Queen Rearing Kits and Mini Nucs, Which One?

[jezd]

I tried grafting last year and am trying cupkit this year. I think cupkit is easier. Perhaps the take rate is less, but that doesn't worry me. What would worry me would be if I was getting less good queens... but no evidence of that is there?

Working cupkit here too, started a little late due to drone shortage but just checked for eggs tonight and she had layed in every single cup - very pleased. In terms of preperation I used a new kit but applied honey to each cup with a kids paint brush and left for a couple of days. Next I placed it in with the bees to warm it up and clean it out for 24hrs, once clean I locked the queen in the cupkit cage for 24hrs and hey presto part one done and 100 eggs.

Will be using a large double brood hive to act as starter and finisher, using cloake board to make top part queenless (as QC starter) for a few days before reuniting (as QC finisher).

JD

 

[Polyanwood]

I was told to paint the outside of the cups on the bar with wax... not sure if it helps... not heard of painting the inside of the tiny cups the queen lays in with honey, but I see it makes sense.

 

[jezd]

I was told to paint the outside of the cups on the bar with wax... not sure if it helps... not heard of painting the inside of the tiny cups the queen lays in with honey, but I see it makes sense.

My first time on this system, I may have heard wrong in doing the honey thing in the cup, but it worked and every cell had an egg in it.

This was a brand new kit mind.

 

[marcros]

My first time on this system, I may have heard wrong in doing the honey thing in the cup, but it worked and every cell had an egg in it.

This was a brand new kit mind.

When I use the cupkit system, I take a piece of brace comb if available, and smear it over the face of the cupkit cassette (with cups in place). I put it in the hive for 24 hours. After this time, it has been cleaned out by the bees and the cups are readily laid up.

 

[RoofTops]

Priming the cups with honey is what Nicoplast, who make the simliar Corpularva casette recommend. Another tip is to use one of the cream coloured sockets to remove the brown cup from the back of the cassette as sometimes they can get stuck, particularly if you have sprayed them with sugar syrup.

 

[jezd]

the biggest trick I have used to date was to apply petroleum jelly to the box cover/QE fixings, they are too tight when new and would have caused damage trying to open up when on the hive

 

[darrenperrett]

the biggest trick I have used to date was to apply petroleum jelly to the box cover/QE fixings, they are too tight when new and would have caused damage trying to open up when on the hive

Good idea Jezd.
I thought i was going to break the QE when i went in to release the Queen.

BTW, I Didn`t prime my cups with anything and she had layed them up ok. Whether i manage to get any mated Q`s out of it is another question.
My enthusiasm always seems to be well ahead of my practical experience, lol.

Darren.

 

[Poly Hive]

Bcrazy? Whyn on earth are you using a pipette? Suction applied to a larvae cannot be good at all for her. Bearing in mind she is to head your hive for three years would it not be good practice to practice what all the serous queen rearers do which is to lift the larvae out GENTLY.

Using a grafting tool, you can press the metal into the wax of the cup to allow a gentle landing of the grub.

All these ideas are not new, they are tried and tested over (I guess by now millions of grafts)

so why try to invent a new way?

PH

 

[jezd]

Update on my first run, from 20 egg cups I have had only 2 taken and almost capped off - bit disappointed but I will start the process again this week.

The hard part with the cupkit system is getting the cup out of its box socket, I need to find an easy/quick way to do it.

JD

 

[RoofTops]

The hard part with the cupkit system is getting the cup out of its box socket, I need to find an easy/quick way to do it.

JD

See my reply above - use the cream coloured socket the cup is going to be fitted to as a tool for removing it from the cassette.

Sorry to hear the acceptance was so poor. The main thing with queen rearing is to have lots of well fed nurse bees but changes in the weather can make them change their minds about queen rearing. I used a beefood containing pollen this year and smeared it on the grafting frame as well as a larger amount above the brood frames. The bees wolfed it down. I only got 10 out of 16 sealed cells and the ones which were not accepted were mostly the first ones I grafted and I think they dried out while I was grafting the cups at the other end of the bar. A solution to this might have been to prime each cup with diluted royal jelly stolen from an unsealed queen cell but the best solution might be just to get better and quicker at grafting! Or use a Cupkit of course.

 

[jezd]

thanks, I think I just need to be quicker on transferring cups.

next batch starts tomorrow.

Jez

 

[robertodemarco]

can you give me the suppliers name & addressx of the nuc's pleaswe.

 

[The Apprentices]

Hi All

Being a newbie to Queen Rearing, I was looking at ordering a Queen rearing kit and Mini Nuc, there are a few different ones out there and wondered which ones you prefer and which ones to keep clear off?

Any Advice would be great thanks.

Mark.

Have you had a flick through Dave Cushman's site yet, there are several tried and tested methods there including cell punches.

 

[Crg]

My first time on this system, I may have heard wrong in doing the honey thing in the cup, but it worked and every cell had an egg in it.

This was a brand new kit mind.

I used to apply wax to the cells, but this year ran an experiment and found it doesn't matter. What matters is how much the queen wants to lay eggs, which you can help by providing plenty of neopoll/pollen if there's not much pollen coming in.

 

[Crg]

Update on my first run, from 20 egg cups I have had only 2 taken and almost capped off - bit disappointed but I will start the process again this week.

Did you transfer the cups as eggs or larvae?

 

[Crg]

thanks, I think I just need to be quicker on transferring cups.

You have a fair amount of time. People have taken grubs from my place and transported around London before putting them in queen raising colonies.

The acceptance has varied from a couple accepted to 90% accepted, and I think that's more to do with the bees in the queen rearing colony that anything.

Some bees are more accepting than others.

 

[Spomenko]

You can drill holes in wood, the size of the cell, then soak in the wax, put the egg (larva), a little royal jelly from other cells, all to put on the frame, frame in a good colony of bees with a blocking Queen nut and that's it.

 

[drstitson]

live material for grafting is well recognised to survive transatlantic travel if wrapped in damp cloth so cross london no problem.