Queen rearing discussion from bee lab reports post

[Zweefer]

... i also have been making queens off of some saskatraz queens. i watch these queens for hygienic behavior & choose the best of the lot. i haven't really got my act together to raise queens so what i've done is allow the hives with the best queens build up to the point of swarming & then i start nucs with frames that have swarm cells. i'm pulling supers now so when i'm finished extracting i'm going to try to raise some queens.

If grafting isn’t your thing, I have a friend who just started this year with the Nicot method, and has had some success with that....

Congrats on the mite counts, sorry the report doesn’t shed any light on why they died though.

[rober]

i'm set up to graft & have a frame set up with a nicot fixture. i found a magnifying lamp for drafting tables in a junk shop for $10.00. i had to fabricate a small part but had the metal on hand & spent an entire 40 minutes making & installing it. i also built a mating nuc with the screened vents at the bottom. & i built 2 nucs with a center divider running lengthwise. it has a landing board at each end & separate entrances at each end so i 'believe' i have all my ducks in a row.
here the grafting set up.

[Zweefer]

Looks great!  If you ever decide you don’t want it, Let me be the first to call the internationally recognized right of “dibs” 

[rober]

good luck with that. I looked for a deal on one of those for over 3 years. found several in the 50.00- 100.00 price range. i'm getting kinda old maybe i'll will it to you.

[Zweefer]

Lol!  I’ve never tried grafting... I know several members here do it. Is there a steep learning curve to it?

[rober]

not really. larva selection is important hence the magnifier. getting the feel of the tool for transferring larva is a matter of practice. kinda like taping drywall or welding. some tools kave a spring loaded plunger that pushes the larva off of the tool & into the cell. the 1st class i took on grafting was at a HAS seminar at UMSL campus & they had a magnifier. that's where i got the idea. we saw a 65% success rate with grafted cells. 3 of 4 cells that i grafted were successful.  i've since taken 2 more classes. i also have a hand held illuminated magnifier that my chiropractor gave me that works really well. i sometimes use that at the hives when looking for eggs. i looked it up online & it sells for around $250.00!!. it's specific use is to look for head lice.
 before grant gillard moved to western missouri i talked to him several times about the nicot fixture. he said he had an average of 50% success rate & that the biggest challenge is having virgin queens making it back home after mating. lots of birds & windshields out there.

[Zweefer]

Sorry to have this thread digress beyond your lab report, but wouldn’t you have the same issue with grafting?  They still need to go on mating flights... or was the 50% hatch rate?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Bakersdozen]

rober and Zweefer, you have a great conversation going here about queen rearing under Pests and Diseases.  I am going to see if I can split this thread and post the queen rearing comments under Raising Queens.  This is too good to get lost under the wrong topic.