Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: yes2matt on June 02, 2019, 08:27:42 am
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I helped a friend do a cut-out, they had been in this barn for ~5 years, unmanaged, vigorous and healthy. So I wanted to graft from that stock. We saved some brood comb and when I got home in the afternoon I did kindof a rush job of setting up a starter hive. Then I grafted a half a frame (8-10) of young larvae out of one of those combs.
So they took ok, about 50%, which I thought was pretty good for being a rush job and I didn't have nurse bees on the combs in transit. So at about 36 hours I took that frame out of the starter, because I wanted to do another batch out of the combs that had eggs and I had put in a healthy hive to hatch and feed the new larvae. I put the cell bar frame in the middle of the brood nest of a healthy swarm colony in a single 10-deep. The "finisher" colony is Q+.
Yesterday was the day to make mating nucs, so I went into that colony to check the cells, how many nucs I need to make up. Well, none. The bees had torn down every single started cell and cleaned out all the cups. https://photos.app.goo.gl/MpgKfc7unPjQe1Q38
Did I miss something? I thought: Q- cell starter, Q+ cell finisher, Q- mating nucs.
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Did you make sure the queen was below the queen excluder before you put the grafts in it?
Jim Altmiller
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Did you make sure the queen was below the queen excluder before you put the grafts in it?
Jim Altmiller
No, it was just a single box. I thought the QX was just insurance in case they didn't get moved into mating nucs in time. Does tge finisher need to be two stories with a QX between?
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Did you make sure the queen was below the queen excluder before you put the grafts in it?
Jim Altmiller
No, it was just a single box. I thought the QX was just insurance in case they didn't get moved into mating nucs in time. Does tge finisher need to be two stories with a QX between?
Yes
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I thought I answered this earlier. As Herb said, yes.
Na
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I try to have a box between the queen excluder and the queen cells. Also you may have had a stray queen cell above the excluder that you didn't see (they are often hiding very well) and the virgin may have killed all your queens.
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By the time I retire, I will have made every possible mistake. At least that is my goal, and I'm on track. I did do a second batch, and got lucky the bees left me two capped. So into mating nucs!
Saturday, M (10yo) grafted a couple rows and we started them, it looks like 7/14 took. Which I will buy from her for $2 ea :) it's exploitation!
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Wait until she is getting 20 out of 20...
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Matt,
Sounds like you may need another job just to pay for the queens. 😄
Jim Altmiller
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Matt,
Sounds like you may need another job just to pay for the queens. 😄
Jim Altmiller
I'm going to try to offer overwintered nucs in February and March: "treatment free," natural-drawn comb, (not this batch but usually) nectar-raised, post-solstice Qs. One nuc sale will cover my grafting bill. :)
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I hope it works out for you.
Jim Altmiller