First queen rearing

[drjeseuss]

I've got a single hive currently. It's been a good bunch so far, hard working, peaceful, good builders, very low pest levels. They were obtained from a cutout in an urban home so they are adapted to this general area pretty well. I want to get another queen and hive going before winter as insurance. I don't expect much of a crop from them, if any.  Here are my thoughts for direction, please comment where needed. I plan to pull a few brood frames to a nuc, then contain the queen on one in a press on cage to isolate her laying to a certain area. A day later I'll return her home. In the area she placed the fresh eggs I'll cut out a strip of cells, as in the Alley method. Then the frames will return to their hive. The cut cells will go onto a cell bar for finishing. I'm shooting for 3-5 ( properly spaced) with a need of only one in the end. The cell frame will then go in the top (third) medium of my hive, over an excluder. I'll place it between two active brood frames with pollen and nectar. Once sealed, I plan to put one on a brood frame into the 5 frame nuc, along with another brood frame and a nectar frame. Should I also place the other cells here? Caged? Once emerged, the new queen will hopefully mate and return to lay. If successful at this point, I'll build to 5 frames, then move to a new 3 box medium hive (progressively). If I included other caged cells, could I mate one, cage it, release the next to mate and repeat until all are mated? If so, how long could I bank the extras? Could they survive over winter here in the midwest? Assuming I can get the second hive going, what milestone points do I want to see by winter?  Is it to late in the year to build them up from just a few frames? If the main hive keeps doing well I'll be able to supplement the weaker new hive up until winter close up.

[capt44]

As far as banking mated queens over winter I wouldn't attempt it.
The queen is actually made to be an egg laying machine.
It is bad for the queens to be caged idle and not able to lay.
Just wait until next spring and raise some freshe queens.

[drjeseuss]

I've lost a few days of good weather and now in a pinch with rain forecasted for a while.  I'm thinking of changing plans at the beginning a bit if possible. I'm thinking of carefully culling a few fresh eggs from existing brood comb, then waxing them to bars of a queen cell frame. I'd then place that frame into my top box above an excluder between other brood frames to be fed and capped . From that point the plan would carry on as above. Will this work?

[capt44]

When you put the queen excluder above be sure to close it off with a piece of metal or something so the queens pheromone scent won't be spread.
That will make that box queenless.
Close it off 24 hours before putting the cell bar in.
Another note to mention, when you put the cage in the brood chamber for the queen to lay in you need to look at it closely before releasing the queen.
A lot of times they may not lay the first day.
I also would make sure the eggs have hatched before moving them to the cell bar.

[drjeseuss]

Things didn't go as planned. I put in the divider, then came back a day after to pull cells to a cell bar for the top box to finish. When I opened the top box things were a bit too cheery, then I found eggs anywhere an egg could be. Bummer, queen was stuck in the wrong spot. I moved her back down and went ahead as planned. I'm guessing the cells may not take due to this. I also learned that cutting virgin comb with larva is really tough without crushing it. If these don't take I'm going to pull a frame of fresh eggs, a frame of.brood, and frame of nectar and pollen to a nuc and they can make their own.

[capt44]

Always make sure the queen is in the bottom box.
Turn the hive around 180 degrees.
Remove the top box.
Place the cloake board assembly on the top of the bottom box with the entrance facing the original direction.
Place the top box on top of the cloake board.
The next day you can put the cell bars in the top box.
24 hours later you can see which cells are being accepted.
Remove the sheet metal from the cloake board.
This makes the top box a queen rite finishing hive.
3 to 4 days later the cells should be capped off.
Do Not mess with the cells for the next 3 days.
These are critical development days for the queens.
7 days after the cells are capped the queens should be emerging which will be day 16.

[drjeseuss]

It appears my attempt has failed. Thank goodness the bees knew what to do. My inexperience resulted in the cells attached to the bar to be ejected. They are repairing these into proper queen cells, though eggless. If I save this for later use, will a queen lay in these cells? Since these cells failed and since the queen filled the box with eggs , the bees began working three cells on a frame onto QCs. I've decided to change plans. I pulled the frame of day old eggs and 3 QCs, along with a frame of open and capped brood, a frame of pollen and nectar, and two new frames into a5 frame nuc. Once queen right and on their feet, these frames will go onto a new hive to build up and hopefully survive winter.

[Michael Bush]

The best way to get a queen through the winter is in a hive.  Next best is in a nuc.  I have banked a bunch of queens and overwintered them, but it requires a terrarium heater and restocking the bees in the middle of winter from some donor hive... the bees have to be warm enough to not cluster.

[ScituateMA]

Mr. Bush , do you think i can overwinter queens with 3 frames with heating pad in a foam box in New England?

[drjeseuss]

I've moved my frames from nuc to hive box. I put a divider in so it's still at 5 frames. As they grow I'll remove that and get them on 10. I'd like to have them fully into two mediums by winter. We'll see. Due to complexity I'll wait until spring before producing any more queens.

[capt44]

One important Note I've been forgetting tell.
When you set up your queenless box or hive place the plastic cell cups on a cell cup bar and put it in the queenless box or hive for 24 hours so the bees can polish or clean them.
Then graft 1-2 day old larva into the cell cups.
I use the wet method by purging the cell cups with royal jelly.
I've found the larva will float off my german grafting tool better.
Then place the cell bars in the hive where the largest congregation of bees are.