[Barry Tolson]

G3,
I just checked and have capped queen cells from this method. All "I" did was make one of my colonies queenless and broodless...selected a full frame of brood from another colony...identified larva of the correct age...cut the bottom of those particular cells down to the midrib...and placed that frame into the queenless colony. It worked. Those cells that I altered all had queen cells drawn from them.
Give it a try!
Barry

 

[Barry Tolson]

Iddee,
True. This was my first try at that, so it was a chance to see if it worked. What I liked was that the queen cells were produced exactly where I wanted them. Can't say it was particularly more work, though. Just took the corner of my hive tool...identified where I wanted the queen cells and broke off the floors of those cells. Probably 10 seconds worth of looking for the right aged larva in the desired locations.

I could certainly have just removed the queen and left it at that. Nothing wrong with that, and I made queens that way just a few weeks ago...I just wanted to try something different.

For me that's part of the fun in beekeeping...trying different methods to see what works and what does not...and what might work best for me under different circumstances. Next time I make queens I'm sure I'll try another method. And there are many methods out there for me yet to try! I like trying new things and queen rearing affords ample opportunity for that!