Caging the QC

[sahtlinurk]

I have QCs on a comb i need to move into roller cages. In which stage are QC safe to cut out and move ?

cheers,
Lauri

 

[Poly Hive]

As late in development as poss to avoid damage. Also it needs a very thin sharp knife and also give them a nice big foot to avoid entering the cell by accident.

Also grafting into cups avoids all this faff.

PH

 

[sahtlinurk]

Thanks, next time will do the grafting business..

 

[Poly Hive]

It makes the cell management so much easier. Gives you "handle ability"

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

Use a 3/4 olive from a plumbing fitting, silver soldered to a long handle
Gentle heat from your blowtorch... enough to just melt wax... and the olive will gently cut and remove the queen cell and fits perfectly into a queen cell holder.

Grafting into cell cups is not a queen rearing method I would recommend to a beginner!

Nos da

 

[Poly Hive]

Sooner beginners (and there is a join date to look at) learn to Queen Rear properly the better all round surely as then some selection might take place which is a good thing is it not?

PH

 

[B+.]

Sooner beginners learn to Queen Rear properly the better all round surely

Queen rearing is really quite simple (although some people seem determined to make it hard by breaking all the rules).

 

[Finman]

.
This is easy way: Wait swarming hive and graft good larva to swarming cells. I graft them into different frames. Then I make mating nuc from that frame which has one queen cell. I move nucs to another yard.

They do not need cages then.

If I cut swarming cells from frames, and I put them into cage, there are a big change that the queen is damaged.

What is better in these cases, that when the queen starts to lay about 12 days later, it would be better to trickle mites away and take off the rest of brood comb.

I do not mind nowadays about rules, what ever they are and made by whom. At least I know that those rules have been made to professional queen breeders, and not for dozen hive owner.

.
.

 

[Poly Hive]

By all means breed from swarmy hives to get even more swarmy bees.

I like to breed from the hives which don't swarm but supercede instead. Makes life easier.

PH

 

[Finman]

By all means breed from swarmy hives to get even more swarmy bees.

I like to breed from the hives which don't swarm but supercede instead. Makes life easier.

PH

What what what.... Am I that stupid.

I take larvae from a selected hive and craft them into swarm cells.

Supercede queens are not good. Forget them. They are bot average better.

Free hint: If you want easy beekeeping, buy mated queens.

.

 

[mazzamazda]

.
This is easy way: Wait swarming hive and graft good larva to swarming cells. I graft them into different frames. Then I make mating nuc from that frame which has one queen cell. I move nucs to another yard


I agree, my grafts come from a hive that is so full its going to swarm, every cell filled and only then it wants too swarm, obviously other traits too.

 

[sahtlinurk]

Results of my cell punching adventure - 5 queens, all now mated and laying, 4 out of five are absolute lookalikes, yellow bodies with black bums. fifth one was very dark looking. Daughters of my Buckfast queen. So far the temper hasnt been a problem. Time will tell. Bit of a learning curve it was


Lauri