I will confess at the outset that many of these "techniques" leave me cold.
However what ever works for you is best.
What works for me is this: I put queen excluders between double brood boxes to "find the queen" then shake several frames of bees from the queenless bb, into a five frame brood box. Thus I am sure the bees are queen free.
I want the box stuffed with bees. I give a stores frame, (NO BROOD) a pollen frame (NO BROOD) a frame feeder of light syrup, pound a pint, and a gap and a dummy frame. Grafts into the middle gap. Worst result 0 being honest.
Best result, after 10 days of very poor takes,,,, and of course fresh bees... 32 from 36. The weather changed for the better.....
Do what works for you.
PH
What are you stats? How many mated queens are you rearing per year over the past few years using this method?
About 30 last year jon. Been doing it that way since I took over Craibstone which was 1989 I think it was and Bernard taught me it. If when I lift the CB there is not a "beard" of bees hanging in the gap they are not strong enough so out with the sprayer and shake in some more.
PH
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