When to graft?

[rookie2531]

I went through one hive today (1deep,2mediums). The bottom deep was packed with bees and worker brood. The top 2 mediums had 5 frames of drone brood in both boxes total 10 frames of drone brood(not as big pattern as worker brood).

All boxes have packed workers, I saw 2 drones walking around, could not find queen.
I plan on putting excluders in between the boxes tommorow and finding her in 4-5 days.

After I find her I was going to put her in a timing box (still with the colony) just excluded so I can graft the right cells.

But, if I graft 11 days after seeing these drone cells, is that too soon?

[BeeMaster2]

The rule is you want your drones to be developed far enough in their brood cell to have purple eyes. If your neighbors, at about a mile away, have drones with at least purple eyes when you start to graph, they will be old enough to breed with your queens.
Jim

[Michael Bush]

In my location they never seem to be in the mood to raise queens until there are drones flying.  Earlier never pays.

[capt44]

When I see a few drones walking on foundation I graft.
Fact is I grafted 100 larva yesterday.
I set up a hive for the cloake board system and installed 4 frames for the bees to polish the cell cups.
24 hours later I pulled the cell bars and some of the cell cups were almost sealed off with wax.
I scraped off some of the wax and grafted using the wet graft.
I'll check on the today to see what's been accepted.
I will move my capped queen cells to the incubator 3 days after they are capped off.
I will move Queen Cells to the mating Nucs on the 11th of April.
I should have Virgin Queens around the 12th of April.

[rookie2531]

Thanks again to all that help me. I will at least try to find her and put her in a timing area.

[rookie2531]

Well, I found her on Sunday. Took the excluded mediums that she hadn't been on for 4 days and made a double stack cell builder. Took half the deeps that she was in and made another smaller one. ( this one may had larvae in it, so they may not accept those grafts.) I will check on them Tues. If weather permits and take pics if possible. I don't want to shake or brush them off if they accepted, will they be all over them?

[rookie2531]

Well, it looks like I got 9 out of 30 my first attempt. I thought It was more, because I was looking at the cells being formed. But not every one had larvae still in it.

[BeeMaster2]

Good job. You did a lot better than I did and my mentor. We each grafted  half of the grafts on 3 different attempts, none took. Not enough bees stayed in the nuc box.
Jim

[rookie2531]

Thanks Jim, my builder does look a bit smaller in numbers. Lots of drone brood in there emerging too. With more drones and less nurse, I think next time, I will lock them up.

[BeeMaster2]

Rookie,
I would remove as many of the drones as you can. Once they hatch they are putting a heavy demand on that hive for food. Food that the bees need to feed the queen larvae. If the drones have not been capped, that is even more of a demand. If the queen cells are already capped, I would not worry about it.
Jim

[Michael Bush]

>Well, it looks like I got 9 out of 30 my first attempt. I thought It was more, because I was looking at the cells being formed. But not every one had larvae still in it.

9 out of 30 on your first try isn't too bad.  Crowd the cell starter more and I'll bet it will improve.

[rookie2531]

O.k Thanks for all the info. I will try to build a better starter when I can, if work and weather schedules are ever in my favor.

Thanks again.

[capt44]

Grafting is like anything else.
The more practice you get you'll get into a routine.
What you are doing is fooling the bees into thinking they are queenless and they start making emergency queens for they think their time is limited.

[rookie2531]

Capt. I'll get more practice today. :)