Saving royal jelly for grafting

[Suzi Q]

In doing an A/S the other day I removed a number of Q cells; is it possible to collect and save the royal jelly for grafting on another day? Does royal jelly keep in the fridge, or freeze well? And if so does the royal jelly need to be diluted when grafting?

 

[Norton]

Stores for up to 2 years in freezer. Dilute with about 50% distilled water.

 

[beekeeping4you]

The grub does not need 'wet' grafting on diluted royal jelly, the assumed positive effect of this method is questionable, but it makes dropping down of the grub easier because it will be left floating on a drop of liquid.
It is more important to use only the youngest larvae and practise until you master the process of transfer. The bees in your cell raiser will let you know...

12-hour larvae grafted 'dry', but they are always transferred with a little bit of the larval food they were already supplied with by the nurse bees...

 

[Norton]

I prefer "wet" as I have to graft a large number and I often work alone. It enables me to work faster and "store" the grafted bars, without the danger of the larvae drying out, until I can place them in the cell builders. I graft around 500 cells a week from March till October, for my own use and for other beekeepers.

 

[madasafish]

Lovely pics - thanks

 

[beekeeping4you]

I prefer "wet" as I have to graft a large number and I often work alone. It enables me to work faster and "store" the grafted bars, without the danger of the larvae drying out, until I can place them in the cell builders. I graft around 500 cells a week from March till October, for my own use and for other beekeepers.

Hi Norton,
My recommendation was aimed at beekeepers ringing in early spring and asking for a queen because they found their colony queenless or with a drone-laying queen. Instead of giving the standard advice to insert a full frame containing some open brood from a donor colony we provided them with three grubs as a 'first aid' which sometimes (not always!) solved the problem - first free demonstration of grafting included.

(Aha! 500 x 4 x 6 = 12000 !!! )
Regards
Reiner

 

[Norton]

Not all of them end up as mature cells, I also produce royal jelly for which I have a regular clientele.

 

[fatshark]

Reiner is that cell cup holder made out of a beer/coke tin? Presumably stuck in place with a dab of wax? I've previously added a cell bar with grafts to a suspected queenless colony (certainly no need for a full frame), but your approach is even neater. Of course, if they're queenright then nothing wil happen and it's minimally disruptive.

 

[beekeeping4you]

Reiner is that cell cup holder made out of a beer/coke tin? Presumably stuck in place with a dab of wax? I've previously added a cell bar with grafts to a suspected queenless colony (certainly no need for a full frame), but your approach is even neater. Of course, if they're queenright then nothing wil happen and it's minimally disruptive.

holder made out of a beer/coke tin? = yes

stuck in place with a dab of wax? = a drop of liquid wax

Regards
Reiner

 

[Suzi Q]

Thanks for the replies. Judging by your picture, Reiner, the larvae I choose were too old, but my one and only Q cell out of twelve, is a beauty, fat, and pitted, and the bees are climbing all over it.

 

[mbc]

Thanks for the replies. Judging by your picture, Reiner, the larvae I choose were too old, but my one and only Q cell out of twelve, is a beauty, fat, and pitted, and the bees are climbing all over it.

Its possible to cut out any chance of choosing too old larvae and also give the bees a chance to choose which larvae are destined to be queens by putting an empty warmed up comb in the middle of the brood nest of your chosen queen for her to lay up and transferring this comb of eggs into your cell starter for the eggs to hatch. Not only will you know the age of the larvae but the queenless bees will have already copiously fed some that they've chosen, making them the right choice from the bees point of view and also easier to graft as they're already floating on a biggar pool of jelly.

Nice idea with the push in cells Reiner, I might nick it and try that myself

 

[susbees]

Nice idea with the push in cells Reiner, I might nick it and try that myself

That's what I was thinking...neat way of hopefully sorting problems while preserving stocks in what looks like being a high-dependence year for mentoring...

 

[Black Comb]

Yes, good idea Reiner.
How do you transport them around?

 

[beekeeping4you]

How do you transport them around?

They are transported together with the blue piece of polystyrene shown on the photograph, wrapped in several layers of kitchen paper with the inner layer slightly moistened. The grubs are not very sensitive to a drop in temperature and normally do not travel more than an hour.

Regards
Reiner

 

[moo]

Glad I read this... Especially for delayed queen rearing years like this one!

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[Roger]

Brilliant idea Reiner, thank you for sharing, I'm off to make a few.

Regards
Roger