hopefully what follows will not sound excessively harsh....
normally a person starts a 'research project' by trying to figure out what has been done in the past and then proceeding from there if there are questions that still needs to be answered. this ESSENTIAL first step seems to be something a lot of the new folks to science and beekeeping seem to want to avoid and certainly a lot of good stuff is missed since a lot of good research prior to 1985 is not digitized and consequently not automatically searchable. this means that to get to some really good stuff you have to do some heavy lifting by going thru lots of real books and reading lot of material unrelated to the question you wish to ask.
secondly.... imho beekeeping has a lot of odd and arcane language and does it really help anyone to make up words to make explaining what we do even more confusing?
thanks for now adding another non descriptive term to beekeeping.
what you call the Joseph Clemens method is really nothing beside a five frame starter/finisher hive that could easily have been described in one of Jay Smith's little books (100 years ago) but even he did not have the gall to name the technique after himself. the statement of 'large queen cells' really places the author of this in the world of a novice since the size of the cell has little bearing (perhaps some but certainly not much) on the quality of the queen that may issue from that cell. given how few cells the author says he makes I don't think this process even complies with an effective use of bee resources. personally I use a similar but somewhat converted 5 frame starter box and can and do rear cells at about 4 to 5 times the number as described by the author. you can rear queens with a queen right hive counter to what the author states and there is not necessarily any wasting of bee resources even if you rear queen cells in a queenless starter hive (of whatever size) since these same bees then go on to other ends. many of the authors statements are really more like generalized presumption which in themselves may give a novice beekeeper a lot of WRONG ideas.
as a piece to generally inform folks of producing queen cells and queen the article is useful but not particularly clever, innovative or in any way represents any new information.
tecumseh,
Thanks for your input. The challenge I and other
beginners face (IMHO) is finding written material that a
beginner can use. The really challenging part as a
beginner (especially in the digital age), is being able to discern who to listen to and who not to listen to. There is
so much information out there that is absolute junk. Believe me, I have researched and done my homework to the best of my ability. I've read queen rearing books by well known authors, etc., and found much of the material somewhat ambiguous for a
beginner.
When I found the
"Beginner to Beginner" queen rearing article it was something that as a
beginner I could follow. The author called it the Joseph Clemens method only to give credit to the kind veteran that publishes often on bee source in the quest to help
beginners. Clemens certainly is not a man who claims to have found new earth shattering methods.
Judging by the tone of your response you are obviously someone who has been keeping bees for decades. I am relatively new to this forum, but I would love for you to share what you might suggest as a viable alternative for queen rearing on a small scale for a
beginner.