First graft of the season

[Eyeman]

Drones are allways present.

IT is lack of mating weathers and temperatures what is needed in spring.

.

B+ reported that the drones didn't have alot of semen for II.
You dont need mating weather for II.
My understanding is Drones like workers need good supplies of pollen for at least the first 8 days of life to 'mature properly'. I'm coming round to believe that a lack of pollen may be a 'silent' cause of colony demise, perhaps also affecting the potential fertility of drones? Pollen gets consumed rapidly during colony buildup & stores may only last a few days?

 

[B+.]

You dont need mating weather for II.
My understanding is Drones like workers need good supplies of pollen for at least the first 8 days of life to 'mature properly'. I'm coming round to believe that a lack of pollen may be a 'silent' cause of colony demise, perhaps also affecting the potential fertility of drones? Pollen gets consumed rapidly during colony buildup & stores may only last a few days?

When resources are short, its usually the drones that suffer. They may be neglected at an early stage in their development or thrown out in favour of younger drones. This can delay the availability of mature drones which are suitable for breeding.
I intend to graft larvae from 55-2-70-2016 (https://youtu.be/KGZ0ZmN-W8M) on Monday. This is part of a VSH breeding programme using single drone insemination (sdi) where I will deliberately infest the mini-plus with 100 varroa mites then investigate how well the workers she produces cope with the varroa.

 

[birdsandbees]

I'm having a go with my first, I had a hive with a failed queen, thought she was gone so been adding frames of eggs for a couple of weeks, when I found her she was 'removed' and I used the situation to have a go with raising a few queens from one of my most productive hives.
fingers crossed I'll have a few sealed QC's when I check at the weekend.

 

[Michael Palmer]

I'm using a cell starter/finisher a la Michael Palmer, thanks for sharing Mike

Thank Brother Adam for the method. What I do is just my twist on the matter.

 

[Finman]

B+ reported that the drones didn't have alot of semen for II.
You dont need mating weather for II.
My understanding is Drones like workers need good supplies of pollen for at least the first 8 days of life to 'mature properly'. I'm coming round to believe that a lack of pollen may be a 'silent' cause of colony demise, perhaps also affecting the potential fertility of drones? Pollen gets consumed rapidly during colony buildup & stores may only last a few days?

Very strange queen rearing...
.

 

[B+.]

Very strange queen rearing...
.

Its not unusual for immature drones to not evert properly or have low semen loads. In fact, it is quite well documented (https://youtu.be/iVjLkUVt-Lg?t=3m4s).

 

[foghornleghorn]

Stuck in my first go earlier, does anyone know if there's a grafting tool like the stainless steel spoon types with a plunger like on the Chinese tool? Couldn't get the hang of the Chinese one at all

 

[Finman]

Its not unusual for immature drones to not evert properly or have low semen loads. In fact, it is quite well documented (https://youtu.be/iVjLkUVt-Lg?t=3m4s).

Why don't you shoose such time of summer that things are OK.

What about your early swarms?
What happens to those virgings?

 

[Teemore]

Starting to see numbers of drones on the wing and have had some reports of swarming locally. That usually a good indicator that grafting can commence. I "plan" to create a Q- cell starter on Saturday and graft on Monday/possibly Tuesday evening depending on other commitments.....

 

[madasafish]

I inserted cloake board divider today to make the up brood box Q-. Punching begins tomorrow. I recognise it is early but I am using early tries as practise runs: ANY queens raised will be a bonus.

 

[B+.]

Why don't you shoose such time of summer that things are OK.

What about your early swarms?
What happens to those virgings?

They're for a special breeding project Finman. Its not the same as an ordinary open mated queen. The schedule I posted earlier will give you an indication of what I'll be doing with them.

 

[mbc]

Thank Brother Adam for the method. What I do is just my twist on the matter.

Despite differences in approaches I have a lot of respect for Brother Adam but after several readings of his books I still couldn't grasp the details of his queen rearing methods, your "twist " on it I found easy to follow hence the acknowledgement, ta.

 

[protheroe]

Started last week but shook an unmarked supersedure queen in while strengthening the top box so no takes.found her Thursday and requeened another hive.grafted yesterday and it looks like 25 takes.made it queenright earlier so hope they keep building cells.last year they stopped drawing them on a few occasions.

 

[madasafish]

18 cell punches today into top box above cloake board.
Don't expect a high success rate: cold weather and out of practise./eyes getting worse (age)

 

[foghornleghorn]

Had a quick look in today, 15 out of 30 started. Happy with that for a first ever go

 

[wightbees]

That's good start foghorn, what method did you use?

 

[foghornleghorn]

Queen less double brood shook into one box 9 days after when tearing down queen cells

 

[birdsandbees]

Just an update on my first foray into small scale intensional queen rearing (as opposed to using swarm cells)
I only grafted seven onto a a bar, six of which are now capped so I'm pretty chuffed with that, one they seem to have gone bonkers with is so long it barely fitted into a roller cage! It's either going to be a big queen or as I suspect just has lots of room.

 

[B+.]

I grafted 2 bars of 15 cells from 55-2-70-2016 (https://youtu.be/KGZ0ZmN-W8M VSH A.m.c) this afternoon. It was only 11 degrees so I could have done with a warmer day to do that.

 

[birdsandbees]

I grafted 2 bars of 15 cells from 55-2-70-2016 (https://youtu.be/KGZ0ZmN-W8M VSH A.m.c) this afternoon. It was only 11 degrees so I could have done with a warmer day to do that.

Nice looking queen and bees, I do like the look of a nice big queen, fingers crossed for the graft.