[Iddee]

Seems like a lot of work. I just put a frame of eggs and brood on a trap out last Fri. This Fri. I had 11 queen cells. I cut some of them out for nucs, one for the replacement box on the trap, and left the rest for the box I removed from the trap.

I think you could do the same thing just by removing the queen from a strong hive and checking for cells 7 days later.

 

[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!

 

[Iddee]

That's what makes the world go round.... :thumbsup:

 

[Mama Beek]

definitely interesting reading! Thanks!!

 

[tecumseh]

barry tolson writes:
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.

tecumseh:
keep doing your little experiments this one was quite insightful. thanks...

 

[Brooklyn]

Next year I would like to try and raise queens by the cloake method. Anyone have any good books I could read over the winter?

Brooklyn

 

[tecumseh]

the Cloake method likely doesn't really require the reading of any books. the first mention of the method (in an old bee journal penned by Sue Colbey in the mid 80's) pretty much reduced the idea to one short article. One queen cell producer I know here uses this method quite extensively... literally produces cells by the thousand using the Cloake method.

there are any number of excellent books on queen rearing. Contemporary Queen Rearing by Harry Laidlaw, Jr. (Dadant) is an excellent first book.

 

[Iddee]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloake_boa ... en_Rearing

 

[skydoc]

I am new at this forum but just wanted to say that CFF has already helped me. Thanks great subject

 

[Iddee]

Welcome, skydoc. Glad to see you here.

 

[rast]

Here is an interactive queen raising calender. If you drop a frame of eggs and larva into a queenless hive/nuc, consider that your grafting day.
http://www.thebeeyard.org/queencalendar ... &year=2011

 

[G3farms]

Good tool for sure, thanks for posting that I can use it.

 

[Iddee]

This brings up a question. Do we need a queen rearing forum for links like this and other info? If so, we can get all the queen rearing together in one area?

Let's here some opinions on this........

 

[tecumseh]

I do like to promote queen rearing amongst folks that think the honey bee is important. I think this basic skill (it definitely ain't alchemy) is the lynch pen to any number of quality issues associated with rearing honey bees and as I first told Flyman a couple of years back 'rearing queens will make you a better bee keeper'.

 

[G3farms]

Tec I strongly agree with you....'rearing queens will make you a better bee keeper'. You really have to pay more attention to what is going on inside of the hive and have that watchful eye.

 

[Omie]

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

That's what i'll be doing in a few weeks. Can't wait! ancing:
Apparently you can do this to several frames at once in a queenless hive and then start multiple nucs from the resultant Qcells. You just have to select larvae of the right age and make sure you leave 2 or 3 cells spacing between any cells you do the cut on, so there's enough room between queen cells.

 

[tecumseh]

Take an existing modestly strong hive and remove a strong split with the queen plus most of the sealed brood. Leave lots of bees and unsealed brood. Return after 10 days to split the various frames with cells into as many nucs as possible.

you can some what drive this process by liberally (<there's that ugly word again) feeding in front of this process. this not only stimulates but crowds the brood nest somewhat.

 

[Flyman]

The sage, well read and handsome Tecumseh is correct, raising queens will make (force) you to be a better beekeeper. You have to pay attention to timelines and quickly find out that you can't do something tomorrow that should have been done today. I just recently lost a batch of queen cells (26 really nice ones) because I took a chance they would not begin to hatch on the day I thought. I was wrong. First one out killed almost 20 others in less than 30 minutes.

 

[PerryBee]

Ouch!

 

[tecumseh]

The ouch'y thingee has happened to many more folks than just Flyman (who according to authorities much larger than myself make a petty mean bottle of mead).