mbc, those are perfect nice shaped cells ! That must be a queenless box well stuffed with bees and fed nicely
mbc, those are perfect nice shaped cells ! That must be a queenless box well stuffed with bees and fed nicely
Excellent looking cells.
But you can still get a big queen out of a much smaller cell.
Some queen rearers squish any cells which are a bit smaller but I have noticed that you can get a good sized queen from an average looking cell. I think the main things are the size of the larva you graft coupled with the amount of jelly the cell raiser colony gets into the cell before it is sealed.
If you let the queens emerge in the incubator you can make the judgement as to whether they are big enough.
I try and make it a rule that I cull one or two cells per batch but I couldn't bring myself to destroy any of today's, mating nucs are filling up fast and the first batch will be ready to harvest later this week and have their second cells.
This batch were started and finished in a q- box a la Mike Palmer, and only reunited over their queen when fully sealed. I've been critical of q- systems in the past but gave it a try and I'm obviously pleased with the results this time round and will give it a whirl again, it does involve quite a bit more moving stuff and shaking of bees than my usual cloak board method but the take and the finished cells speak for themselves.
Even in a batch of nice grafted queen cells you will find differences in the sizes of the queens hatched - big is better. Small cells might indicate that the colony was not getting enough food. The best queens are supposed to have a hatched weight of over 200 mg with the weight decreasing with age in the cage. You need a good set of lab scales to measure at this acuracy ( +/- 0.1 mg costs around £500 - £1000) not like those you use for your Oxalic acid
If you ever get the chance to weigh them you will be surprised at the differences
The thing about a q- system is that it is far easier to get cells started than using a queenright system.
I have a q- setup and I keep adding frames of brood to it in order to maintain a huge number of nurse bees.
I have a few mated queens from the first batch I did on May 1st.
Filling all the apideas is a chore at this time of year.
Especially when you coc k up the timing and end up having to place forty cells on a Sunday ( wife not happy with meOriginally Posted by Jon
)
I have 25 more to do by Wednesday and that is bad enough.
I am mostly letting the queens emerge and adding them with a scoop of wet bees at the same time.
You'd better get them done this morning cos minnowburn will be a wash out by this afternoon !
Know the feeling( wife not happy with me
lol, i have appropriated one of my wifes soup ladels for getting the volume of bees right for the apidea- its just perfect.
If she ever finds out where it went she will crack me over the head with it.... Its her fravorite (i understand why - its perfect for ladelling wet bees AND just the right size hehehe)...
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