You need to know the weather 3-5 weeks ahead on the day you graft.Originally Posted by busybeephilip
12 days to emergence + 7 more to be old enough to take a mating flight + 14 more and you are running out of time for the queen to mate.
The way to go is to graft twice a week to have batches coming along all the time.
If you have bad weather followed by a couple of good days the queens all mate around the same time even if they have emerged several weeks apart.
It takes a solid 3 weeks of really poor weather with no breaks to scupper things. I had queens emerge last Wednesday-Thursday and they are just about old enough to start orientation and mating flights.
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