Grafting - Queens died in hair roller caged QCs In queenless hive.

[greengumbo]

I had grafts (all from same hive) taken and sealed in three hives (65% average from grafts taken).

After being capped a few days (day 10) I put hair-roller cages on them and moved all the QCs from 2 of the 3 hives to my incubator set up. I was hedging my bets in case the incubator failed and so I left 14 QCs, again in hair roller cages, in the queenless hive I had used to rear them.

My incubator was a success but unfortunately when I checked the hive QCs only 2 had emerged and one had subsequently died. I opened up the remaining QCs and they seem to have died at about the day 11 mark.

We had a spell of terrible weather during development but the hive, although queenless, was strong. Could the cages have prevented the bees warming the QCs enough during the coldest period ? The fact the emerged one died indicates it was cold to me ?

I think I will just use the incubator in future unless anyone has any ideas.

 

[madasafish]

Bees normally keep QCs warm in a hive by walking around them, etc.. I had exactly the same in early June using cages on hived QCs...It was 5C or less at night...
Incubated QCs worked fine...I have decided to only cage hived QCs in the last 3 days before emergence..

 

[B+.]

.

We had a spell of terrible weather during development but the hive, although queenless, was strong. Could the cages have prevented the bees warming the QCs enough during the coldest period ? The fact the emerged one died indicates it was cold to me ?

I think I will just use the incubator in future unless anyone has any ideas.

Yes. I think you've answered your own question there.
I always transfer cells to the incubator as soon as they are sealed. You will still find the odd one doesn't emerge, but you have the certainty of knowing, which don't if they are allowed to emerge in a nuc
Of course, this brings the additional stage of introducing a virgin to a nuc.I find that leaving her caged between a couple of frames of brood/bees is the best way to do this. She gets a chance to calm down in an environment where she is protected from any aggression but also gives the bees a chance to accept her. Usually, she will be eager to run between the bars once I open the cage the next day.
I also take the opportunity to mark the virgin with numbered disks as soon as they've emerged so I can track them for life (this is important in any sort of breeding). They move slower when they've just emerged and don't try to fly if its done straight away.

 

[greengumbo]

Brilliant - thanks both for the quick answers !

Lesson learned !

 

[eltalia]

[withdrawn]

 

[maddydog]

That is painful but a lesson to us all. Lost 11 virgins myself the other day, made a slight miscalculation on dates (wrote the wrong one down) and because of commitments I was too late and one had escaped and murdered the rest. Grrr.

Quite often see workers rapidly tap qcs with the tip of their abdomen. Anyone know why?

 

[masterBK]

Quite often see workers rapidly tap qcs with the tip of their abdomen.

Answer DVAV dance inhibits virgin from coming out of cell. Associated with secondary swarming

 

[maddydog]

Thanks masterBK