Anyone here ever incubate queen cells?
Placed 28 cells in mating boxes from incubator Thursday, put 30 cells in incubator yesterday, and grafted 40 more cells today.
Quote from: iddee on May 11, 2019, 06:01:20 PM
Placed 28 cells in mating boxes from incubator Thursday, put 30 cells in incubator yesterday, and grafted 40 more cells today.
Now that is some serious queen raising, I like that! What time is the right time to place the incubated cells in the mating boxes?
Egg is laid on day one.
Graft on day 3.
Place in incubator on day 8 if capped.
Most always capped by day 9.
Place in mating box on day 14 or 15. Emerges on day 16.
How many mating nucs do you have going to service all those queens? And when do you make them? I would like to try grafting queens but right now I don't have the equipment.
It varies. We make up some new ones each time, as we sell off some nucs each time. Counting empty and full, I would guess we have 200 or more units. We have about 50 hives to pull bees from as we set up the mating nucs.
Iddee, do you use Chinese grafting tool ?
My grafter does.
Do y'all think it's better than German stainless steel one?
You would have to ask him. I don't do the grafting. I guess he does think it's better. It's the one he always uses.
ID, I hope you don?t mind me jumping in here.
I use the JzBz and the German grafting tool. I am not good with the Chinese tool so I use what works for me. It?s all a matter of personal preference, I could use any of the three just fine but my personal favorite is the JzBz, a plastic dip stick with a tiny lip on the end. To me, the lip slides right under the larva so easily. Just so you understand they all will work for a fella, not hard to master.
The Chinese grafting tool has a very thin soft flexible lip that a lot of folks like. They are not expensive so buy one of each, jzbz and Chinese, try them out. The German tool is stainless steel and cost as much as the other two combined, but it works.
The trick to grafting larva is to position the frames correctly; slightly tilted, clear visible lighting to the bottom of the cell and magnification is extremely helpful. Add a warm cloth to maintain moisture so the larva does not dry out. There are many YouTube videos on the subject.
If an old fella like me with 20/30 vision with hand tremor can accomplish grafting then most everybody would find it a piece of cake.
Blessings
Van, it's not that I can't, or haven't, it's just that I would rather let him do it. I have seen a guy hammer the end of a paper clip and graft. I know how, just don't want to do it.
ID Understood. I realize you been doing bees for over half century, as myself. You have much more hands on than I. I was hobbyist while you were commercial.
Is there anything doable with bees that you have not done? Just curious, where was your most painful sting. Mine was on my stomach close to belly button. For some reason the pain was excruciating for about 2 minutes, then resolved rather quickly.
Never a commercial beek, but worked for one.
Most painful?? In the tear duct at the outside corner of the eye.
Next, a half inch up the nostril.
Quote from: iddee on May 12, 2019, 09:38:50 PM
Never a commercial beek, but worked for one.
Most painful?? In the tear duct at the outside corner of the eye.
Next, a half inch up the nostril.
You really missed out by not being able to see my face when I read that.
Do you all prime your cups with royal jelly before you start a grafting session? What about Your grafter iddee? I saw a video of a fellow doing this just recently. I have watched several of these grafting videos but he is one of the few that mentioned priming the cup before hand. I caught a sting on the nostral entrance just a week or so ago and that was a tough one, glad she did not sting inside like yours did iddee, woo wee!
Let me add, I have seen a picture of a stinger IN an eyeball! That woke me up and I have purchased a veil.
We don't prime the cells, but sometimes we will place the cells in the starter hive overnight to get them cleaned and polished.
I watched some videos also, some prime with honey some 50/50 honey and water some with royal jelly.
Iddee if you don't prime cell what hold eggs ?
Quote from: MikeyN.C. on May 13, 2019, 08:56:51 AM
I watched some videos also, some prime with honey some 50/50 honey and water some with royal jelly.
Iddee if you don't prime cell what hold eggs ?
Mikey, The reason they prime with honey is so the bees will polish the cells (clean them up) before grafting or using the Nicot system. What I am talking about when I say prime with royal jelly, This fella had primed the cells with royal jelly And place the lava directly into the cells laced with royal jelly. He says this makes it easier to release the sales from the grafting tool. Honey would not work in that particular circumstance. I feel like you already knew this, but mentioned it just in case someone new might have been confused.
Phillip
Yes I think that's what they call floating the cells.
One video I watched him take his tool and dip in honey on the same frame to prime cells.
Quote from: MikeyN.C. on May 13, 2019, 09:32:42 AM
Yes I think that's what they call floating the cells.
One video I watched him take his tool and dip in honey on the same frame to prime cells.
Thanks Mikey, I learn something every day. This is the first time I heard of floating larvae in Honey. Anyone else know about this?