Larvae Removal

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darrenperrett

Field Bee
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
Messages
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Location
Devon
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
10
I had a go at grafting today.

I managed to pick them up ok with my stainless steel grafting tool but i couldn`t seem to get them to come off into the little plastic cups.
I managed it in the end by pushing them off (very gently) with a fine blade of grass :)

Any tips ?

Darren
 
The chinese grafting tool was designed to overcome just that .
It has a wafer thin articulated pusher , so I guess a blade of grass is just as suitable .

John Wilkinson
 
I had a go with the Chinese tool last year, but found it damaged the larva; it may have just been me being too heavy handed.
I've used the Swiss grafting tool this year and have had very good results (7 out of 9 accepted last week). I find you need to pick them from the back of the "C" so there is some larva "hanging over the sides" of the graft tool end, then it's just a case of slowly making sure one side has contact with the cup, and Bob's your uncle, they just side off as you move the graft tool away.

Rich
 
Very fine sable artist brush,does not harm the larvae and they slide of very easy into the plastic cups i use.
 
Thanks People,

The larvae i was picking out was to small to hang over the sides of my grafting tool. They were not much bigger than an egg.
Shame you cant just hook them out with chopsticks just before they`re capped :)

Darren
 

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