Jon

First grafting 2011

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by
Jon
, 27-04-2011 at 10:04 PM (2016 Views)
I have a colony to which I gave a second brood box a fortnight ago which now has 14 frames of brood. I set it up yesterday as a cell raiser with the queen in the bottom box,topped by a queen excluder a super,then the top box with most of the brood. I gave the top box a frame with ten grafts and on checking today two had been started. The first set of grafts offered often has poor acceptance but I am up and running now 5 weeks earlier than I started last year.
I regrafted the 8 larvae which had been rejected.

In an ideal world I will have a few spare mated queens by the end of May.

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Comments

  1. gavin's Avatar
    Cracking stuff. I thought that you'd been quiet lately.
  2. Jon's Avatar
    Checked earlier and they have started another 4 - so 6 cells in all.
    I might try a few more at the weekend but I haven't really got my drones organized yet so no point in jumping the gun too much with the grafting.
    It will be good to have a few cells for the queen rearing course which starts on 9th May. First lesson is all about Apidea management.
  3. Jon's Avatar
    I grafted 20 on Saturday and they only started one and the same number again on Sunday with just one started.
    A lot of work for two queen cells.
    The capped ones look good though and I now have 8 to play with.
    It is still very early.