making a queen

[sunnybee]

I have severel questions.
#1 If i make a wire cage around a deep frame with a board of 50 cels , put the queen in the cage to lay eggs in, put the frame in the center of the hive, am i doing this part right so far?
#2 I will leave the frame in for 2 1/2 days, take it out, put the queen back in the hive adding a nother to make up for the egg laying frame. Is this right?
#3 I would take the cell cups and put them in a new frame pointing down and put in to another box of bees with no queen for the bees to feed royal jeley and close up the cell. Is thes reght?
#4 I do not have the exact dates with me but i think it is on the 12-14th day i take the cells out and put them in hair roller type cages to hatch out. After they hatch i then can put each in a maiting nuc. How big or how small can the maiting nuc be?
#5 I guess after she maits and i did mot move the queen the mating nuc would be her new home. At this point i could cage her up and sale her or use her to make a split. Is that right?
#6 A question about question # 1 . If a queen lays 1000-2000 eggs a day and i only have cells for 50 , what will the queen do after she lays the 50 eggs?
#7 About question # 3 . For this nurcing box of bees that will feed royal jeley and close the cell, I am thinking i make it up by taking a frame of broud, a frame of homet, then put in my frame with the new layed eggs. Is this right?
#8 With me just starting out and have not gone in to a honey crop , i need to have my broud boxes built up almost to a spliting point before i try any of this. I think it will take bees to make queens. I do have 3 hives and 6 nucs right now. I was goung to try and let the queen make my queens instead if grafting.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Michael Bush]

    >#1 If i make a wire cage around a deep frame with a board of 50 cels , put the queen in the cage to lay eggs in, put the frame in the center of the hive, am i doing this part right so far?

    You mean queen cups? it's doubgful she will lay in them. If you mean some worker brood comb, she will lay them full and probably put multiples in them...

    >#2 I will leave the frame in for 2 1/2 days, take it out, put the queen back in the hive adding a nother to make up for the egg laying frame. Is this right?

    I don't follow. You're confining the queen for 2 1/2 days? If so, that's not at all necessary. You juggle frames as needed, adding, moving removing etc. to make the room you need or fill the room you leave. I'm not clear what you're removing or adding.

    >#3 I would take the cell cups and put them in a new frame pointing down and put in to another box of bees with no queen for the bees to feed royal jeley and close up the cell. Is thes reght?

    So you were putting cell cups in horizontally and hoping the queen will lay in them? She won't. They are far to large for a worker cell (and you need worker eggs) and far too large for a drone cell (which IF she laid in them is what she would lay).

    >#4 I do not have the exact dates with me but i think it is on the 12-14th day i take the cells out and put them in hair roller type cages to hatch out. After they hatch i then can put each in a maiting nuc.

    From the day the egg is laid, you want 14 days to when you put the cells in mating nucs to emerge. I would not recommend letting them emerge into hair roller cages unless there is some timing issue you can't deal with at the moment and you can't get them into mating nucs at the appropriate time.

    >How big or how small can the maiting nuc be?

    I use two standard frames (my standard frames are mediums). but the mini mating nucs have a lot less bees in them and succeed less often... What are the queens for? If you want to requeen your hives you don't need mating nucs, just let them emerge in the hive you want them in.

    >#5 I guess after she maits and i did mot move the queen the mating nuc would be her new home. At this point i could cage her up and sale her or use her to make a split. Is that right?

    But you could use the cell for a split and not have a mating nuc. But yes, after she is laying in a nuc you could sell the queen.

    >#6 A question about question # 1 . If a queen lays 1000-2000 eggs a day and i only have cells for 50 , what will the queen do after she lays the 50 eggs?

    If she has worker brood comb she will lay five or six eggs in each cell if she's there more than 24 hours. If you have cell cups in whatever position, she will not lay in them at all, most likely. The only position you MIGHT coerce her into laying in is if they are already vertical and she thinks they are queen cups and the hive is crowded enough that she thinks they are swarming. But I have never succeeded at this.

    >#7 About question # 3 . For this nurcing box of bees that will feed royal jeley and close the cell, I am thinking i make it up by taking a frame of broud, a frame of homet, then put in my frame with the new layed eggs. Is this right?

    To get the cells built I would NOT put them in a nuc. Certainly not a weak nuc. You need a colony that is overflowing with bees to get a well fed queen. Putting a cell with a egg in anything, including a colony that is overflowing with bees, has only resulted in the egg being removed in my experience. You need a newly hatched larvae in a queen cup in a strong overflowing hive to get them to raise queen cells.

    >#8 With me just starting out and have not gone in to a honey crop , i need to have my broud boxes built up almost to a spliting point before i try any of this. I think it will take bees to make queens.

    Yes.

    > I do have 3 hives and 6 nucs right now. I was goung to try and let the queen make my queens instead if grafting.

    Here are several graftless methods:
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beesafewgoodqueens.htm
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetterqueens.htm
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshopkinsmethod.htm
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beeshopkins1886.htm
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmillermethod.htm
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beesalleymethod.htm

    Here is an overview of the concepts of queen rearing:
    http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm

[AllenF]

Ditto