Larva but why not eggs? Nicot and grafting

[Mateo W]

I am trying my hand at making queens and have one of those Nicot boxes on the go. Now the queen has laid it out yesterday so I have one day old eggs right now. I will be releasing her now as she has done her job. My question is since I am in there anyway is there any reason I shouldn't move the 1 to 2 day old eggs to there queen frames and inset them into their new queenless builder colony? I am wondering because all the advice in grafting says to move them when the eggs have hatched and the brood are a day or 2 old. Will the eggs fall out? will the larva not adhere to the bottom (top) of the cell. Thanks

 

[madasafish]

Bees tend to eat eggs not produced by their own queen. You cannot usually move them to a different colony. Larvae are accepted though

 

[Mateo W]

That never occurred to me, Thanks. Will act appropriately and wait another day.

 

[juno]

That never occurred to me, Thanks. Will act appropriately and wait another day.

How did this work out for you Mateo W.?
I’m thinking of trying the same set up next year.

 

[Mateo W]

Very little success the bees only capped 3 cells and of the three I got 2 virgins and of the 2 I got one mated queen, I am sure after the fact that the hive wasn't big enough or the bees just weren't interested. I will try again next year and carry over what I learned this year

 

[Andy]

Very little success the bees only capped 3 cells and of the three I got 2 virgins and of the 2 I got one mated queen, I am sure after the fact that the hive wasn't big enough or the bees just weren't interested. I will try again next year and carry over what I learned this year

I had a rubbish first round hand grafting, but with specs (magnifiers+powerful light) on, the next time it worked well. I used the Ben Harden method which worked really well. The colony keeps operating more or less as normal. Don't miss the last emergency queen cell if you pop them in another hive that you are going to use to finish them :< The new queen ripped open all but 6 cells before I noticed. I had over 16 cells which was soul destroying.

However, my mating success was a lot lower, but I gather even the pros in my area struggled this year.

I'll definitely be using the same technique next year. I also did one where I popped the larvae into a demaree. That worked although I didn't have as many take.

 

[juno]

Very little success the bees only capped 3 cells and of the three I got 2 virgins and of the 2 I got one mated queen, I am sure after the fact that the hive wasn't big enough or the bees just weren't interested. I will try again next year and carry over what I learned this year

Thanks for letting me know. I’ll explore other possible options I think before investing in too much equipment.