Swiss grafting tools

[fatshark]

I think part of the secret of getting larvae onto the brush is to use one with very short bristles. Usually the 000 or 00 sable brushes have bristles about 5-6mm long … when wetted with saliva these form a sharp point which can be just slid into the jelly under the larva (certainly don't think the brush needs rotating at this stage), lifted up and out into the new cell cup, touch the tip to the base of the latter and then rotate … clockwise or anticlockwise, doesn't matter

[busybeephilip]

Yep, have a 000 brush i bought specially for the job but could never master the technique although I have no probs with the chinese tool. Using the swis tool I believe involves a different technique again that is pressing down into the wax under the larvae then removing the larvae by pressing again (into wax cups was how it was originally used) not sure how well this will work with plastic cups but a rotating motion will have to be learnt.

[Jon]

Tried the brush , Jon's preferred method,

I did about 60 grafts this afternoon into three queenless colonies at Minnowburn. Best use for the queenless parts of an artificial swarm.
As fatshark says, the twist is only to leave the larva in the cup. I just push the brush under the larva to pick it up. Th critical thing is to keep it just sticking to the tip of the brush rather than half way up it.

[drumgerry]

Philip - I'm reasonably adept with the Swiss tool and I do it not quite as you describe. I use the spoon as a spoon and scoop the larva up from behind - I don't really press down into the wax of the cell as such. At the other end it's an easy enough motion of sliding the larva off into the cup. No rotation needed really unless it's a very subtle motion I'm not really aware of - and I'm using plastic (Jenter) cups.

[Poly Hive]

I failed to find my double cranked grafting tool this season so begrudgingly bought the Thornes one. Hmmmmm.... the working tip is at a very strict right angle to the shaft and thus the wrong angle. I found it very awkward. By chance looking through a box of bits I found a tool I had bought oh at least 20 years ago and it has just the right angle on it so all was well.

I ordered some side bars from Thornes and mentioned the angle of the tool to the girl on the phone and it is going back as not fit for purpose. Just a heads up.

PH

[Jon]

Try the 000 sable brush. 75p and works perfectly.

[Beeman]

I agree that the sable brush is best tho of course it's personal choice-also feel it is a more gentle method of handling larva

[The Drone Ranger]

I think the main problem with the Chinese grafting tool is that they are not very well made.

[busybeephilip]

Hi DR,

I use the chinese tool all the time, I bought a load of them cheap on flea bay. The thing about them is to get a good one you need to take the reed off and make it thinner on an oil stone, when its nice and thin and bends easily it will pick up the larvae with ease and before long, with practice, setting up 10 grafts in the shed takes less than a minute. My secret weapon is short sight with focal length of around 4-6 inches makes it very easy to see the young larvae ! I set up 30 yesterday so I'll see how they are this evening. Could easily set up 100 very quickly if everything is at hand and ready to use but then you would need to have loads of nucs ready to receive cells/virgins.

Also discovered another useful thing regarding cupkit stuff. The roller cages in my incubator I place directly on a sliding drawer so if i have a load of cages any movement will make them fall over with a domino effect, as it transpires, the brown part of the cell holder can be attached to a wood bar (eg bar on the grafting frame) and used to hold the cages at the end that opens, ie wood bar attached to brown cup, closed cage, cream cup with cell. So dead easy to take out 10 cages at a time for examination (new to me anyhow)

If you recall the photo of the single frame nuc i posted and the dead queen, when the nuc was requeened the bees dumped out the dead queen which I retrieved, very strange as she had holes (naturally occurring) on her 1st and 2nd abdominal segments on the upper side - never seen this before I'll try get a close up macro picture


I think I've cracked a way to clean brown cups, soak them in cold water overnight (not hot as this turns any jelly into a sticky mess) then use a toothbrush with an extended end, like longer bristles at the tip, to stipple and stirr under slow running cold water. I set up 30 yesterday morning to acclimatize, grafted in the evening so will see tonite how well it has worked

the swiss tool that was mentioned somewhere else sold cheap by irish bee supplies is a load of tat rubbish, the working end is too think and very rough, mine arrived in a plain envelope and got bent in the post (postage was supposed to be £4 but was in reality was much less than that ?) even so on straightening out to the correct shape and polishing the rough ends I still prefer the chinese tool

[gavin]

I've been a user of Chinese grafting tools for years and - occasionally - bitten grass stems. This year I tried the Swiss grafting tool (right handed ) and then a sable brush I had lying around. I'm converted to the brush ... did 30 yesterday from Colonsay stock (thanks, Jeff).

If only I could locate my reading glasses I expect that I could speed up a bit and improve.

Jon - where do you buy them so cheaply? Sable brushes, not specs.