Q right

[Red Bee]

Some methods of Q rearing use a Q right colony to finish off the Q cells. So if you were to do this with a double brood colony & Q cells in upper brood box, wouldn't the original Q swarm when the grafted Q cells were sealed?

Thanks Red bee.

 

[BKF Admin]

Remember they are not swarm cells.
The queen is continued to be fed by the bees in the bottom box.
If you think of them like a supercedure cell then the queen would not be killed until the queencells hatch.

You remove the queen cells when they are sealed or ripe.
You can call it a finishing colony,once the cells are sealed they are finished and can be moved.

 

[MJBee]

I used this method last year with some success. I built the colony up until both brood boxes were full of bees and 3 supers were being filled. I then made sure the queen was in the bottom brood box put on the queen excluder then the three supers, another queen excluder, a very shallow eke with a very small entrance (to let hatching drones out) then the second brood box containing only sealed brood. The top box is so far away from the queen that it thinks it is queenless and as it has no eggs or young larvae it cannot make its own queen cells and will readily accept and finish any cells offered.

Best to move the sealed cells on day13 or 14 into mating mini nucs or nucs or put hair roller cages on. Looking for a virgin queen that may have squeezed through the top excluder and therefore has the run of 44 frames is a nightmareto be avoided. Mike

 

[Poly Hive]

I have "incubated" ripe cells in many colonies, Qr ones, but I use the top super preferbly with three supers so there is a two super buffer between her and the cells.

One has to remember that the bees know best, and in the process of producing cells, and for that matter the end result of queens, there will be losses.

From say 20 accepted grafts there are likely to be 16 odd cells produced, and if they are at the open stage given to a Q right colony they will finish them off and keep them through to hatching in cages. However there will be losses so if you end up with 14 or even 12 virgins you are doing well.

After mating then 10 good queens is a good result. It pays to kill any that seem in any way inferior. Better to take the loss at that stage than risk a main colony.

PH

 

[Red Bee]

Ideal thanks, reading up as much as I can hopefully to give Q rearing a go this season. Bit difficult to ask the books questions, so long live the beekeeping forum.

 

[Ontario Beekeeper]

I get 70-80% acceptance of started cells on a regular basis, and have had as high as 90% many times ( start to finish ).

Here is a picture of my cloake board; I use this to easily switch the hive from queen-less to queen right.



Here is an excellent link that describes how to use a cloake board :
http://www.easternmobeekeepers.com/documents/Cloake Board.pdf?itemID=10607&catID=146&SelectCatID=146

If you are not raising queens all season long, I would not go to the trouble. You can easily allow the queen-less starter to finish for you and have quality queens.

 

[Black Comb]

Thank you for the link OB.
Looks very interesting.

 

[mbc]

I've used a cloak board for years and the information in the link has opened my eyes to a few omissions in my procedure !
Thanks OB