# Queen rearing: What are your methods for grafting, cell building/finishing colonies..



## BeeGhost

Im going to try my hand at grafting this spring just to broaden my beekeeping horizons!! I have been thumbing through lots of queenrearing ideas and concepts on here and youtube, but need some more input from those who are in the know!!

Grafting: I have a good grasp at the size of the larvae to graft after seeing it for my own eyes over the last couple years of watching larva growth.

Grafting tool: Lots of different opinions and just as many tools to choose from. I am thinking of trying the 000 paintbrush method first to see how that works!!

Cell cups: I am going to use the JZBZ cups as they seem very easy and practical. Does color really matter?

Ok, now here are the questions!!

Starter Hive: I will make up a 5 deep frame nuc of young nurse bees and emerging/open brood, a packed nuc at that! After two days your suppose to move it to a queenrite hive, possibly above and excluder or cloak board? My question is why would it not work to let the starter finish the cells?? 

Finisher colony: When using a queenrite colony to finish the cells, what is the best way to make sure the queen doesnt get up into the QC frame and destroy cells? Also maybe the bees themselves from destroying the cells? I have read to make sure your feeding 1:1 SS to your colony to make them think a flow is on and all.

Ive seen Lauri's incubator with cells hatching and would also like to experiment with this as I love listening to the piping!! But that will come after I do some successful grafts and have time to mess with that!

So, if you could, please explain what you queen rearers with HANDS ON EXPERIENCE do from day 1, start to finish!! Perhaps describe in detail the amount of bees in the starter, how and what to do to transfer to a finisher, and then i believe its day 12 that they get put into a 24 hour queenless nuc or hive? 

Oh ya, when a cell is put into a QL nuc and a virgin hatches, will her or the house bees tear down any cells they start? Or is that up to the beekeeper to check and make sure that a rogue cell doesnt go the distance?

Thank you for all and any help!! And if you have pictures of what you do, that would be awesome also!!

Jason


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## KQ6AR

Hi Jason, From people I've seen graft the red chinese tool seems to be the most popular. The JZ cups that go into a groove bar are nice to use. Some breeders choose different colors for different types of bees they are raising. Before, & After grafting cover the frame with a damp towel while carrying to & from the hive.

The stronger you're starter colony the better luck you'll have. You can let that hive keep going all the way to finish unless you intend to use it several rounds in a row. I have a little extra stuff here if you just want to experiment.


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## BeeGhost

Thanks Dan! I think I am going to place an order for some queen rearing stuff from ML, never have to much stuff in the old bee box can we!

Take care bud and here's to the New Year!


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## Lburou

*Subscribed*

My goals are much the same as yours for this Spring Beeghost. 

I've arranged to spend a couple days with a super experienced beekeeper near Navasota, TX. ML is sending (as we speak) the no frill basics for the cell frame (bases, rollers, feeders, etc.) I will need. I ordered Chinese & JZBZ grafting tools. 

With two Shamrock S queen rearing NUC boxes and a few boxes I made this past Fall, I should have a max capacity of a dozen or so laying queens. I want to make some splits this Spring using my own queens and eventually sell some five frame NUCs. Have to confess being strongly influenced most by Oldtimer's & Lauri's posts. 

I'd like to integrate a breeder hive like Oldtimer uses.


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## BeeGhost

*Re: Subscribed*

Right on Lee! Good luck with your queen rearing and keep us posted! I'm about a month or so away from giving it a try!


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## Clayton Huestis

*Re: Subscribed*

try checking these vids out for good queen rearing info there not great quality but the info in them sure is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1RQfwjzuOI , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd4dz4cc7WA , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GigCZsTTEQg

copy and paste them into your url if they dont go live.

Clay


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## Broke-T

*Re: Subscribed*

Hi Jason, this spring will be my 4th year raising queens. I subscribe to the KISS method of queen rearing, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID, since I have a lot of other things to do besides bees. I use the JZBZ pin cell cups. The smokey is easiest to see in the bottom so makes grafting easier. As you get more comfortable get all colors so you can use different colors to designate different breeder queens.

I tried a lot of different grafting tools and prefer the chinese tool. But you will need to get several to find one you like. Most are too stiff and it takes several to find one just right. No need to prime the cells since the chinese tool takes the bed of royal jelly the larva is laying in and moves it to the cell cup.

Buy the JZBZ cell bars to go with the pin cups. They work so much better than the wooden ones. With the wooden ones the cups will be falling off when you turn the cell bars upside down to place it in the cell builder.

I feel the starter finisher is too much trouble for anybody but the large queen producers. I used the Cloake Board a cpl years and it allows you to have a queenless starter and a queen right finisher.

This year I used a queenless cell builder. I took a strong double deep and split the two boxes. In the original location I put 5 frames of honey and pollen, 4 frames of brood and shook most of the young bees off the other brood frames into it. That leaves 1 spot open for the cell bar frame. It always goes in the #4 slot working left to right. Honey goes in slot 1 and 2, pollen in 3, brood in 5 6 7 and 8, then honey in 9 and 10. Move the queen and whats left to a new location. Do this the day before you plan to graft.

I graft one day per week every week, always on Friday. The next Friday I pull the frame of capped queen cells out and place them in an incubator. I check all fames and destroy any rogue queen cells. I pull a frame of capped brood out of another hive and place it in position 5 just to the right of the slot for the cell bar. Remove an empty fame where thebrood from the previous week has hatched. Do this every week and it gives you a contiuous supply of young nurse bees for cell building. If the hive is not booming with bees add two frames for a cpl weeks. When I find the frame with the right aged larva to graft from i brush these bees off in the cell builder also since they are mostly young nurse bees. After the first week you only have to check the new frames of brood you moved in the previous week for rouge queen cells.

I ran 3 cell builders for 15 weeks this way this spring and they worked like a charm. Except for the week a rouge queen ended up in one and I had 0 cells in that one the next friday. Make sure you don't put all your eggs in one basket.

The cells that go in the incubator on Friday go in mating nucs on Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning. They will start emerging Tuesday afternoon. I pull queens on Monday morning to make room for the cells going in that afternoon.

As you can see once the schedule is set there is no turning back. If the weatherman is calling for rain on Monday morning you better be pulling queens on Sunday so you will have a place to put the cells that are in the incubator. They are going to emerge on Tuesday afternoon whether you are ready or not.Get a big beach umbrella and someone to hold it, At some point you will probably need it.

I know I rambled on a bit, If you are totally confused now welcome to queen rearing.

Johnny


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## jim lyon

Johny: Perhaps after your initial grafting (and check for rogue cells) you should wait and add your brood boost the day after inserting your grafts. This might lessen the possibility of rogue cells. We work on a 5 to 6 day rotation in queen right starter/finishers and find it works very well.


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## Broke-T

Hi Jim, it might help a little but that would be another day that you have to open up the hive and do something. I have other things to be doing.

Johnny


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## jim lyon

We always do a quick 24 or 48 hour assessment of our grafts just to be sure we know what's in the "pipeline". It is also the time we check for rogue cells and move brood as needed. At the very least it is a 5 10 second "quick check" on up to a 5 minute plus brood rotation and rogue cell check. We also might elect at that time to move grafts into finishers or do some redistribution of cells to make sure we are fully utilizing the bee power we have available. Nothing wrong with Johny's program at all sounds like he has developed a good system that is compatible with his time restraints.


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## Michael Bush

>Grafting tool: Lots of different opinions and just as many tools to choose from. I am thinking of trying the 000 paintbrush method first to see how that works!!

I prefer the Chinese grafting tools. I've tried pretty much all of them.

>Cell cups: I am going to use the JZBZ cups as they seem very easy and practical. Does color really matter?

Color does not matter.

>Starter Hive: I will make up a 5 deep frame nuc of young nurse bees and emerging/open brood, a packed nuc at that! After two days your suppose to move it to a queenrite hive, possibly above and excluder or cloak board? My question is why would it not work to let the starter finish the cells?? 

If you let them free fly, it works fine but they burn out and the second batch of cells will be less and the third batch probably isn't worth the effort. If you combine them back you get their morale back up, but you also risk them tearing down the cells. It's a trade off.

>Finisher colony: When using a queenrite colony to finish the cells, what is the best way to make sure the queen doesnt get up into the QC frame and destroy cells?

An excluder and some distance is best. If you have the excluder over the bottom box which contains the queen and another box and then the box with the cells it is usually sufficient in a strong hive.

> Also maybe the bees themselves from destroying the cells?

The distance will keep queen pheromones from being too strong.

> I have read to make sure your feeding 1:1 SS to your colony to make them think a flow is on and all.

Everything works better in a flow...

>So, if you could, please explain what you queen rearers with HANDS ON EXPERIENCE do from day 1, start to finish!! Perhaps describe in detail the amount of bees in the starter, how and what to do to transfer to a finisher, and then i believe its day 12 that they get put into a 24 hour queenless nuc or hive? 

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

>Oh ya, when a cell is put into a QL nuc and a virgin hatches, will her or the house bees tear down any cells they start? Or is that up to the beekeeper to check and make sure that a rogue cell doesnt go the distance?

How sure do you want to be? I don't worry about it in a mating nuc, but if you need more certainty of the genetics, then check.


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## bluegrass

I rarely graft so don't have a need to have a grafting needle on hand.... when I need it I would never be able to find it. So in looking for alternatives I have found that a fine tip artists paint brush works well.... One of quality in about 000 size.


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## jim lyon

I would go out on a limb and say the Chinese grafting tool is the most popular in the industry. They are cheap and we have had them last for over 10,000 grafts. They are a bit finicky though. The next one you grab may just never seem to work right. Keeping them moist is important. Saliva works best particularly if you are sipping on some good ole down south Community coffee.


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## Broke-T

Jims right about the chinese grafting tool. Hard to find one you like but when you do they last a long time. It sounds kinda gross but I lick mine off between every cell.

Johnny


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## jim lyon

It's what makes everyone's queens unique.


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## Flyer Jim

Broke-T said:


> Jims right about the chinese grafting tool. Hard to find one you like but when you do they last a long time. It sounds kinda gross but I lick mine off between every cell.
> 
> Johnny


 chinese grafting tool...you can tune them up with 600 wet & dry sandpaper 


Jim


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## BeeGhost

Johnny, Mr.Lyon, Mr.Bush, Flyer Jim, Bluegrass and Clay: Thank you guys very much for taking the time to respond to my questions, it is greatly appreciated!!

Im going to order a couple chinese grafting tools since most of you agree upon them and they are cheap enough! I think this year will be an experimental year for queen grafting. I wont be going at it hard core or anything until I get a procedure down and feel confident in my ability to raise good queens. 

Queen rearing is just another aspect of beekeeping that I really want to learn in order to be more well rounded in raising bees. It just seems really interesting to me and also presents a challenge to see how many grafts I get get to take over time, and maybe even sell the queens someday, but not on a large scale at all............atleast not until I retire!!LOL

Again thank you guys very much for the insight and I look forward to grafting my first set!!

Jason


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## Oldtimer

By "open cells" in the starter you mean young unsealed larvae? For me, it works better without. 

Loved the thread so far, many varied ideas some of which I've never even tried.


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## Lburou

I suppose its been said here many times, but Laidlaw's book pretty much spells it out for the reader when it comes to the many options a queen producer has. I looked over at my bookshelf and noticed a book I purchased over thirty years ago: "Contemporary Queen Rearing" by Harry laidlaw, Jr.... Reading it again this week has tied things together for me on some important issues that were over my head 30 years ago when I only used some of the information at the beginning of the book. 

Combining Laidlaw's print with instruction on Youtube, this forum, other forums, Michael Bush and others has made the next level possible for me. Thanks to all. I'm going to give it the old college try this summer.


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## JBJ

We prefer queen right starter/finisher arrangement with open brood near the grafts to attract nurse bees. Cells are incubated after capping until ripe enough to place in mating nucs. I also strongly prefer the stainless steel grafting tool, very easy to use and sanitize. We operate cell builders in this manner from March through August.


















They seem turn turn out abundant well provisioned cells.


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## JSL

John,

Those are well fed cells. Could you share a little more about how you set up your queen right starter/finisher? When and where to you place the freshly grafted cells? 

Thanks,
Joe


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## AstroBee

John,

Those are pretty cells. Always interested to hear how others do it, particularly when they look so nice. Please share your details if possible.


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## BeeGhost

Wow, those are some nice looking peanuts there JBJ!! Looks like most of your grafts take as well!! What breed of bees do you run?


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## JBJ

Ahh... the secrets of the trade!

All right there is not really a secret. Its just biology. We all know that there are two strong impulses for a hive to build cells; swarming and supercedure. A good cell builder will exploit both impulses.

Firstly, one needs an exceptionally strong hive flowing over with resources and bees, especially young bees, they have all the magic when it comes to cell building. If the cell builder hive is not boiling over with bees make it that way with brood and bee additions and then feed, even if they already "have plenty". Building cells is energetically expensive and one wants no scrimping by the bees when it comes to lavishing future queens.

For us the first graft is the most work. The queen must be caught and put under an excluder in the bottom box. Take care to give plenty of nice comb for her to lay in. Sort the brood so that all the open brood, or as much as possible (within the basic framework of brood nest architecture) is in the top box. We may have as many as 1 to 3+ boxes between the excluder and the cell building box on the top; all full of bees and ample stores. We leave one frame out of the middle of the top box to receive the graft frame. Timing wise you will get less rogue cells if the graft frame is placed in the hive sooner than later. Depending on schedule and weather, this may be from hours to days. If it is days... be on alert, they have already started some cells and yours will loose the race. By now the open brood is so far from the queen the supercedure impulse will kick in and they will want to build cells so they may as well build the ones we want and not random ones.

Meanwhile, an incredibly vigorous queen is laying her brains out under that excluder. It wont be long and that swarm impulse will be going strong. This is perfect... depending on conditions this may take between 10-14 days or longer if things are running lean. Either way, for the subsequent grafts, the queen is caught, placed under an excluder, and the fresh open brood rotated to the top with room to receive a graft frame. Make sure there is open brood next to the grafts. This guarantees that your grafts will immediately be attended to by ample nurse bees. I have read several books that said not to and have heard not to do that, but experience shows otherwise. The cells speak for themselves. This cycle can be repeated as necessary, although there is considerable judgement involved to discern how hard one can push the cell builder.

If the cells are few, small, brown, and not flowing over with jelly, you are missing one or more of the key elements. The best cell builders will make plump white cells with few if any misses (assuming the grafting is proficient). Lots of young bees and plenty of protein are critical.

There are some nuances depending on if it is spring, summer, or fall. Abundant conditions yield ample cells.


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## JBJ

BeeGhost said:


> Wow, those are some nice looking peanuts there JBJ!! Looks like most of your grafts take as well!! What breed of bees do you run?


We call them Survivor Stock. Very hygienic, broody and productive.

Remember that poorly reared queens off of superior stock will always be inferior to well reared queens off of marginal stock. Techniques and conditions mean lot. Great genetics and good technique are what we strive for. 

It is possible to have both.


Always learning!


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## oldiron56

JBJ said:


> We call them Survivor Stock. Very hygienic, broody and productive.
> 
> Remember that poorly reared queens off of superior stock will always be inferior to well reared queens off of marginal stock. Techniques and conditions mean lot. Great genetics and good technique are what we strive for.
> 
> It is possible to have both.
> 
> 
> Always learning!


Graft from stock that works in your aria is a start.That is really all that matters. Do they make honey and live ? Graft from those!


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## jim lyon

Some good advice by Old Sol on cell raising. I agree that keeping some open brood around the cells is a good practice. We diligently rotate brood "upstairs" in queenright builders to encourage the presence of plenty of young bees around the grafts. If there is a cold night and no semblance of a brood nest surrounding your cells above the excluder the great majority of the bees will abandon the cells in favor of the main brood nest below.


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## Broke-T

You can also get some really good cells with a queenless cell builder.










Johnny


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## JBJ

We have used queenless cell builders in the past, however I feel they are much more resource intensive and more work to maintain over the long hall. Queenless units are really only tapping the the emergency impulse to raise cells. I suspect it is better to work for triggering both impulses. It would be interesting to track the weights of the cells to determine roughly the amount of jelly provisioned and the size of the virgin.


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## Oldtimer

Nice pic Broke T, is that the genuine take or did you move a few cells around?

Very interesting JBJ, I've tried various methods of starting cells in a queenright hive, with mixed results. Never put the cells in the 4th box among brood though, but can see it may work, I'll give it a shot. 

To me the main problem would be rogue cells on the upstairs brood, I guess you'd have to go through it every few days. How does it work during a heavy honey flow, when the bees have lost interest in swarming and want to choc out that top box with honey?


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## Oldtimer

The method I'm using at the moment is built around the need to use just a few hives to raise cells and house the breeder queens. I live in suburbia and am allowed 3 hives in the back yard. Swarming is also a no no I have to ensure that doesn't happen. From these circumstances I need to get around 40 cells per week.

So the breeder queens are housed in the same hives the cells are raised in. They are long hives, holding a maximum of 22 frames. The breeder queen is held in a 3 frame compartment at one end in an area sectioned off with a queen excluder. She produces an egg comb once a week for cutting and glueing strips of cells onto the cell bars, I don't graft.

The cells spend a day in a queenless starter, and are then transferred back to the breeder hive, down the other end to where the queen is along with a couple of frames of brood.

Not an ideal method but means I don't have to drive anywhere to do it, I can comply with the 3 hive requirement and do it in the back yard.

Using the cut cell method you don't end up with pretty uniform rows of cells like if you are grafting, but I feel the cells are of good quality. The smallest get culled.

In the frame pictured, I allowed my neighbors, who were curious, to do a bar each, so the two bottom bars have a few less cells than normal, however there are still 35 cells, more or less enough to get me through that week.

The hives are rested, ie, not every hive raises cells every week, or quality will drop off.


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## Broke-T

OT, that was for real. Not very often I get 45 of 45. Thats reason I took pic. Most times I can get 40+. 

The webbing in your pic is why I move mine to an incubator as soon as they are capped. I hate having to cut them apart.

Johnny


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## Oldtimer

Oh i see, I was wondering how come they were all so perfectly clean!


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## sfisher

JBJ are you saying to put the queen right cell builder together at least 10 to 14 days prior to grafting? So that the bees get into swarm mode.


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## sfisher

Oldtimer do you cut your comb like the Alley method, like this?


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## Oldtimer

Yes, I just googled the Alley method to see what he did, and that's what I do as far as the way the cells are cut. But in his method he destroys every secong egg, i destroy two and leave one, or else some of the cells are too close to seperate them without killing one.


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## Michael Bush

Alley was the first to write about cutting strips of comb (in his case old comb).

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesalleymethod.htm

Joseph M. Brooks wrote about a similar method using NEW comb instead of old comb and this was adopted by Isaac Hopkins and written about in The Australasian Bee Manual.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshopkins1886.htm

Later it was reinvented by Jay Smith and written about in Better Queens:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetterqueens.htm

All of these are basically cutting strips of larvae and destroying some so the cells won't be all stuck together. But I think Hopkins eventually found it easier to just destroy the larvae without cutting and waxing strips and just turn the frame flatways:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshopkinsmethod.htm


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## sfisher

Thanks Oldtimer can you tell me how you attach the comb to the cell bar. I would imagine that you do it with wax, but can you tell me the procedure. I have all the equipment I need to try grafing a few queens this year, but I really like the idea of the Alley method. Steve


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## Oldtimer

The wax is melted in my high tech custom wax melter pictured below. 

The wax is painted on the bar with a small paintbrush and the cells glued on, then some more wax is painted on the join just to make sure the cells won't drop off.

Although the cut cell method is reasonably simple, the most difficult part if starting out, would be getting the comb with eggs. Grafting offers the advantage that you can pick and choose larvae so don't have to produce a comb with all larvae the same age. For this reason I'd recommend anyone starting out does learn to graft, ( it's actually pretty easy ), but the cut cell method is also a good way, or in my opinion, the best, long as you are organised to produce the combs with larvae all within 24 hours of each other.


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## JBJ

sfisher said:


> JBJ are you saying to put the queen right cell builder together at least 10 to 14 days prior to grafting? So that the bees get into swarm mode.


Not necessarily, however we do like to see a colony that has been on a good flow and has been fed well for two or three weeks prior so they are very pumped up and naturally moving in that direction. Sometimes we graft into them the same day we set them up, sometimes a day or two later. The longer one waits, the more must have a sure method to deal with the rogue cells.


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## JBJ

Oldtimer said:


> Very interesting JBJ, I've tried various methods of starting cells in a queenright hive, with mixed results. Never put the cells in the 4th box among brood though, but can see it may work, I'll give it a shot.
> 
> To me the main problem would be rogue cells on the upstairs brood, I guess you'd have to go through it every few days. How does it work during a heavy honey flow, when the bees have lost interest in swarming and want to choc out that top box with honey?


If you give them plenty of cells to work promptly their impulse will be satiated and they do not start many rogue cells. By the time the unit is up to its second graft there is only one box with eggs to monitor and we like to check it on day three and again on day 6. We have never had a problem during a flow. The cells are only in there 6 days and then the unit is reworked ASAP. There should be so much brood up there they can not plug it out until it hatches. On really intense flows it helps to give some foundation to reduce webbing between the cells. We want to see the units making lots of fresh wax, otherwise they will be challenged in making decent cells.


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## Oldtimer

Reworked? As in made back into a normal hive, or more brood lifted up?


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## JBJ

Depends on the time of the year. If its go time and we need a lot of cells fast we just catch the queen and start the cycle over. Depending on how hard we are pushing them we may have to add some brood periodically to keep them jam packed. I like to see so many bees festooning in the slot to receive the grafts that the frame barely fits and can just gently settle in.


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## lakebilly

Oldtimer,

I have seen pics of your queen contaiment excluder. how did you get such a clean & precise bend for that?

I would love to use that. like to see in detail how you made it.


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## Adrian Quiney WI

Lakebilly, this link might help. Mine is a Mann Lake plastic queen excluder cut up, hot glued, and nailed in place.
http://s1110.beta.photobucket.com/u...der Hive/2012-03-11125937.jpg.html?sort=6&o=3


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## tommyt

How often do you check in
You check 2 days after graft,too see if they took.
Then?


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## Sharpbees

If your using open brood you have to keep an good eye out for rogue queen cells. If I put open brood in it's only one frame and gets replaced with a cell bar frame when I put in my grafts.


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## Oldtimer

Lakebilly, I just bent the excluder over the edge of the bench, before sliding it into the groove in the box. Adrian has made an excellent job of the one he did also, the pic he linked shows it very well.


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## virginiawolf

This is a great thread. Getting to read everyone’s beekeeping strategies is a privilege. I have a question that is asked in this post but I feel like I am still unsure. Whenever I grafted a few times before I just put the cells in a queen less hive... This time I caged some nurse bees in a swarm box for the first time. Normally I don't cage the bees but since I have a well ventilated swarm box I tried it. I read contemporary queen rearing and if I am comprehending properly ... the next step is to put them over another colony with a division board keeping them caged still until I am ready to take the cells out and use them. The cells are coming out very well so far and I was wondering why I need to put them over another hive. If I continue to give them fresh syrup and keep a moist sponge in the cell starter can I keep them in there till Sunday when I move the cells to a queen castle and some mating nucs? I am only doing one round of grafts. Can I keep the cells in the cell starter with caged nurse bees and one frame of emerging brood till the end? I realizes on page 70 a starter can be a finisher so I guess I will be alright. Still getting my head around this.. Thanks.


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## Oldtimer

The reason they are normally transferred to an unlocked hive is because level of care drops off if the bees are kept confined, generally, the bees work well for the first 24 hours then things start going down hill after that.


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## virginiawolf

Thank You for responding Oldtimer. I appreciate you taking the time to help me with my uncertainty. Caging the bees worked so well to start the cells that it seemed like I could leave them caged although instinctually I want to see them with an entrance. It is day 4 now and the cells are looking close to capped so I opened the entrance up so the bees can get out and back in. It is raining now but tomorrow they will be able to fly. I am excited to what these new queens look like.


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## Oldtimer

Thanks, and I've been following those videos you post on youtube! 

Just make sure they are not close to another hive, the bees will drift if they can find one with a queen in. It is important the capped cells are kept at the right temperature, so if you feel the bees are drifting & there aren't enough, just transfer the cells to a normal hive, between two or more good combs of brood, over an excluder, with the queen below the excluder.

Keep us updated!


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## virginiawolf

Thanks and Thanks for checking out my videos I'll post more. I will be working all day tomorrow so hopefully they won't drift too much. I was wondering why the cell starter goes over another hive... It is for the temperature control... plus lets the young bees visit the cells if they aren't capped. That makes sense. It has been cold here so I instinctively have been aware of the coldness on the larvae and stuff. I will let you know how it goes. This is the earliest I have tried to raise queens and the coldest too. I really hope it works out that is why I have been re reading and asking questions and things. It seems like the questions never stop. I appreciate the help. I really love the bees. They are in my dreams and things


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