Queen rearing colony

[Stiffy]

I have a hive that is q- that I put my grafts into and they have raised some nice looking cells which are due to hatch over the next couple of days. I want to raise some more queens and was wondering if I could add the grafts to the same colony but guess the bees will be getting old (ish) and I would need to top up. Has any tried this and what problems did you have?
S

 

[oliver90owner]

The single reason why Morris boards and such like are used over strong colonies - to maintain a high density of bees around the developing larvae in the Q- compartment. Weak colonies are not used, hence why nobody tries to raise queen cells from eggs in apidae or weak nucs or even in weak full sized boxes - apart from those who don't mind about the quality of the queens being less than optimum.

Adding more emerging brood will keep the colony strong, don't need a queen in the cell raising box for that. Some of your house bees may not be that old if they were capped, only a relatively few days ago.

 

[Stiffy]

Took first queens out this evening, well pleased with them and if the rest are as good I will be pleased!
Going to leave one in colony for them to have and use another hive to raise the next batch.
S

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[Tom Bick]

Glad it's gone well for you Stiffy I will be trying my hand at grafting this year and have been waiting for an opportunity to get a hive Q - either through AS or similar and it just so happens a hive presented itself to me looking Q - and the test frame will confirm in a few days and if so I will be on for testing my eyesight this weekend. If I get a 20% take I will be more than happy but not disappointed if I fail the first attempt.