Grafting

[jeff33]

MBC when you say cull anything dubious you mean the smallest capped queen cells and just keep the fat ones?

 

[mbc]

MBC when you say cull anything dubious you mean the smallest capped queen cells and just keep the fat ones?

Or overly long, or narrow at the end, or smooth when the others are dimpled, or have an unfavourable look for any other reason.
I had 35 takes from 40 grafts to put into mating nucs yesterday and they all looked pretty good but I forced myself to choose a couple to cull just because I believe it's good practice to do so.
Almost everything in nature can be described by a bell curve, including how "good" your resulting queens are from grafting and it's a dam sight easier nipping off the unproductive tail of the curve to push up the mean than it is to extend the very best end in my experience.

 

[jeff33]

Thanks for that and the quality of their offsprings will be only as good as the drones they mate with.

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks for that and the quality of their offsprings will be only as good as the drones they mate with.

Hence the application of II using selected drones!

 

[Repwoc]

The larvae I choose are really small - sometimes I wonder if picking larger ones with more royal jelly would be better.

The queens from my first batch of grafts all emerged yesterday and last night - bang on time for 24 hr old larvae.

 

[jeff33]

Good news and good eye to pick the right larvae!!

 

[Repwoc]

Good news and good eye to pick the right larvae!!

I hope so. They are all in Kielers in my garage now, so fingers crossed.