Setting up the hive.
Reverse and block the bottom box, then add the cloake board with the slide removed. Give the hive a few days to adjust to the higher entrance.
dang you must be much younger than myself Iddee. if it was me I would raise the entire thing on a bench and do a bit less stooping.
the fellow I know who uses this technique for the production of large quantity of queen cells simply has stands with two bottom boards pointed in different directions. he move it to one position for cell rearing and the other when the hive is not being used.
in most places pollen patties are not so important but a dribble of feed is certainly recommended.
This is the reversed entrance. I made it to fit 8 or 10 frame boxes. Removing 2 screws takes the 2 panels out and makes it full width 10 frame. Excluder is 10 frame slid into dado cuts.
Tec, you know I'm a lot younger than you. I'm only 132. :lol:
A deep setting on cross ties, then the cloake board, then another deep, gets it up high enough to work fairly easily.
Rast, this is my first time trying, and likely my last. Doing it as simple as I can. Good to see how others do it, tho. I hope some of them will post their pics.
I sure hope not. You know you don't have to put grafts in cups in. You can drop a frame of eggs in it too. The whole point (to me) is in getting the top box as full of nurse bees (therefore I feed) as you can without having to shake nurse bees from a few hives into a starter box and then moving them to another finishing hive. I am toying with making some spacers and using the Hopkins method just to try it.
I am not certain Iddee if this is your first attempt at grafting??? I have found that a bit of royal jelley to prime the cells certainly makes your first attempts at grafting much more productive. Sometime when I begin at the first of the season I like to 'prime' cells just to add a bit of insurance. So quite often when I first make up a starter (of whatever form) I drop in one frame of very young larvae and harvest the royal jelly that is produced (typically two days later).
Well, I moved all the brood to the top box yesterday. This morning I installed the slide in to separate the top bees from the queen, essentially making them queenless. Opened the bottom box at the back to allow the foragers to leave. They will return to the top box, thus overcrowding it.
Four of us did a mix of grafting, all for the first time. It'll be a miracle if we get a queencell between the four of us, but it was fun setting it up.
you would be absolutely amazed (I know I was) to see the ladies in the queen grafting shack grafting sticks of cells. they make it look so easy and almost effortless. they laugh at 'grandpa' when he proclaims 'WOW'.
it looks like your grafting set up could use a bit of work?
If I were going to be grafting regularly, It would receive that little bit of work. Since it is a one or two time deal, it probably won't get improved. Just trying one time for fun. Have no use for the queens if successful.
I have gotten better over time but will never bee so fast. I have reasoned that since I have a limited number of cells to produce speed doesn't really accomplish much anyway.
ps... if I could tap into the large number of cells never used but stripped from bars and tossed into a fairly large cardboard box by my prior employee I would never need to graft anyway.
I pulled the slide yesterday and made it 8 feet to my truck with head butts only. Went back today and checked the cells. Looks like I might have a decent crop of cells being pulled. They were much friendlier today.
Checked them again today. Five capped queen cells. Not great, but satisfactory for the first try. Plan to transfer them to mating boxes Tuesday and graft again later in the week.
Set up mating nucs today. Bad news. Two of the five cells were gone and the three remaining ones are questionable. We set up three nucs and will install the cells tomorrow.
I have no idea what happened to the two, unless the pupa died and they removed them. The other 3 have comb drawn to them, not in the open like they should be.
Comb drawn around a cell (why is this a problem)????
Did you place a frame of foundation in this starter box to give the bees something to work on? In regards to the two neglected cells... did you keep a dribble of feed on this hive from the point of starting the cells onward?
Finally... in the interval between start and finish have you had any up and down weather (temperature most specifically)?
Went in and removed the cells this morning and found all five. Two had been totally encased in comb. Both sides, front, back, and bottom. Cut the comb from around them and cut one open. She was still alive. Installed the other four in mating nucs.
Frame of foundation? NO.
Feed. NO.
Weather... HOT every day. 85 to 90 F.
Maybe you have hit on something there. We plan to graft again Friday. Will plan on a frame and feeder.
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