# Just a couple photos, July 2015



## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Nice photos, as usual.


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## Marti (Jun 29, 2014)

Great photos Lauri


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## Daznz (Oct 18, 2014)

Very cool photos


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## yantabulla (Jan 9, 2011)

Impressive photos. I always aim for the larvae that are just visible between unhatched eggs and larvae when grafting. This photo is a great example of where to aim if you want a nice 12 hour old larvae


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

Hey Lauri,
I too live in Western Wa, about an hour north of Seattle. I start my grafting early May and have pretty good mating results even with the sketchy weather we have in the spring. I'm curious if you've kept track of your mating success rates of those April grafts in comparison to say May/June.
I'm also curious how late you generally graft into the summer. 

Mike


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## Daznz (Oct 18, 2014)

What's the brand of your magnifier?


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Daznz said:


> What's the brand of your magnifier?


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000784HKY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

mmiller said:


> Hey Lauri,
> I too live in Western Wa, about an hour north of Seattle. I start my grafting early May and have pretty good mating results even with the sketchy weather we have in the spring. I'm curious if you've kept track of your mating success rates of those April grafts in comparison to say May/June.
> I'm also curious how late you generally graft into the summer.
> 
> Mike


I can't tell you why I have excellent returns from mating flights. I just don't have the issues some folks have. I rarely have failed returns, even early in the spring, even late summer. I start grafting here early/ mid April as long as weather is normal and drone brood has been in good supply for a while.

Sure, early spring when thunderstorms roll through and hail pelts down, I immediately think about the age of any virgins that may be in the mating flight time frame. I've been lucky with that so far. But when they hit I am always glad the mating windows had been missed.
I don't care too much about loosing virgins if bad spring weather should hit me at the wrong time, I always have back up on the way. I don't want the mating nucs to be queenless for any length of time. So I start out my first couple batches with caution. 


I place as many cells as I can into mating nucs and always candle them if I can. (Unless I need to place them when they are at a younger stage) If I can't candle them, I only place the very best looking cells and let any that may be questionable emerge in the incubator. That pretty much eliminates dud cell placement and improves my overall 'return' success.

I place the virgins within a day or they go into a strong healthy queenless bank to hold for up to about 6 days. They come out so well fed, they almost are too big to fly.

I'm ahead of schedule with my (Maintenance) work here this year and am ready to get grafting, but have to find significant drone brood before I do.
Weathers been rainy, cool and windy, but in the next week or so, I'll be slipping excluders on several good colonies to get frames capped & them prepared for cell building.

I haven't had too much trouble in the past grafting up into late August, but last year with the drought it was tough to get the starter colonies to cooperate from late July onward, even with very good feeding. If drought conditions are the same , I'll be more on top the supplemental feeding a little faster this summer when the flow ends instead of waiting until they eat up too much of the backfilled brood cells. There was a fine line last year where they went from willing and messy with the flow to shutting down & uncooperative when it came to starting new cells. I went over that line last year just a tad.
If I had Italians, it might not have been an issue. But My Carnie crosses shut down quickly with the reduction of incoming feed. 

I don't need as many cells mid-late summer as I do in spring, but I do need them on a regular basis. Failed grafts mid summer put me in a bind- so I always do extra. Too many cells or virgins? It's amazing how I can usually find _somewhere_ to place them. Learning to keep & introduce virgins with reliable acceptance is a real advantage. My incubator is a big part of that.

Those late summer cells are always tough & quite dark yellow, not the light wax the spring cells are made of. But the queens are just the same. And I'm glad to have them.


Early spring









Compare to a late summer cell










If I want to rear late queens, and overwinter them in mating nucs, it cuts into my early archery elk hunting though. I have to stick around, feed up & baby the nucs during that time period. (Can't go out of state) So I won't rear late queens every year. I'm still working out the extent of my program here. Figuring out what is achievable. Figuring out exactly what is worth the effort.


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## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Thanks for the Awesome pics Lauri


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## kramerbryan (Oct 30, 2013)

Great question Mike. Thanks for the detailed answer Lauri.


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## yantabulla (Jan 9, 2011)

Can I ask what attributes you are looking for when you candle the cells?


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

Thanks for the explanation Lauri. 
I've considered jumping into my queen program a little earlier over the last couple years but have been concerned about the mating flight weather. I am seeing some drones so I'm thinking about starting about 3 weeks earlier than usual. I've always kind of felt I was pushing it by starting in May. It's always good to see others success in our areas of concern. 
Last summer was very different for my program with the drought we had. In mid July they weren't building very nice cells, the percentage of successful cells built dropped, and after the queens were mated the nucs for winter seemed sluggish to build up. With some extra work it turned out ok but it was far from average. 

Don't miss your elk season Lauri. As you know, hunting seasons are as much for family/friends as they are for putting top quality, unequaled food on the table. I always make sure to plan my bees around elk season.

Mike


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