Queen rearing pics

[Jon]

What brand of equipment is he using for cell cups? Don't recognise it.

[lindsay s]

Hi Jon it's NZ equipment and the cups twist off and are reusable and he's leaving us plenty to play with for next year. Alex raises about 500 queens each year for his own operation.

[beejazz]

36 grafts! Is it possible for one colony to raise that many queen cells?

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Beejazz

I have often read about PQN which I think is Peak Queen Number this is an idea probably started by Richard Smailles (spelling ??) certainly Milner and Dews etc and other BIBBA publications.
All I can say is that above a Snelgrove board a hive which raised only 1 or 2 queen cells (although they had plenty material to raise many more) I placed a frame of 16 grafts and they made 14 good Queen Cells just a few weeks ago

In the past I always thought I needed a queenless cell raising colony
The chaps on here have convinced me that a queen right cell raiser is better
In normal circumstances I would have thought about 10 grafts and expect 5 - 8 Queen cells which is plenty
The breeding groups that Jimbo, Jon, Drumgerry and Gavin are involved with need to maximise queen production and will know more

[gavin]

The breeding groups that Jimbo, Jon, Drumgerry and Gavin are involved with need to maximise queen production and will know more

Definitely still wearing L plates, reinforced by the failure of my first grafts this year. OK, I was taking a chance by not feeding the cell raiser at a time when forage was not as good as it had been.

A question. Was the larva in Lindsay's picture a typical size? I always try to go for one much smaller than that.

[fatshark]

Looked a bit on the chunky side to me as well. However it might be a particularly small grafting tool!
I tend to graft 10-12 at a time and expect 70%+ take (and discard them if its less than this). This number is largely determined by the number of mini-nucs I can comfortably handle on my own, rather than the capacity if the cell raiser. For association grafting days we do 50 in a swarm box and expect the majority to be drawn out.

When do people cage their cells? Freshly capped ones just about fit but much later and burr comb makes it an impossible task. I've tended not to cage unless I have to.

[The Drone Ranger]

Apologies for omitting you from my list of breeding groups Fatshark
I knew you have lots of experience but didn't realise you were so heavily involved with queen rearing at your association
Some bees seem inclined to add extra comb to cells but others just leave a nice long peanut shape no extra wax --don't know why

[fatshark]

No worries at all ... hardly heavily involved, more like just getting started. We very much followed the Galtee system. Our success rate is, er, mixed. Good numbers of cells, but disappointing numbers of mated queens. We know the losses at the intermediate stages and will try to address them with more tuition in the future. Of course, the weather last year didn't help!

[brothermoo]

Found little booklet in my local library here in Belfast that described the Wilkinson Brown method fairly close, its origins may interest you.


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[Jon]

36 grafts! Is it possible for one colony to raise that many queen cells?

It depends upon colony strength. 36 would be pushing it with my bees which tend to have smaller colonies but if you have a more prolific race, 36 should be no problem.
Bear in mind as well you only have to get them started and can move as many as you like to another finisher colony 24 hours later.
I have never noticed and problem with moving cells between cell raiser colonies whether open or closed cells.
Sometimes you get a colony which wont start cells but will happily finish them if you give then cells at the 24 hour stage.

Was the larva in Lindsay's picture a typical size? I always try to go for one much smaller than that.

Just a tad bigger than I like but I think you could get a decent queen from that if the larva is properly fed.

The chaps on here have convinced me that a queen right cell raiser is better

I have a queenless cell raiser on the go at the moment as well as the queenright ones.
It's great for starting cells but is a nightmare to handle as the bees are really crabbit.
The queenright ones are completely docile.

The queenright system is much more stable and hardly disrupts honey production as you keep the supers on.