first time grafting queens

[Bee Happy]

Neato, I'm not feeling ready to try queen grafting yet, but that day may come.

[mherndon]

Should the cell bar be put in the hive before grafting for the bees to clean and get their scent on it?  I read somewhere that this should be done to help the bees take it quick when the grafts are added later.

Mark

[Michael Bush]

>Should the cell bar be put in the hive before grafting for the bees to clean and get their scent on it?

I have done this and not done this.  I don't see that much difference, but maybe a little.  The number of bees in the starter, on the other hand, makes a huge difference.

[timjea]

So how do you get that many nurse bees?  LEts say I have 4 colonies, and I want to use a 5 frame deep nucbox.  Do I shake nurse bees from all four of my colonies to create the needed amount?  Won't that cause a bunch of fighting?  I suppose I could spray them with 1:1 with HBH to mask their different smells.  Secondly I'll guess the nuc should be arranged as 2 frames of honey / pollen on outsides, capped brood on positions 2 and 4, and then the grafted cells in position 3?

[Michael Bush]

You can shake them in...  nurse bees seldom fight.  The more usually way to up the density is to remove boxes, rather  than add bees...

[bailey]

ok the results.
i only got 1 viable cell from the first grafting, it emerged today!!
poor quality photo but the virgin queen is there!  :-D




bailey.

[Klepto Kangaroo]

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

ok..thanks

i tried royal jelly and some yogurt mix that was supposed to work
although i can't say it worked a whole lot...it could have been me taking to big of larva though too :/