First grafts ever done. It's a rush...

[Beeboy]

I have a question regarding grafting.

1. How do the larva keep from falling out of the cups when you turn them upside down?

2. If your raising queens to sell they need to be mated. So if I have 20 queens hatch, do I need 20 nucs made up to take those queens in so that they will be mated & have  place to live until sold? If so, that's a lot of nucs.

Ok, so that was two questions. 

[LazyBkpr]

static friction / royal jelly hold them in place, they are so tiny it doesnt take much.

   Yep, if your going to sell mated queens you have to have at least a couple frames of bees for the new queen to call home and start laying in.

[G3farms]

check out yannkee11 thread on the 10 bay queen castle he just built. That will let you raise 10 queens on two frames each.

[Yankee11]

Threadkilla,

They make queens castles and they also make small queen mating nucs. They are about half the size of a regular nucs.

I am trying queen castles, this way I can just move regular size deep frames around as needed. And, it only takes 2 frames
to get her mated. Don't have to fill a 5 frame nuc until you know she makes it back.

There is also plans on the forum for making 4 complete nucs, including tops, out of one sheet of 4x8 plywood. makes them really economical.

[Beeboy]

I think I"ll try this probably next year. I hope I can get some stock off of my best hive because this little gal just loves to show out.  She has a deep & a shallow full of wall to wall brood right now. The bees are pretty gentle, & they produce large amounts of honey. I didn't get them set up until May of last year, & they gave me 6-1/2 gallons of honey with plenty left over to winter through. I just love this little gal!   

[blueblood]

Good job! Enjoyed the pics!

[minz]

I took the advice of the forum and put some qc in a 4 way bush kill mating box (pictured above). 2 capped qc max per frame, two frames of qc per hive. I will update my demaree thread.

[Yankee11]

I layed eyes on 7 of the grafted queens yesterday. They hatched out 9 days ago and we have had great weather.

I saw fat queens walking around on frames poking their heads in cells. I am thinking they are mated watching the way they were acting.

Gonna be time to graft some more and give the ole 10 bay queen castle a test run 

[G3farms]

Sounds like you did a good job!

[LazyBkpr]

Thats awesome Yankee.. Glad to hear it!!
   Hoping to vid everything when I start making queens, but it will be another month and a half for me...   sigh...