first time grafting queens

[bailey]

tried grafting for the first time yesterday from a really nice hive i cut out last fall.
put about 15 grafted wax cells into a starter hive full of bees and fed constantly.
24 hours after i pulled them out for a look. :lol:

it looks like i have between 5 to 8 cells that have been accepted :-D

i want to start some more queens from another hive that i plan on raising queens from but

will i have to remove the queen cells that are being developed now before starting another frame of grafts?
i want to use the same cell starter as much as i can .

will post pics as soon as the cells are capped
wo hoo! i got queen cells!
bailey

[JP]

Bailey, spoke with Alan. You will need to pull those day 9 or 10. Day 6 or 7 don't mess with them as this is the crucial stage where they can be damaged.


...JP

[Kathyp]

i got bifocal contacts.  now i can see to try this.  i just need to get to you guys and learn  :-(

[bailey]

ok here are the photos i promised.


first the cell starter full of bees.



then the queen cells 2 days after grafting.




[IMG=http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1552/qc2s.jpg][/IMG]

only got 5 cells out of 14 grafts.

have 20 more grafts in a new cell starter i made yesterday, hope the acceptance odds are better
now that i have done it twice.
bailey

[Klepto Kangaroo]

i have a couple questions about queen grafting...

i tried this last year and had a little success...but not much

first off...what size were they when you grafted them?
and what did you put into the cell?  royal jelly? or something different?

[David LaFerney]

And that last image...

[bailey]

thanks david for helping with the queen cell photo.
here is another one that thought i sent before.
hope it works.



bailey.

[bailey]

klepto,
i used the smallest larve that i could get under with my grafter and still see.
i transfered them into a dry wax cell that i made and mounted on a push pin.
only royal jelly that went in was what transfered with the larve.

i checked my second batch of grafts this morning and saw a dozen or more good cells out of 22 grafts,
might have more but i wont know till later.
bailey

[schawee]

nice pics bailey. i will try doing some grafting this month.do you have any tips? :bee:

[David LaFerney]

a dry wax cell that i made and mounted on a push pin.

That's a good idea.  Should make it pretty simple to move them into mating nucs.  That's the simplest solution to that I've heard yet.

[bailey]

Brian.
Pm me and I'll tell you what I did.

David.
Thanks! The pushpin idea just seemed to make sense.
When the cells are ready I'll grab the pin with a hemostat,
slowly pull it loose and then insert it into the topbar
of the waiting mating nuc.

[Michael Bush]

The most important thing besides the right age larvae and the timing is the cell starter needs to be overflowing with bees.  I mean packed with bees.  If the bees aren't spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.

[JP]

The most important thing besides the right age larvae and the timing is the cell starter needs to be overflowing with bees.  I mean packed with bees.  If the bees are spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.

Just for clarity sakes, I'm certain Michael meant to say "If the bees are not spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.


...JP

[bud1]

looking good there boy;bet that sawed off cajun taught you all that      ha.

[lakeman]

The most important thing besides the right age larvae and the timing is the cell starter needs to be overflowing with bees.  I mean packed with bees. If the bees are spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.

Just for clarity sakes, I'm certain Michael meant to say "If the bees are not spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.


...JP

Or he could have meant to say what he said, it being a facetious remark, whereas reading between the lines you should know he really meant you could not have too many bees, at least this is the way I had interpreted Mr. Bush's statement before you questioned it.

[David LaFerney]

It seems though that the cell starter doesn't have to be a very big hive - just crowded.  I had success on my one and only foray into this by reducing the volume of a hive using dummies.  So what started out as a single hive body was crowded into a little over half its normal space.   I've seen it stated that you can't raise queens in a nuc, but the one I got from that experience hit the ground running last summer laying lots of brood and is still going strong - so far.

[JP]

The most important thing besides the right age larvae and the timing is the cell starter needs to be overflowing with bees.  I mean packed with bees. If the bees are spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.

Just for clarity sakes, I'm certain Michael meant to say "If the bees are not spilling out of  the top when you go to put the lid on, there aren't enough.


...JP

Or he could have meant to say what he said, it being a facetious remark, whereas reading between the lines you should know he really meant you could not have too many bees, at least this is the way I had interpreted Mr. Bush's statement before you questioned it.

Yes, I can see what you mean.


...JP

[Michael Bush]

It was a typo.  Sorry.  I fixed it.  You need a box that is overflowing with bees to get a lot of good, well fed cells.

[doak]

I thought it looked correct to begin with. Over flowing with bees, "super" size colony.
I cannot find the lines you are reading between.

"If the bees aren't spilling out the top when you go to put the lid on, there are not enough bees", Insufficient amount of bees to build numerous queen cells. The only typo I see is if we cannot use the word, (NOT) :)doak

[Michael Bush]

It did say "are" now it says "aren't" because I corrected it.