Micro queen rearing

[Finman]

The goal: Sustainable fun, with low costs. ... Good.

.

 

[piggy]

how about using the Ben Harding method with cell punches? See Dave Cushman web site.

 

[Ian123]

If you only wanted a few or dozen those cell punches where not bad but they stopped selling them years ago....Am sure you could rig something up if you wanted though

 

[piggy]

Cell punches can be made with a bit of pipe and some dowel. I think there was a thread on here last year, there is a picture on Dave Cushman. I made some last winter, cost about 25p each. Will post a picture if I can!

 

[Dutchman]

I use commercial hives with brood and a half. Easy and quick to check once a week for signs of swarming by having a quick peep between the two boxes of brood. If there are swarmcells started I use a split board and let the top box with all the flying bees turn these into nice fat queencells while the bottom box with a back entrance loses all its flying bees and consequently gives up on all its swarming plans. A week later I use the top box to make up 1, 2 or 3 nucs, each with one lovely fat queen cell and the bottom box gets most of its flying bees back and gets a new half brood on top. They fill it quickly with brood and go on to gather a good crop of honey. The nucs I use later in the year to requeen, done this for the last 15 years and always have enough new queens to keep a dozen colonies going.

 

[jeff33]

The video on queen rearing that B+ shared has a fiddlier alternative to the cell punch using a knife and cutting out cells. I think the Miller method might be easier although you cannot really control how many cells you are going to get.

 

[B+.]

The video on queen rearing that B+ shared has a fiddlier alternative to the cell punch using a knife and cutting out cells. I think the Miller method might be easier although you cannot really control how many cells you are going to get.

That's a really wasteful method. Grafting (or similar techniques - e.g. punched cells) are much more efficient

 

[jeff33]

I certainly wouldn't go for it. I have set my goal to graft this season and will stick to it. ..well unless I get 0 take after my 2nd attempt!!

 

[Finman]

I think the Miller method might be easier although you cannot really control how many cells you are going to get.

I have done it few times and it is good to a lazy beekeeper.

With one Miller frame you get 10-15 Queen cells. Oldest you cut off when you notice that they have been capped too early. Or move to the cells your larva.

Really control how many.... Enough to beginner.

When you get the virgins, you must arrange to them nucs. 20 or 30 nucs? What do you do with them?

Yeah... Straight to the top of tree.

 

[Finman]

That's a really wasteful method. Grafting (or similar techniques - e.g. punched cells) are much more efficient

That is not true. I do not understand "wastefull".

When a colony is in the swarming mode you may get good Queen cells just like that.
At same time when the colony is thinking swarming, it does the wanted queens. No need to make started hives or something else delicacy.

 

[jeff33]

That is not true. I do not understand "wastefull".

When a colony is in the swarming mode you may get good Queen cells just like that..

I think he is referring to the method in the video which cut strips of brood , not the Miller method.

 

[B+.]

That is not true. I do not understand "wastefull".

When a colony is in the swarming mode you may get good Queen cells just like that.
At same time when the colony is thinking swarming, it does the wanted queens. No need to make started hives or something else delicacy.

For each cell grafted, all those around it are sacrificed. Very wasteful

 

[Finman]

For each cell grafted, all those around it are sacrificed. Very wasteful

Oh dear...

And in Miller method larva is not grafted.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

Using Demarree for swarm avoidance gives you plenty of good quality Queen cells for nuc building or mating hives.

thanks for this j.....

does it matter that you dont know what age the larvae was that was used for the emergency q cells?

 

[Finman]

thanks for this j.....

does it matter that you dont know what age the larvae was that was used for the emergency q cells?

Normal Queen larva is fed 5 days.

Emergency queens are mostly 3 days old and is fed 2 days. It has too few royal jelly in the cell. And in a small colony emergency queens are miserable size, mostly only size of worker.

 

[bpmurray]

I tried a number of methods and found that while they worked OK, they were universally awkward, clumsy and annoying. Then I was introduced to the Vorstman method - it's perfect for me since it requires only that one be reasonably sentient and the fact that one has 10 thumbs is irrelevant.

https://bijenclub.com/wp-content/up...om/2017/04/koninginnenteelt-queen-rearing.pdf

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

thanks for this j.....

does it matter that you dont know what age the larvae was that was used for the emergency q cells?

The thing about Demarree is, they are not really emergency Queen cells, but supersedure cells.
Because the queen is still in the hive, but separated from the nurse bees by a few shallows, the bees are reassured that the queen is still there albeit the pheremone is much weaker, therefore, thinking the queen is just failing the bees don't 'panic' so much and take their time in selecting good young larvae to make new Queens (also the reason they don't make as many QC's as if you remove the queen).

When I started using this method I used to go into the hive after three or so days to check for, and remove any sealed cells which would have been made with older larvae - I seldom if ever found any. I now go in on day seven and still seldom find sealed cells, just open ones.
I'm getting to the point that, unless they're in the home apiary (where I make most of my nucs up) I don't bother with the day 3 check.
There was a paper published last year (I think Erichalfbee shared it on here) that suggested that whatever we do to try and influence them, the bees will only chose the cells they want or think viable and only with the genes they desire.

 

[B+.]

Oh dear...

And in Miller method larva is not grafted.

By "grafted" I simply meant "transferred". In the case of cutting cells, you are transferring the cell to a split cell holder (not very common here in the UK). I didn't mean the physical removal of a larva and placing it in another cell.
The cell cutting method is very wasteful.

 

[Finman]

By "grafted" I simply meant "transferred". In the case of cutting cells, you are transferring the cell to a split cell holder (not very common here in the UK). I didn't mean the physical removal of a larva and placing it in another cell.
The cell cutting method is very wasteful.

Perhaps we do not speak about same thing.

 

[Beefriendly]

There was a paper published last year (I think Erichalfbee shared it on here) that suggested that whatever we do to try and influence them, the bees will only chose the cells they want or think viable and only with the genes they desire.

Rare royal families in honeybees, Apis mellifera....2005
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-005-0025-6#page-1

Showed only certain selected lines where chosen to become queen's.
Perhaps grafting is not the way to go? as forcing unwanted queens to be made