Queen cells

[Tom Bick]

Very happy with my first attempt at grafting managed eleven out of fourteen and to be honest would have been happy with three.

Only one problem I only have six mating nucs so a few hours in the workshop to knock out four more.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well done!
No wonder you're pleased

 

[Tom Bick]

Thanks, but I think I struck lucky, its good fun and highly recommended

 

[Tom Bick]

Not as confident tonight as I had a quick peek only to give me confidence that I had perhaps picked the right age of larvae. Of the eleven started queen cells one was empty and looking abandoned one had become the start of what looks like comb building and another two very long and not looking right, two were sealed and look great, three look as though they are in the process of being sealed and two perhaps a bit later.

So given what I have seen tonight with no experience of what I am looking at other than nine years of seeing queen cells on comb I am thinking I will be happy with five queens but will settle for any. The cells are different to what I am used to seeing clean almost white/yellow wax and will be interesting what colour and appearance they will be when I transfer them to the mating nucs.

Even though I think a few will fail I still intend to knock up three more mating nucs tomorrow morning. This is good good fun and fills a gap as in June things go a bit flat.

 

[protheroe]

hi tom,the cell that has comb being built around it will be ok.just tear the comb from around the cell and pop it in the nuc.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Hi Tom, I'm also looking to give this a go for the first time this week. Did you just use a queenless colony to raise those cells or a more sophisticated starter/finisher set up?

I have a colony where the 2013 queen is trying to swarm for the second time this season so yesterday I removed her. I wondered about removing the next crop of emergency queen cells in 6 days and then putting my grafts (from less swarmy bees) into the hive whilst hopefully the bees are still in swarm mode?

 

[Tom Bick]

hi tom,the cell that has comb being built around it will be ok.just tear the comb from around the cell and pop it in the nuc.

Thanks for the advice I will pop it into a mating nuc.

 

[Tom Bick]

Hi Tom, I'm also looking to give this a go for the first time this week. Did you just use a queenless colony to raise those cells or a more sophisticated starter/finisher set up?

I have a colony where the 2013 queen is trying to swarm for the second time this season so yesterday I removed her. I wondered about removing the next crop of emergency queen cells in 6 days and then putting my grafts (from less swarmy bees) into the hive whilst hopefully the bees are still in swarm mode?

I am using a Q - hive just so happened to go Q - along with two other hive??

The other thing I did was to place an empty drawn comb into the doner hive five days before grafting. I was a day late with my grafting and planned to do the grafts on day four and expected the five days to long for young larva but the frame was full of eggs and a small patch of cells with royal jelly in them with tiny tiny larva almost difficult to see.

If I have any advice from my first attempt is if you can see the larva in the bottom of the cell it's probably to old so look for tiny amounts of royal jelly and there will be one in there.

Two of my grafts were capped yesterday so on day five so I perhaps picked a couple slightly older than the rest. I cannot stress how small they are perhaps slightly larger than an egg but curled up slightly and laying in a pool of royal jelly of similar colour.

Good luck it's great fun and a good thing to try.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Thanks for the advice Tom. Earlier in the year I attended a queen rearing practical session at our association apiary and yes, I was surprised, the 'ideal larvae' were much smaller than I would have presumed prior to being shown. I've got a few mating nucs made up, I can't wait to get going now. I'll be delighted if I can raise even 2 or 3 first time around.
JM

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not too early to start a Christmas list

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Now there's a snazzy little fashion accessory!

 

[Tom Bick]

Not too early to start a Christmas list

Have you got a pair EricA or has anyone used them and are they any good? perhaps good for other things other than beekeeping?

 

[Erichalfbee]

They are brill for lots of close up work.Mine had a built in light. I used to use them for suturing blood vessels and such like. Left them behind alas
Expensive...Jewellers loupes might be cheaper

 

[fatshark]

Have you got a pair EricA or has anyone used them and are they any good? perhaps good for other things other than beekeeping?

I'd recommend a cheapo pair of reading glasses and a good LED headtorch. Together they'll be less than £17. Both will likely be useful for other things, though I deliberately use much stronger reading glasses for grafting than I'd use for reading.

Hint … go into an opticians are try some, looking at type ~12 inches away. Find what strength allows you to see the commas easily. Buy them somewhere cheaper … unless you're selling a lot of honey these days.

 

[Tom Bick]

Thanks for the replies. Don't know about reading glasses as my eye sight is not to bad and was ok on the grafting it's just that the ones in the photo look as though they could be useful, I don't know what for right now but they could be useful. Does anyone know where you can get them.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ha....the ones in the picture are nearly a grand !!!!
If you look up jewellers loupe on E bay there are some under a tenner.

 

[Tom Bick]

Ha....the ones in the picture are nearly a grand !!!!
If you look up jewellers loupe on E bay there are some under a tenner.

Mmmmmm perhaps a bit beyond my pocket

I had a look on the old internet and a few similar things popped up and very cheap so may try one out.

Cheers

 

[urbantribe]

hi,
a good option is the mini nuc polystyrene.
with a small amount of bees you can have a new queen.
regards
paulo

 

[madasafish]

I use the Fatman system as my eyesight is poor,, http://tinyurl.com/pvehz45

Q-half full size nuc bursting with bees, queen cell protectors near hatching and 3 frame mating nucs.

 

[urbantribe]

for the next year I'll try a box containing 3 nuc.
each frame comprises a frame Langstroth divided in half.
I'm building a box like this but smaller, with only 2 half frames and feeder
can see writing on google (Mini-núcleos de fecundação de raínhas "Vale do Rosmaninho") blog name(vale do rosmaninho)