colony make swarm cells so this is now a foundationless frame somewhere in one of my hives. In the picture below the queen has not laid it up yet but would be on it soon.


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## Arnie (Jan 30, 2014)

Ya beat me to it, Frank! That's my project for next year. I made a cell punch out of a 30-30 case and pried a cigar box apart to get some nice thin pieces of cedar to glue the cells to the bar. Got the foundation ready. Got a lighted magnifying glass. 
Now I have to wait for spring.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>If I punch a cell with eggs, should I leave those cells in the starter an extra day since they are eggs?

Punching eggs is a waste of your time. Do the right age larvae. Leave the eggs. The bees will just remove the eggs.


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## rookie2531 (Jul 28, 2014)

Good luck, I tried it but grafting into jzbz cups had the best return for me. I do think that using one year old comb was my downfall, but using this year's comb would have put me further behind schedule. I never did try again. Hope you have better luck than I. JC's bees on YouTube has a video on it.


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## wvbeeguy (Feb 20, 2011)

Three days before you graft cells go into the hive you want to raise queens from, locate the frame she is laying on and mark it to find it quickly. On graft day pull this frame out, use cell punch ( I use 1/4" pipe with sharp beveled edge) and punch thru desired cell and insert in to cell bar, i like using nicot cups, just because i had a bunch laying around. My problem is seeing so I bought a medical grade illumiated magnifier with flexible arm at an estate auction. lay my frame down on table , pull lighted magnifier over, and see the smallest hatched larvae with royal jelly around them (newest) and punch away--- after magnifying it is easier to tell the youngest larvae off your marked frame, HTH Mark


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