Small scale queen rearing /Cornell

[Finman]

.
http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/3273/2/Queen Rearing.pdf

 

[BKF Admin]

Thank you Finman,thats a good article.

 

[Heather]

Excellent- bookmarked!
Only thing I didnt do (besides general, beginners ineptitude) was put royal jelly in beforehand to bed the grub into. But I have seen demos where this wasn't done so will try once more without just to see if it works without.

 

[BKF Admin]

I have read both for and against bothering to add royal jelly.
My understanding is if you leave a hive queenless for around 3 days the workers have plenty of jelly to feed the larvae.

Although I think from now on when I find queen cells in a hive rather than break them off and bin them I will extract the royal jelly for later use in grafting.

 

[Poly Hive]

Waste of time Admin.

The bees will throw the jelly out so why give them the work ?

The job is simple one. Have queenless bees. Offer grafts. Harvest started or finished cells depending.

Why complicate matters.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

Thanks PH,thats why I love the forum,it saves loads of time in doing practical stuff that some of the books say works best only to find its a waste of time.

 

[Finman]

.
It depends how it truly goes.

There are many cases that I made 20 grafts and got only 3-5 virgins. After mating I had not even those.

I have done second day another graft and it did not go better.

When you make it the more artificial system the more less you get results.