First queens emerged 2015

[Kate Atchley]

... any chance you could do a post on how you exactly use one of these for queen rearing please. Step by step would be nice

With our notoriously bad weather in the West Highland this summer, I found queen cells becoming chilled as well as torn down in steadily wet weather so, to avoid this, I began to cage the capped queen cells at 5-6 days from grafting, then moving them (careful not to shake or chill them) into this small incubator: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00L9PSVN...986871_TE_item

It's one of the less expensive ones (though price gone up £3 since I bought it 3 months ago), doesn't involve turning, and the cages stand up easily on the base (some incubators have a base shaped to receive eggs though this can usually be removed). I reckon it would hold about 60 cages though I never achieved that!

I kept the temperature at 34º and water in the wee trough. Queen hatching times suggested this temperature is fine, along with John's 34.5º. When I failed to make up enough fresh mininucs to take all the cells on one occasion, the remaining 3 queens emerged overnight on day 11.5 days from grafting ... so on time.

At day 14 or 15 from egg-laying, or 10-11 days from grafting, I added the cells to mating nucs in a state ready to receive them: either freshly made up (which I leave in dark cool place for 3 days or so before opening at mating site), or to replace a recently withdrawn or failed queen/queen cell in mininuc already in situ at mating site. (I haven't been closing these for a few days while the queen emerges and is accepted ... what do others advise when recharging a mininuc with Qc?)

The incubator simply provided more reliability on the progress of the cells, provided I handled them very carefully.

Jon's plan of putting them in the incubator later on may be to ease space pressure in his cell-raising hives?

Feedback welcome for, as the regulars know, I'm fairly new to all this!

[Jon]

I tend to move them to the incubator for convenience more than anything else. I use the cells like you do moving to Apideas around day 11, as late as possible. In an ideal world I can see the queen moving inside the cell and she will have emerged within a few hours.
It's ok to let the virgins emerge in rollers as long as they have a little food to eat and these can be used within 2-3 days from emergence.

That thing about closing bees in for 3 days in the dark is unnecessary but repeated everywhere for some reason. If I am using queen cells I just fill apideas from any colony and add the cell immediately.
When it comes to adding the second cell after removal of a mated queen from an Apidea there are two good times to do it.
The best time is to just add the cell immediately the mated queen is removed and next best time is about 5 or 6 days after queen removal when they will have made their own queen cell which you need to remove first before inserting one from the incubator. No small larvae at that stage so they have no choice other than the cell you offer them.

[Jon]

I dont understand the last bit about moving the cells, do you take them out of the incubator and place them in an Apedia

I usually take the cells from the cell raiser colony and put them in the incubator about 3 days from emergence. They spend a couple of days in the incubator before being moved on to apideas or maybe a few more days if allowed to emerge as virgin queens in the rollers.

[busybeephilip]

That thing about closing bees in for 3 days in the dark is unnecessary but repeated everywhere for some reason.

If they are prepared from bees in the same apiary do the bees not drift back to the parent hives if you let them out immediately and whats left is a smaller bunch of young bees that can hardly form a small colony ?

[Jon]

I fill in one place and set out in another to stop drifting but that's not the usual reason given for closing in for 3 days. You read stuff about comb building and the need for them to be queenless so they will accept the cell and stuff like that.
The key thing to avoid losing bees is to make sure the apidea remains closed until the queen has emerged from her cell. Once they have a virgin in the cluster they tend to stay put. If you open apideas before the queen has emerged a lot of bees will drift into queenright apideas or colonies even if they have been moved to another apiary.

[Kate Atchley]

When it comes to adding the second cell after removal of a mated queen from an Apidea there are two good times to do it.
The best time is to just add the cell immediately the mated queen is removed and next best time is about 5 or 6 days after queen removal when they will have made their own queen cell which you need to remove first before inserting one from the incubator. No small larvae at that stage so they have no choice other than the cell you offer them.

That's helpful Jon. Many thanks ... noted.

[Kate Atchley]

If they are prepared from bees in the same apiary do the bees not drift back to the parent hives if you let them out immediately and whats left is a smaller bunch of young bees that can hardly form a small colony ?

If the bees collected for the mating nuc includes flyers, and they minis are to sited near the source hives, you'll be best to close them in for 3 days. I take bees for mating nucs from the supers and they mostly stay but I'm generous in adding the bees to allow for the field bees flying back.

[Jon]

3 days confined is extra stress though. In an ideal world I have the bees confined just for a day or so. With virgin queens, I put the virgin in the apidea then add the bees and open up the following evening so they are confined just over 24 hours.

[Greengage]

Jon,
Excuse my ignorance im trying to get my head around this, Am I correct in thinking the following.
Day 1 egg.
Day 8 cells sealed.
Day 12 transfer to incubator. move worker bees to Apedia and keep sealed in until queen hatches.
Day 15 transfer cell to Apedia
Day 16 cell hatches new queen.
Day 19 open apedia allow bees to fly
Day 22 queen mated.
Day 27 approx queen laying.
I know it might sound easy to you when you know what your doing, but im trying to get my head around the process for next season.

[Black Comb]

The first QR course I attended was run by Terry Claire, past president of BIBBA.
If I remember correctly, he advised to confine the bees in the apidea for 2-3 days as it reduces the risk of absconding. (bees in apideas are liable to abscond)
The flaw with your timetable above is that you confine the bees in the apidea on day 12 and open them on day 19. 7 days confined will result in dead bees IMO.