Using the Cupkit kit.

[Heather]

Queen cups - just melted down nice fresh wax and dipped a plastic thin pen end in water then wax, repeated the wax dips till nice and firm and eased off and stuck about 20 of them each about 1" apart onto a frame with 2 lower bars. So if I fill each with 1 larvae and they develop 5 I will be pleased.
Will see what to do next after the lessons at Stoneleigh

 

[Poly Hive]

I have to do something to pass the time Admin...LOL

We have had a very interesting few days with an electrical firm. They will NOT be returning here.

One concern Heather is how are you planning on handling the cells?

My cups go on to plugs which in turn sit in a bar machined for them with 18mm holes. Thus I can move the cells as I wish without touching them.


PH

 

[Heather]

I was thinking that when fully capped and maturing I would scalpel through the thick wax above the cell and meld the cell into a drawn frame in the new Nuc.
I have given each bar quite a depth of wax for the cup to hang from....

 

[Poly Hive]

The active word being gently.....

PH

 

[Heather]

I am always gentle with my bees - you know that
My other Nuc was active today- not sure if queen emerged but didn't want to disturb them. She is due out of cell today. Weather not too good in next couple of days - but warm enough, and drones are out and about now.

 

[MJBee]

Good advice again PH thanks, I will try them with a frame of eggs tomorrow.
The Queen was confined to the Jenter cage midday yesterday and today at noon she had laid a good 3/4 of the cells so released her - so far so good
three days with a frame of eggs should confirm the starter hive is queenless before the cells are introduced.
Mike

 

[Poly Hive]

No MJ.

Three days with a frame of eggs might mean they are just hatching as you remove them. Unlikely but you never know. Try and give them a frame of open brood with some young larvae to tempt them.

PH

 

[MJBee]

Understood - will do - thanks. Mike

 

[FenBee]

As I am a new beek, I know only what I have read in books on queen rearing and that is not a great deal to date. However, I have one question, how do you ensure the linage of the new queen? In other words how do you avoid a queen that lays aggressive bees?

 

[Poly Hive]

By selecting quiet colonies to propagate from and the more often that is done the more quiet lineage drones there will be for them to mate with.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

PH was that post straight out of the Roger Patterson guide to rearing british queens ?

I understand what you are saying and agree on paper its a good idea,but it seems out of our control with so many imported queens.

 

[marcros]

Will see what to do next after the lessons at Stoneleigh

See you there!

 

[jon]

Admin.
I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of beekeepers in the UK have never bought an imported queen, especially the older beekeepers.
If your own colonies have lots of drones and you only select from quiet bees you will almost certainly make progress regarding the character of subsequent generations.

 

[Hivemaker.]

And i would hazard a guess that the vast majority have,so depends to some extent on the density of bee keepers in your area,and what they have.

 

[Poly Hive]

Dear Admin.

Would I ever read or quote from that source?

Wash your fingers with very strong soap please!

It is long standing advice that Brother Adam would have done well to have heeded.

PH

 

[MJBee]

Heather,
For your next bash at Queen rearing you may like to try the following which I pinched from the Teesbees.co.uk website. It will let you use your own wax cell cups and give the mobility that PH talks about:- QUOTE

A brood frame was adapted by adding two additional horizontal bars. A packet of wooden dolly pegs was purchased from my local hardware store and cut approx. 1?" from the top. The horizontal bars were marked using the dolly pegs as guides and cut halfway to accommodate the pegs which would hang suspended by their round tops. I managed to space out 9 pegs per bar.UNQUOTE

Hope this is of use Mike

 

[Poly Hive]

I will post up some pics of my system which involves buying two lengths of round dowel and a bit of plywood. Verra expensive way of doing it... LOL

PH

 

[MJBee]

The following is a quote from a post by PH made in Dec 08:-

" Q rearing is not for the faint hearted as some heavy handling is needed and the bees sting ferociously when q-. A good bee suit is not a nice to have but an essential."

The weather has been very iffy and I was not able to get a frame of young larvae into my cell starter to check queenless so I made up a nuc with young bees from two supers on a very strong colony and two frames of emerging brood. The cell starter hive was very very fiesty - out in their hundreds and trying every which way to get at me.
Today the weather was better and I made up 18 cells for the nuc and 20 for the starter hive. I KNOW the nuc is queenless and am PRETTY SURE the starter hive is queenless too - I'll find out in a few days.

When do you check for acceptance? day 8 when cells should be capped?
Regards Mike

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi MJBee

You wrote;

When do you check for acceptance? day 8 when cells should be capped?

Mike by this comment I take it you are discussing whether the cells have a queen in them?

If so its no good inspecting them when the cells are sealed because how would you know if there was a larvae in Royal Jelly?

I inspect mine 5 days after transfer from kit to frame, then if the bees are going to build around the larvae they will have started building up fairly quickly.

I have had one occasion where the bees built lovely queen cells along a frame and when I inspected the cells one cell had nothing in it.

So please check before the cells are sealed.

I have just read a post prior to this and Mike you say you managed 9 pegs along a bar. When placing these pegs in place them close together as bees will find it easier to work them instead of spaced out. Notice how close they can be on a natural frame with queen cells.

Regards;

 

[Poly Hive]

You can see the acceptance the next day.

Capped with no larvae? Now thats a new one.

If the larvae is of no use to the bees they ignore it or dump it with in hours.

PH