Going Blind and Grafting

[Castor]

Well maybe not blind, but certainly my eyesight is deteriorating to the point where I need glasses to find my socks. I'm sure others have the same problem.

So a tiny rice grain at the bottom of a cell, or a day old larva is a bit of a problem unless conditions are perfect, sun behind me, high intensity light into the cell bottom and a pair of 4 diopter bifocals, as knocked up for me by my optician.

What I need is a powerful light of wavelengths that render eggs/larvae in a cell (single LED's do not seem to be good for this) and a magnifier lens arrangement.
I have tried a number of these things bought from Ebay, but they have always turned out to be of poor quality. The next step seems to be Chinese made dentists loupes and suchlike, but they are a bit pricey to be taking a chance on - and the next step beyond that seems to be European manufactured optics - I could easily spend £5000!

Have the team any favourites?

If I must graft I must first see!

[nemphlar]

After much faffing around with various magnifier glasses. I've found 3times glasses from the factory shop work fine I use 1.5 times for reading.

[fatshark]

If you've not tried a 6 LED ever ready (or similar) head torch I can recommend it. I'd also choose to work in the shade, to prevent the larvae getting toasted and to give me more control over the incident light. Secondly, cut the side wall of the cells down hard to:

1. Allow more light to the base of the cell
2. Help getting the 00 paintbrush (you do use a paintbrush don't you?!) underneath the larvae

Finally, although the advice is often to use old dark frames - presumably because the pale larvae shows up better - I prefer new comb and find it easier to both find and access the larvae in.

I don't have problems finding my socks but I can no longer tie on a #18 fly when fishing and so use 3 dioptre reading glasses from eBay.

One of the bee books I've read recommended recruiting young people with excellent eyesight to do the grafting for you. Manley perhaps? There's also no shame in not grafting, but in using one of the very many other methods to generate QC's from selected eggs/stocks.

[Black Comb]

Agree 100% with everything fat shark says. Especially re. Finding new comb much better than old.
I've managed to graft for the first time this year, eyes seem better since I had cataracts sorted!

[Jon]

I am very short sighted and I graft with my glasses off which allows a close focus.
I hold the cell cup in my left hand and lift up the larva with a 000 sable paintbrush in my right.
It is a lot easier to get the larva off if the cell cup is not already attached to the frame as you can manouevre it a lot better.
Re. the comb, I find it harder to lift the larvae from new drawn comb for some reason. I find the old dark stuff much easier to graft from.

[Castor]

Unless the lighting is intense I have a very limited depth of field - getting that level of illumination without "washing out" the object and losing the contrast is tricky.

My four year old granddaughter places the object two inches from her eye in perfect focus...... grrrrr. :-) Mind you she'll be old enough to graft in a year or two......


There's a Malka Queens vid on Youtube where a woman is grafting - barely looking in the donor cell - at maybe one or two grafts a second..... also grrrrr.

[Castor]

Glad the cataract thing has sorted BC - do you use single focus or varifocals?

I'm wondering now if I have a cataract or macular degeneration problem.... must get it checked.

[Adam]

Poundland glasses.
Plastic frames stay put on your head better than wire ones.
Find ones that suit your eyes for the job in hand - less powerful ones for seeing eggs rather than a "has she, hasn't she" guess after looking at a blur that might or might not be the first eggs. If the glasses are not too powerful you can wear them on the end of your nose and look down at the eggs and then look above the glasses for walking about and handling frames. If you need to do the larval transfer thing, then you might need some stronger ones. Mine have an orange, black and white markings and my wife hates them!
Very dark comb make it hard for the light to get down to see what's there. A stanley blade can be useful to cut along some comb by the youngest larvae - just a few mm down and then lever the cut comb to one side revealing the larvae below. The bees will soon repair it.

[Black Comb]

Varifocals.
My distance is better but not perfect.
Pre-op blurb says most people will not require glasses for distance (but will for reading) but I turned out not to be most people.
Your optician should flag up if you are developing cataracts.

[Jon]

I bought a pair of varifocals for £300 and never got used to them.
I got a pair of bifocals for a lot less and that is what I wear for my general beekeeping.
I keep a pair of reading glasses beside the computer and use those when waffling on the bee forums.