Queen rearing resources

[Paul Zelenski]

If I want to start doing some queen rearing this year besides just letting hives make queens, does anyone have any good resources they can recommend where I can learn more? Books, online, etc?

Thanks,
Paul Z

[Joseph Bessetti]

You could start here:  http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm
 
Michael Bush pulled a lot of information together, including the books written by many of the pioneers in queen rearing, all accessible in one place. 
 
Joe
 

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[Sonny Reeder]

Just in case you did not know.Michael Bush will be at NCTI on April 11th.The fee is $59.00


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[John B]

Paul,

Here is how I have raised queens very easily with minimal resources. I have done this in WI and in OH. I have raised, probably, 30 queens with 100% success and very little work. This is basically the Hopkins method. Here’s how to do it (details omitted here):

Put together a very strong box of young bees and older brood. This box should be bubbling over with bees and should have no eggs or young larva.

Next, place a rim on top of the box which is designed to hold a single frame sideways (so the comb is horizontal).

Place a frame of fresh comb filled with eggs (from a queen you like) in the rim. This frame should have plastic foundation for good support (no wires). Before you put the frame in you can score the down-facing side of the comb with your hive tool (maybe two scrapes the long way and three scrapes in the other direction). The scoring will prevent the queen cells from becoming too clustered together.

Make sure the colony is queenless and close the box. I suppose you can feed them if a flow is not on.

This strong, young, queenless and well fed colony will produce lots of queens on the down-facing side of the rim frame.

When the queens are two or three days away from emerging you can make a bunch of tiny mating nucs. (Don’t wait too long! If one queen has emerged you will only get one queen.) Take a small serrated jack knife and cut out each queen cell. The plastic foundation will help prevent the comb from squishing together when you cut. Introduce the queen cell to a mating nuc - say two frames of bees (or any colony that is eager to accept a new queen).

So, you don’t need A colony to produce A queen With one box of bees you can produce lots of queens. Oh, and no grafting.

I have done this and it works.

John Bachman

Stevens Point/Sun Prairie

[Paul Zelenski]

Thanks for the info! A couple quick questions:

When you cut out the cells, do you cut all the way through the foundation as well? Seems that it would be somewhat difficult to cut through plastic foundation while not harming any of the cells. It's pretty thick. Maybe I'm just overestimating its strength, though. 

What is the benefit to putting the frame on its side rather than just putting a frame of eggs into a queenless hive? Either way will get you a bunch of queen cells. 

It does sound easier than grafting, but then again I've never tried grafting. Maybe it's not as hard as I imagine. 

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[Joseph Bessetti]

Most of the methods that involve cutting of cells should be used with wax foundation or natural comb.  Cutting through plastic isn't really a good option. (but maybe there's a strategy I'm not aware of yet?)
 
When you produce a bunch of cells on a single frame, you need to be able to separate them to transfer 1 or maybe 2 cells to the hive the queen will emerge in.  You want to be able to do this without damaging the cell.
 
Queen cells are always built vertically.  Putting a frame on it's side (as with the Hopkins method and several others), orients the cell containing the egg or larvae vertically.  In a horizontal cell, if the comb is tough and the bees can't chew it down, they will add enough extra royal jelly to float the larvae all the way out of the original comb cell so that it spends most if it's development time in the vertical portion.  Positioning the cells vertically to start means less work.
 
The hard parts about grafting are seeing the larvae and successfully transferring them to the grafting cups without harming them.  It's not hard if you have good eyesight and a steady hand, which makes it the preferred method by most commercial queen operations and by far the fastest and easiest when you include the time and trouble involved in cutting cells out of a frame.  For the numbers of queens most of us will raise, any method will usually work just fine. 
 
Joe
 

 

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From: paulze...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [madbees] Re: Queen rearing resources
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 11:18:33 -0500
To: mad...@googlegroups.com

[John B]

Paul,

Yes, cut clear through the comb. Use a sharp, small, serrated knife and saw very slowly and gently. Imagine cutting a slice from a fresh loaf of bread you just took out of the oven - if you use a big dull knife and push fast you will crush the loaf - if you use a sharp serrated bread knife and saw very slowly with very little pressure you will have better luck. The plastic foundation helps prevent harming the cells because it gives the fresh comb some rigidity. The plastic also helps when you place the cell in the matting nuc. It keeps it in place. Otherwise when things get warm the wax gets soft and the cell can fall down. Practice first without bees. Do a dry-run.

Bees build queen cells facing down so placing the comb horizontal just gives them a better starting point. It also keeps all of the cells on one side of the comb (they won't build queen cells on the upper-facing side). If you place the comb vertical they will build queen cells on both sides. You won't be able to separate two queen cells if they are built near each other on opposite sides of the comb. You have a better chance of separating them if they are all on the same side. By the way, the upper side of the comb will still develop into workers.

John

[James]

I have read about the Hopkins method before, and like the simplicity of it BUT I have never really understood the scoring part of it.  People try to describe it, and some make a LOT more intricate cuts than what you describe.  Could you maybe expand on this a bit.  Thanks

[jbessetti]

The point is to never have two eggs/larvae in adjacent cells so that the queen.  You destroy most of the cells; the ones left have at least 1-2 destroyed cells between.  

Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Smartphone

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[Betsy True]

What’s-his-name (author of “on the spot” queen production, or OTS) puts bullet casings in the cells he wants to keep and then dusts powdered sugar in the rest, killing the larvae. When he removes the casings, they are left intact.

Betsy True

bt...@wisc.edu

home: 608 821-0048

cell: 608 577-1134

[jbessetti]

Was going to write "so that the queen cells can be cut out individually".  

Joe

[jeanne hansen]

Mel Disselkoen Apiaries, www.mdasplitter.com has some interesting things to say about Queen rearing.  This is the fellow from Michigan who spoke to our club about making splits, the "on the spot" queen fellow.

 

 

Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094

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From: Betsy True <bt...@wisc.edu>
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:22 PM
Subject: Re: [madbees] Re: Queen rearing resources

[Dale Marsden]

One thing I have not seen mentioned.  Handle the queen cells very gently and keep them in the same orientation as they are in the hive or you cold damage the pupa, especially if they still have 3 or four days  before they are to emerge.  Make arrangement to have holders for the queen cells ahead of time. 

Dale

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From: jbessetti <jbes...@hotmail.com>
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:26 PM

[Matthew Hennek]

Have you heard of (or already are) using a queen castle? Not as efficient as grafting from a space/cost consideration, but more efficient than a 4 frame nuc split.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mmlZNnlHpXQ

[Paul Zelenski]

I was just going to ask what most people use for mating nucs. I know Paul O. had very small mating nucs that required only about a cup of bees. It sounds like others are using full-sized nucs. I suppose it is probably a balance between using a small number of bees/space and dealing with specialized equipment.

> On Mar 27, 2015, at 8:36 AM, Matthew Hennek <matthew...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Have you heard of (or already are) using a queen castle? Not as efficient as grafting from a space/cost consideration, but more efficient than a 4 frame nuc split.
>
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mmlZNnlHpXQ
>