This last few weeks (at our association apiary) we've had our first go at queen rearing with yours truly setting the pace. Talk about a steep learning curve! I've had one go at grafting and learned a few things in particular. First was I didn't like the grafting tool I had - a cranked one from Thornes which was far too fiddly. So I've now bought a nice Swiss one from Buzzybeeshop which is tailored to me being a leftie which is nice. Also I've gone off using the wax cups I made - they were a faff and too easy to knock off the cell bar when getting organised for grafting. So the next attempt will be with the JZBZ cups which have the oval stalk on the end. By all accounts the bees like them every bit as much as the wax ones.

I've been trying to document the process at our blog http://www.moraybeekeepers.co.uk/blog/ but haven't put the latest instalment in yet. We checked yesterday and my first set of grafts resulted in 6 sealed queen cells from about 20 larvae grafted. When we had looked 24 hours after grafting the acceptance rate looked better than that but the bees only went ahead with the 6 larvae. A bit disappointing but onwards and upwards!

Gerry