Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Raising Queens => Topic started by: Bee Commander on March 06, 2016, 09:06:26 am
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Hi all,
For those of you who graft, I would love to hear from you regarding the grafting tool you use and why it works for you. I currently use a Chinese; I like the fact that it brings a small amount of royal jelly with the larvae. However, I don't like the lack of control with this tool when picking up larvae.
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I use a chinese grafting tool, but more often use a German tool. (http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/product/HD-275.html) The Chinese tool has more help getting the larva off the tool and where you want to put it, but you can soon learn to compensate for that with some practice. Totally personal choice. Cannot use the jz-bz tool. I saw one of these (https://www.dadant.com/catalog/m00654-master-grafting-tool) at tecumseh's grafting table, but haven't been able to turn loose of the dollars for one of my own. HTH
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Me personally I use the German Grafting tool.
It is because I am more comfortable using it than the Chinese tool.
I use the wet graft method so my tool has a small amount of Royal Jelly on it.
I pick up the larva and it floats off my grafting Tool.
I purge each cell cup with royal Jelly with a syringe before grafting.
But as far as one tool over the other, it depends on what you are comfortable working with.
Me I feel I have more control using the small end of the German Grafting Tool.
Both are good. ;D
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Me personally I use the German Grafting tool.
It is because I am more comfortable using it than the Chinese tool.
I use the wet graft method so my tool has a small amount of Royal Jelly on it.
I pick up the larva and it floats off my grafting Tool.
I purge each cell cup with royal Jelly with a syringe before grafting.
But as far as one tool over the other, it depends on what you are comfortable working with.
Me I feel I have more control using the small end of the German Grafting Tool.
Both are good. ;D
Thanks for the reply, I really like the looks of the German grafting tool. What methods do you use to collect royal jelly? I saw your post on another thread regarding your raising 400 cells using the cloake board method. That's outstanding. I tried the cloake board method initially with little success; no doubt it was something I was doing wrong. Good Luck this season!
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Do you buy your royal jelly?
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Pre graft or pull a frame and leave it with out a queen and in 24 hours you will have cells with royal jelly in them to scoop out.
How do you save and store it, or do you collect it fresh for each graft?
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I buy my royal Jelly from Glory Bee in Oregon.
I keep it frozen until ready for use then dilute it 50% with distilled water.
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Tried grafting today, only 10 cups to get my feet wet. Trickier than I imagined. Started to get the hang of the Chinese tool, seemed to have my best luck approaching the larvae on the 'open C' side but then releasing it was a bit haphazard. Could get the larvae on the jz-bz tool easy but could NOT figure how to get it off! :-X. This was all dry grafting. Any tips? :-\\
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If you have royal jelly or honey in your queen cups it makes something sticky for it to release on.
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I almost think I should have tried older larvae, I was trying to get the youngest & these were right near eggs so the amount of royal jelly they were in was minute. So honey huh, I could do that, just a small drop I imagine.
Thanks CBT!