Getting ready for the coming season.

[Tremyfro]

Here is photo of the queen cassette....wired into a frame.
The start of a new venture into rearing some queens.....interesting times.
Will she / won't she lay some eggs in here....we will see...first it will go in the hive for a few days for the bees to clean and give it the 'lived in ' smell.
The photo may be upside down but when you click on it to enlarge it...it miraculously turns the right way up.....wonderful these computers .....I haven't worked out which button to press to put this right...tee Hee.

 

[dclewis]

I haven't used one of those but I thought that you fitted the plastic cassette into a drawn frame of comb. No point in caging the queen into a frame that only has foundation I wouldn't have thought.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I haven't used one of those but I thought that you fitted the plastic cassette into a drawn frame of comb. No point in caging the queen into a frame that only has foundation I wouldn't have thought.

You cut a hole into an existing brood frame, insert the jenter cartridge, leave in for the bees to make it part of the hive, then catch your queen, trap her inside the cage with the cups, wait for her to lay in them then whip them out and put them into your cell raiser hive.

 

[Tremyfro]

I don't have a spare drawn brood frame...I am sure they will have a go at drawing it out...then it will blend in a bit more. If they don't like it I will have to sacrifice some drawn super frames. This is my experimental year...finding out what can happen. At least it is in the brood frame and I can easily add drawn wax next to it. Atm the queen is laying in a super frame...which had been Nadired so I can use that if necessary....we shall see.
Too early yet...on our hill but just getting ready. The first dandelions are out in the field. Once things get going a bit more....then the fun starts.

 

[B+.]

the jenter cartridge

Is that a Jenter? It looks more like the new (smaller) Nicot cages to me.
I have 3 of the larger (110 cell) Nicot cages and with everything that has been said. The queen is reluctant to lay in a void. She lays ok if the cage is surrounded by comb but it isn't really part of her brood nest if it only has foundation around it.
If you have a queen in her prime and is in peak laying condition and the cage is inserted in the middle of the brood nest, you might just get her to lay it up.

 

[Tremyfro]

Right.....but it was good practise....I will surround it with a brood comb.
See how much we learn when we do something incorrectly. I will have a rustle through the hive and see what I can steal.

 

[REDWOOD]

Good luck.

 

[Jimmy]

I'd also remove the vertical red plastic strips as they will reduce the available laying space.
I have a brood box worth of the plastic frames and there was no loss of strength with the strips removed.