# Queen Rearing Calendar Tool



## kwest

thanks that is nice and handy.


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## Dubhe

Bravo, nicely done. Thanks for sharing it.


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## BigDaddyDS

Kudos! Nicely done.


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## djhiban12

thats really useful good work, also what did you use to make that


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## swabby

Thanks for that handy info. We will do our 1st grafting without help in July for fall queens. :applause:


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## sugarmapleapiaries

djhiban12 said:


> thats really useful good work, also what did you use to make that


Glad you all like it. It's written in Perl.


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## Michael Palmer

You can check for eggs on the 16th day. That would be 1/25 on your calendar. The nucs will have eggs at that point, and some will have larvae.

At least that's how my schedule works. I'm on an 8 day cycle. Day 4s are for catching queens, and day 5s are for giving cells. So, I'm catching queens from each group every 16 days.


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## habutti

Good job, there is an Microsoft Excel version as well that can be used offline, not sure were I got it from, possible from Bee-Wrangler's web site.


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## KQ6AR

One of my hives had a capped queen cell Sunday, This was very helpfull.


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## allrawpaul

A nice tool, thanks for sharing. A couple suggestions: I think you should adjust the calender to "check for eggs" on the 16th day, and also possibly to requeen a little earlier if eggs are not found. Also add, " check capped larva to ensure that the queen is not a drone layer.", and maybe," look for supercedure cells that would indicate that the queen is inferior in some way."


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## KQ6AR

Another suggestion to make it handy for reasons other than grafting.
Maybe someone could put the date they found a capped queen cell in their hive.
Or possibly start at other points of the calendar.


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## BEES4U

I ran a trial on your data information and it matches what I use for my queen production.
I like your lay out!
It's easy to use.
Thank you for the information!
One of the major problems in grafting is for the person who is doing the grafting to transfer the proper age larvae into the cell cup. 
I see that you are celling 9 DAG. DAG in my records stands for Days After Grafting.
The month day and year can be a lot of help because it's built into your computation!
I have used my Excel spread sheet with my formulas.
Ernie 
( Queen Breeder.)


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## Ross

Nice tool. I did mine in Excel.


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## deknow

Bump....

Just found this with a google search. ...bravo, exactly what i was looking for. I will link it from our sites!

deknow


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## fafrd

Great tool, but I'm confused about the beginning stages of your calandar.

The first day when the egg is laid is labelled 'Day 1' and 3 days later on 'Day 4' the calandar says to graft 'Day-old' larvae in cell cups.

I thought that the eggs hatch AFTER aging for 3-1/2 days, so sticking to your label of Day 1 as the day the egg was layed (the alternative would have been to label the day that the egg is laid as 'Day 0' because it did not age at all that day - see below) then on Day 4 (which is 3 days or 72 hours later in your calandar) I would have assmed that the eggs are within 12 hours of hatching and that we do not yet have day-old larvae to graft.

Base on a 'Day-1' egg-laying day, the egg will hatch and we will have half-day-old larvae the following day (day 5, 4 days or 96 hours after the egg was layed) which can be rounded up to 'day-old larvae' and in any case are suitable for grafting.

So based on your 'Day-1' egg-laying day, I would have thought that grafting day should be Day 5, not Day 4.

For folks doing conventional grafting, this distinction is irrelevant since they do not control when the egg was layed and merely select day-old larvae to graft. For those of us doing 'graftless' grafting using the Nicot or Jenter System (like me ), the day the egg is laid is very important because it dictates when to harvest the 1/2-day-old larvae for grafting. 

Your calandar also shows the cells being capped on day 9, 8 days after the egg was laid (which is correct), but your calander shows this being 5 days after grafting day-old larvae (which I do not believe is correct). If larvae are grafted when they are 1/2 or 1 day old, and that is four days from when the egg was laid, the cells should be capped 8 days after the egg was laid, or 4 days after grafting (not 5). Obviously if you check 5 days after grafting the cell is certain to be capped, and if you check 4 days after grafting it may just be on the verge of getting capped and so may still appear uncapped.

You also show the queens hatching on Day 16 (which is only 15 days after the egg was laid, not 16 days later as is the conventional wisdom).

All the later parts of the calandar are pefect, but I would have set up the early part of the calandar as follows:

Day 0 egg laid
Day 4 graft 1/2 day old larvae
Day 8 cells are capped
Day 14 safe to harvest cells
Day 16 virgin queens emerge

I have just made my first queen cells using the Nicot System and this is the schedule they are on (my cells were capped 4+ days after grafting, not 5, and in fact I checked them exactly 70 hours after grafting and they were almost closed but still slightly open and when I checked again 6 hours later [4-1/6 days after grafting] they were completely capped).

-fafrd

p.s. Michael Bush's webpage on queen rearing shows the same schedule as the one I have outlined above (starting with the egg being layed on day 0):

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


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## brac

Well, that was almost enough to confuse me. I found this tool about a week ago, just when I needed it. I'm not grafting yet, but I have raised a few queens, and I really find this helpful. Thanks for keeping it available!


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## Dave360

very nicely done thanks


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## BEES4U

If day one confuses you,
change over to 3 days X 24 = 72 hours apply the data to clocking in and out for wages.
After some experience, you will graft only the larvae that are 12 - 16 hours old.
Ernie


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## vitorio321

sugarmapleapiaries said:


> All,
> 
> 
> 
> Please have a look and let me know if there are any other important dates or tasks that should be included.
> 
> 
> ~Eric


Dear Friend 

I have an idea to translate it into Russian and Turkish language which I can help with.

Is it possible to arrange????


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## sebashtionh

Michael Palmer said:


> You can check for eggs on the 16th day. That would be 1/25 on your calendar. The nucs will have eggs at that point, and some will have larvae.
> 
> At least that's how my schedule works. I'm on an 8 day cycle. Day 4s are for catching queens, and day 5s are for giving cells. So, I'm catching queens from each group every 16 days.


old thread but have a question.
Mike is day 16 (pull Queen) from graft or cell hatch?


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## Michael Palmer

From when you placed the cell in the mating nuc...and that would be 10 days after graft.


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## sebashtionh

Thank you


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