shaking a frame with charged q cells

[Cuckmere couple]

Question 1

can this dislodge/disturb the egg/larvae and is therefore ill advised if you're wanting q cells to develop on that frame?

i ask because i have a q- colony and i want eggs from another q to be developed in this colony. I marked the frame with the eggs from the other colony and was able to shake off and destroy q cells from the 'resident' eggs but it was tougher to check that q cells were developing well on the desired frame

Question 2

I knocked 12 q cells from other frames to get them to concentrate on this frame....assuming that not needing to raise those will improve the q cell raising on the desired frame....is that correct?

 

[Jimmy]

Q1 answer - yes, larva can be dislodged by shaking. I've not tried it, but have been suggested to try shaking when the frame is upside down if shaking is required.

 

[madasafish]

Capped queen cells in early stages of queen rearing are best left alone as the queen can be easily damaged..

And of course the fewer larvae to feed the better for the remaining larvae- you may consider temporarily removing uncapped brood frames as well...and placing in another hive to feed.

 

[Poly Hive]

Shaking a frame with queen cells in what ever stage is not a good idea. End of.

PH

 

[Millet]

A bee brush is a wonderful thing for such occasions..

 

[Cuckmere couple]

thanks all

that was my instinct so i didnt shake the important frame

interesting idea regarding removing uncapped larvae

i have certainly removed other q cells so they can concentrate on the favoured eggs

 

[birdsandbees]

I don't think you need to worry about removing all of the bees, older bees will fairly quickly return to their hive with the encouragement of a little smoke drifted over the frame, younger bees that aren't flyers yet I find I can add with the frame without any issue of squabbling/fighting.

 

[masterBK]

It doesn't seem to cause problems for young larvae in worker cells so you could shake bees off frame of eggs/larvae that is then cut and used as miller frame or use the frame as a source of larvae for grafting.

 

[oliver90owner]

You clearly only have one frame to worry about. You are going to destroy all older queen cells on that one, too, bar the one or two younger larvae (developed from eggs). I’ve never had any bother with gentle shaking for this purpose. Avoid jolting, and brushing is clearly a better bet.

I think the fear of shaking comes from beeks not realising that it is disturbance, by shaking or jolting, of sealed queen cells that must be avoided at all costs.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Shaking a frame with queen cells in what ever stage is not a good idea. End of.

There was some discussion about this in a previous thread, a light shake is okay, when the larvae are very small, when queen cells are first sealed, not so, as the larvae is attached by strings to the royal jelly and could become detached and die.

Surely most of the bees will be clustered on the cell bar frame itself, what do you find the best way of removing these bees back into the box ?

A gentle shake does it.

I cant believe this thread is still going after advice to shake bars of q cells was given.

How Honeybees Defy Gravity with Royal Jelly to Raise Queens" - it's done by a kind of polymerisation of a couple of proteins which form 'fibrils' - these attach to the larva and hold it up against the RJ

https://www.cell.com/current-biolog...m/retrieve/pii/S0960982218302070?showall=true

 

[Cuckmere couple]

thanks oliver

yes, it was to view the q cells being developed on the frame that i want queens developed from

i should probably have cut zig zags into it (miller method)

its been 5 days....i suppose i could start again with a miller frame but probably best to leave them to it with the cells theyre making....they had made 12 on the older frames already which i knocked back so a lot of royal jelly wasted there!

 

[masterBK]

If the bees are shaken off the frame and a larvae in a queen cell gets detached from the royal jelly at the base of the cell but manages to survive the workers extend the cell producing a very elongated cell.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

very interesting indeed MBK, thanks

i will brush them to see if decent q cells are being developed, or if i need to start again with a miller frame

 

[Poly Hive]

No need to brush just bring the frame to your veil and blow.

Keep it simple eh?

I've given up on words like gentle as people perception is so varied. One person's gentle is anothers heavy handed.

PH

 

[Cuckmere couple]

yup

i did blow...there were just a lot of bees and not sure i got a comprehensive view of the frame

but anyway....im sure it will work