# New at queen rearing... please help!



## paigenester (May 22, 2015)

I am new to grafting queens this year and have no royal jelly supply. Does yogurt really work or should I wait to collect royal jelly when I have queen cells build up? Also, I'm thinking that I will only be placing queen cells in hives when splitting and not going as far as hatching everyone out using nucs. I just don't have enough boxes at present. Any help or advice would be appreciated. This is my 6th year with bees. We have around 30 hives and are tired of paying high costs for queens.


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## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Never heard of Yogurt, but you can graft dry with good results. I'm not good at it, but found that a drop of sugar water to help me get the larva into the cup makes a huge difference. Grafting for me was way more difficult then others. I think my eyesight and shakey hands are the real problem. That said, I'm finally getting the hang of it. If I can do it, anybody can...
Good luck,


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## johnbeejohn (Jun 30, 2013)

mix some honey and warm water put a dab in cups i


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

I dry graft using a Chinese grafting tool. Lightly misting the cups with warm water or light sugar water just as you start the grafting helps keep them moist until you get them back in the cell builder.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I used to collect royal jelly. But I think using the Chinese grafting tool makes it unnecessary and it never worked that well anyway.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Or use a no graft method such as cutting plugs or strips.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

If you want to use royal jelly to graft just put a frame of young open brood into your cell starter 4 days before you intend to graft. Then right before you actually do your grafts remove the queen cells that they always start on that frame and use the royal jelly from them. This also gets your cell starter nice and primed.

I very much prefer just misting everything with water, but I also had to give royal jelly a try just to see for myself. When I tried yogurt none of the grafts were accepted - of course your mileage may vary.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

O
T
S

What is this...grafting? @


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

David LaFerney said:


> cell starter


Paigenester,

You would be very well-served to read the link in David's post. Once you're done, read it again, repeat as necessary


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## wfarler (Jul 9, 2003)

I tried Yogurt. Didn't work. 

I had good luck with priming the cup with a small amount of royal jelly. Just saved it when I found swarm or supercedure cells. You don't need much and it freezes just fine. I can't say if this is better/worse than dry. I do have the bees polish cups before I use them. I suspect that they prefer to find one of their pheromones all over everything.


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## Bee Tamer (Jan 21, 2016)

AstroBee said:


> Paigenester,
> 
> You would be very well-served to read the link in David's post. Once you're done, read it again, repeat as necessary


I attempted grafting last spring. It didn't go well! I ended up with some queen cells from a colony that was prepping to swarm so I didn't try again. After reading David's link, I am looking forward to trying again. I have more resources now so hopefully I will have better luck.


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## McCoslin (Dec 4, 2013)

aunt betty said:


> O
> T
> S
> 
> What is this...grafting? @


OTS is a management tool, grafting is quality replication.


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## Colobee (May 15, 2014)

McCoslin said:


> grafting is quality replication.


Grafting is replication. The quality depends a lot on the individual technique(s). Grafting is no guarantee of quality, in fact it's probably much more likely to fail for a beginner - as has been mentioned by several. Some report 100% failure on their first tries. Grafting simply allows for greater replication - of success or failure.

OTS is probably the better option for a small number of queens, or a beginner, although Mel speaks of rearing up to hundreds.


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## Moon (May 7, 2011)

David LaFerney said:


> ... I very much prefer just misting everything with water, ...


Just to add my $0.02 to the conversation, I've found this works the best as well. I'll graft dry if I forget the distilled water at home with no difference in acceptance. I like having a little droplet of water in the bottom of the cell I'm grafting into because it seems to help the larvae slide off the end of the grafting tool.


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