Grafting first queen cells of the season.

[Hivemaker.]

Plenty of drones around already this spring, so looking good for an earlier start to queen rearing this year.

 

[For want of a better word]

Plenty of drones around already this spring, so looking good for an earlier start to queen rearing this year.

Summer time starts on Sunday... and Egg Day is on the 21st.......

 

[B+.]

Plenty of drones around already this spring, so looking good for an earlier start to queen rearing this year.

You are waaaay ahead of me Hivemaker. I've just been making up (40) frames of drone foundation this afternoon with the intention of starting drone production early next month. I don't start grafting until early May.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I don't start grafting until early May.

Will do the first grafts of the season next weekend, normally start on the 13th or 14th of April, so only a few days earlier.

The quad boxes are strong enough for splitting now.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Way ahead of me HM. First graft here will be May 19. We still have snow and no pollen yet. Hoping warmer weather next week will bring on the alder.

 

[sipa]

Cell builders are strong, early drones flying and plenty more on the way so will be grafting end of the week.
Would normally be around the 15th.

 

[madasafish]

Seen one drone from my hives this year so far..

Must start Queen rearing asap - not.

 

[mbc]

I'll be looking to put some brood over queen excluders next week with a view to building a cell raisers nine days on but am not fussed if I'm knocked back a week either as next week's forecast looks unfavourable.

 

[B+.]

Plenty of drones around already this spring, so looking good for an earlier start to queen rearing this year.

There are drones here too but they're immature. They're also not the drones I want for this years II. So, I have 40 frames of drone foundation being drawn out. This will be used on my chosen colonies to get LOTS of the specific drones I want. Then, they'll be transferred into support colonies to look after until maturity.

 

[Hivemaker.]

There are drones here too but they're immature.

If you started grafting tomorrow the drones would be fertile by the time your virgins were ready to mate.

 

[B+.]

If you started grafting tomorrow the drones would be fertile by the time your virgins were ready to mate.

I prefer to wait. We have 0C forecast for Tuesday night and -2C for Wednesday night. Even day temperatures aren't forecast to return to double digits until next Sunday.

 

[Hivemaker.]

We have 0C forecast for Tuesday night and -2C for Wednesday night.

Doubt there will be a frost here, but if there is the cucumbers, pepper plants and lemon trees, etc, will be okay, have got the heating on.

 

[Show me the honey]

I prefer to wait. We have 0C forecast for Tuesday night and -2C for Wednesday night. Even day temperatures aren't forecast to return to double digits until next Sunday.

-2!!! God bless the south west! 4C is our lowest and that’s night double digits all week caught the sun this week to!

 

[jeff33]

Sorry to hijack gents but on the subject of cell builders and as I will only try to raise a maximum of 10 queens, could I get the same result by using a strong nuc bursting with young bees and transfer to a full colony as a finisher?

 

[masterBK]

To raise 10 queens you should aim at producing 20 Q cells as a 50% success rate in terms of producing fully mated laying queens is to be expected and be pleased if you beat that.
A nucleus set up as a swarm box works OK as a cell starter if loads of young workers and no queen present and plenty of stores especially pollen present. Also best to not have any competing young brood present so all the royal jelly produced by the nurse bees goes to the potential queen larvae. Also best to feed if doing it during the cold spell.

 

[Eyeman]

Production hives need splitting as I've removed all the stores and now little or no room. So this is my signal to start the cell builders.
Who knows, may even get 3 rounds of grafting in this season rather than the usual 2.

 

[wightbees]

Mine went in 2 days ago, will check this weekend to see how it went!

 

[Poly Hive]

Good luck guys.

At 6am this morning when I was out with our injured whippet it was white over. A hard hard frost with the stars twinkling away.

I have not yet managed to open all the hives due to the continuing cold weather and am now some 4 weeks behind with a cheerful forecast telling me this is going on for at least another 10 days.

Now where is that fondant again?

A totally fed up PH.

 

[Teemore]

Amazing the regional variations we see. It was just starting to frost up as i left for work this morning.

I haven't looked into all my colonies as yet but in spite of frequent nighttime/early morning dips below freezing over the past few weeks, I am seeing sealed drone brood in a lot of colonies. Apiaries with less early pollen and nectar are two to three weeks behind though. I have yet to see any adult drones or flying drones for that matter but fully anticipate starting Queen rearing 3-4 weeks ahead of last year. First supers will be on all my stocks by Saturday.

 

[jeff33]

As its my first attempt at grafting, I will be happy with 25% take up on grafts. I will probably do as many as possible on a cell frame to increase chances.

I have set aside a strong hive as cell raiser so may still use it and split afterwards.

To raise 10 queens you should aim at producing 20 Q cells as a 50% success rate in terms of producing fully mated laying queens is to be expected and be pleased if you beat that.
A nucleus set up as a swarm box works OK as a cell starter if loads of young workers and no queen present and plenty of stores especially pollen present. Also best to not have any competing young brood present so all the royal jelly produced by the nurse bees goes to the potential queen larvae. Also best to feed if doing it during the cold spell.