Absconding bees from Apidea

[The Drone Ranger]

Free here.
http://archive.org/details/improvedqueenrea00alle

Even better Adam

[fatshark]

Re. post #80 ... I put 8 cells in mini-nucs on Friday, within 45 minutes of removing the previous mated Q. No foil 'collar' to protect them. All are out today just fine.

[Jon]

fatshark.
My experience is exactly the same and I have done that hundreds of times.
The tinfoil protection stuff is one of the many beekeeping urban myths in my opinion.

Our group got another 30 virgins emerged in apideas between Friday and Sunday.

40 more cells with queens due to emerge this Friday 12th.

[The Drone Ranger]

I had my poor dark queen confined in a cupkit cartridge for just over a day
Lo and behold she has actually laid in the cells cups (they were all brand new ones)
Let her out this morning checked tonight and the eggs are still there (so far)
Don't think she enjoyed the captivity much
The bees were all black as your hat but a few stripey interlopers have infiltrated the ranks lately
I'm using 3 best hives ie black, gentle, no chalkbrood, plenty bees etc to supply most grafts etc.
Only the hives which had chalkbrood , bad temper, or slow buildup are being requeened
But all the old girls below the snelgrove boards are also candidates (bit ageist I suppose)
I am keeping all the daughters of the good hives above the boards irrespective of type/colour

[Black Comb]

My 2 latest Apideas are not drawing out the foundation but building comb down into the feeder (cut combcontainer)?

[Jon]

I have noticed that when they draw comb in the feeder it often means the apidea is queenless especially if the bee numbers are depleted.
They retreat to the feeder in the absence of a queen as it has the best insulation.

[Black Comb]

Probably. One was an "iffy" cell from a very good breeder hive, the other should be OK.
Time will tell.

[The Drone Ranger]

Today I was putting the cups from the cupkit cassette in holders
I was surprised how easy it was using the system
Last time I tried was years ago and then I followed the instructions it didn't work
This time I just screwed the box to a new broodframe slotted foundation round it
Fitted all new cups to the cassette
Trapped the queen for a day in the cassette
Released her as soon as she had laid up the cups left the front off after release
Waited 3 days till eggs hatched and there was some royal jelly
Took the back off the cassette moved cups to cell raiser
No grafting or messing about required

[beejazz]

I plan to put a capped Q cell into an occupied Apidea, and at the same time take out the mated/laying queen, putting her into the hive the cell came from. Do i need to protect the cell? Erring on the cautious side she will emerge Saturday, probably Sunday. Will it work if I do it today, Friday?

[fatshark]

bee jazz
Should work fine ... No need to protect the cell. I did 8 like this last weekend - in on Friday in place of the mated queen, no protection, emerged on Saturday night/Sunday morning. All OK. Riskiest bit might be introducing the mated Q from the miniNuc to the hive ...