My first attempt didn't turn out that great. Two out of 12 grafts resulted in laying queens. It was a learning experience. I didn't want many to begin with but was hoping for more. Anyways...my second attempt is underway. I setup my queenless started on Tuesday, grafted yesterday, and transferred to the queenright finisher today.
Last time I simply took a two story five frame nuc and removed the queen with three frames and bees. I shook the other two into the queenless nuc and left the nuc in its original position. I tried to leave the, with only capped brood but inevitably that didn't work out. They made rogue queen cells, which was my first issue. Second issue was my grafting technique. I have one of those head gear things with a led light and magnification. So that was nice but I grafted in my car. I guess a lot of people do it that was but it was awful for me. My apiary is at my house. So I took that frame back to my workshop. I also build a little frame stand to hold the frame at 45 degrees. I also have a perfect counter space and bar stool that worked out great. The better lighting and working environment helped me realize that I was missing a fair amount of time. I would get the royal jelly but no larvae. I'm sure that's why most of my grafts didn't take.
This time I am using one of my two story eight frame hives. I move over mostly nectar, pollen, and empty comb. I shook in most of a deep and brought over whatever bees were on the comb and they were all put into a five frame nuc. They have ventilation on the top, bottom, and at their screened entrance, but were closed up.
Today I put everybody back together and had wax drawn out on all 14 grafts. There was one thing I noticed...my grafts on the upper cell bar were drawn out considerably more than the lower bar. Is this typical? I will likely never need to make so many queens that I will need to pack the top and bottom bar with cups. If bees prefer the upper bar over the lower I will just put all my cells along the top. Thoughts?
(http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af52/dpboll/IMG_1963_zpsgrvwu0gl.jpg) (http://s993.photobucket.com/user/dpboll/media/IMG_1963_zpsgrvwu0gl.jpg.html)