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Author Topic: Cell Punch  (Read 13937 times)

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Offline LazyBkpr

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Cell Punch
« on: June 21, 2014, 11:59:44 am »


   Today is the day...    WAS.. the day...
   Yesterday, TedH (Eagle Eye Ted ) came down so we set up our "starter" colony..    If any of you have been through my site I dont use starter and finishers for the amount of queens I try to make, but yesterday we built up a pretty strong Nuc..   4 Strong frames of capped brood, some starting to emerge, and about 4 shakes of nurse bees. 
   They got a jar of syrup put on top of them and left for the night.
   Today, TedH came back down.. We went up to one of the outyards and pulled a freshly built frame filled with eggs and larvae from one of the expensive VSH queens I installed this spring..
   The punch table was all set up before hand....




   So all that was left was to begin finding the larvae of the right age...
   Unfortunately, at this point I stopped thinking about the camera, so I didnt get any pictures of myself punching cells, waxing the back of them and setting them into the cups...    Sorry..

   However!  I did get a picture of Eagle eye himself trying his hand!!!










    We punched fifteen cells, settled them into the bar and slid the bar into the queenless colony we built yesterday, beside a frame of pollen and nectar.

   I'll go out in three or four days and see how many of the cells they are working. I am hoping for ten to twelve this go round.   Now there is only the waiting!
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Offline Jen

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2014, 12:25:11 pm »
Scott- "Unfortunately, at this point I stopped thinking about the camera, so I didnt get any pictures of myself punching cells, waxing the back of them and setting them into the cups...    Sorry..

   Booooooo, no excuses Mr. Scott!

   Ted is a lucky guy to have you for a mentor  ;) 8)
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Offline blueblood

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2014, 02:08:21 pm »
Solid work! I understand about the camera.  I have to put it down to attend to the job at hand.  Yesterday's cut out was one of those occasions.
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2014, 05:09:24 pm »

I totaly understand unless i have a camera man with me ( camera daughter) Taking pictures ger in the way of getting the job done.
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2014, 08:14:05 am »
thanks for the pix scott, i like your home made cell puncher....what did you use, some sort of fitting or tube?
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Offline tedh

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2014, 09:35:14 am »
So, how cool was that!?  It had that "mad scientist" feel to it that appealed to a certain part of my nature.  My hands and fingers have been pretty broken up/ beaten up over the years and don't seem to work as well as they use to.  Add to that the shakiness and you'll understand that my first punch wasn't the best!  Man, that wax is SOFT!

Jen:  Yes I do feel very fortunate to have an experienced keeper (okay, and pretty nice guy!) close enough to make driving there possible.

The experience on Saturday gave me a little boost of confidence in that the first time Josh and I were at Lazy's  bee yard, he (Lazy) was talking about punching cells and rearing queens,  all I could think was, "What freaking language is he speaking?".  At the time I was trying to keep the hive components straight in my head.  The big box is a deep commonly used as a...BROOD BOX! that's it.  The smaller box is called a...a...a ....Super!  There's the telescopic cover, umm, bottom board,  what was the long skinny piece of wood called... Oh Yeah, an entrance reducer!  Compare all that to the fact that Saturday's cell punch made perfect sense to me.  GO TED!  Oh brother.  Oh and by the way?  This is the first time I've ventured into the Queen Rearing section of the forum.  Why bother?  It all sounded like gobbledy gook before!  Ah yes, small steps, but steps non the less.  Ted
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Offline jb63

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2014, 10:04:38 am »
Way to go Ted.Now your hooked.Just wait till you get to see the new queens.
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2014, 10:42:43 am »
One day, one week, one month and one year at a time it will get easier and more understandable.   If I get to rattling on and something isnt understood please tell me to back up...
   Mentor?   Don't know about that.. friend maybe, another beek willing to help.

   I don't even have to see the queens, just pulling those capped cells from the cell bars is enough to get me amped up. 
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2014, 11:29:42 am »
River lazy mist your question but I remember him saying he used a piece of a bullet casing. Can't remember the caliber 308, 30 06, 30 30, or some other size as long as it cuts around the cell.
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Offline Finally Home

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2014, 12:21:20 pm »
Quote from: apisbees on June 22, 2014, 11:29:42 am
River lazy mist your question but I remember him saying he used a piece of a bullet casing. Can't remember the caliber 308, 30 06, 30 30, or some other size as long as it cuts around the cell.

.44 Mag.  It's on his website.
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Offline minz

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2014, 03:37:22 pm »
I went to a queen rearing seminar / class yesterday. They were going to show us small timers how to raise queens without grafting.  When it got down to cell punch (why I went) he said he was not really going to cover it and only had 6 flyers. 
I will have to look up your site, I need about 8 QC to requeen my hives this year and time is getting short.

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Offline rcannon

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2014, 03:42:16 pm »
Lazy, is that a jug of moonshine on the back of the table? For nerves and snake bite, I suppose?
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2014, 08:40:16 pm »
Sorry Yes..   .44 mag case cut down and soldered to a screwdriver...
   No moonshine unfortunately..   thats syrup for the queen raising split in the jug...

    Yeah, all the info is on the website..    I have been planning pictures and vids since last year, just seems that when the time arrives I dont think about all those plans until I am done..   Then I kick myself for not filming it..   I'll try to get the next batch on vid...

   http://outyard.weebly.com/queens.html
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2014, 01:38:56 am »
"River lazy mist your question but I remember him saying he used a piece of a bullet casing. Can't remember the caliber 308, 30 06, 30 30, or some other size as long as it cuts around the cell."

thank you apis, and thanks scott for the reply, knew it was soldered on but didn't know what you used.
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2014, 06:58:35 pm »
   Most of the queens I raise end up on the darker side. Not sure if anyone else has this happen?

   Typically the VSH and package queens are primarily golden colored;

   




   Taking eggs from them usually results in about 4 out of 5 looking like Black beauty here..




   I need to locate one of the feral queens again, they look like the black queen but have golden stripes on their abdomen. I'll get a picture of one of them next time I get one in my sights.
   I am assuming it is because they are mating with feral drones or the Carny mixes I have.  I am not complaining, it seems the darker queens have a better winter survival skill/ability, just wondering if anyone else had noticed this?

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Offline riverbee

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #15 on: June 23, 2014, 07:14:21 pm »
wow scott!  look at that black beauty!!! thanks for the pix, love those dark queens, even though sometimes they are hard to find.

what would you say your success rate is with cell punching?
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #16 on: June 23, 2014, 07:27:35 pm »
heh well...   success rate....    sometimes its 30% and sometimes its 70%   Seems to be getting better as I make progressive attempts..
   I also seem to have a little better luck when i find a queenless hive that is starting to dwindle and drop a cell bar in it, as apposed to building a really strong starter to make my cells.  Might have something to do with how long they are queenless.   Ted and I set up a starter on Friday, and put the cells into it on saturday afternoon..   Today I found one of the packages I installed had a failed queen so I popped out another ten cells and dropped into that hive. Will see which one of them has the better acceptance.
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #17 on: June 23, 2014, 09:05:41 pm »
thanks scott, you are the only beek i know that does cell punch, so am interested in your posts, insight, experience on this.  thank you!
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Offline jb63

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #18 on: June 24, 2014, 08:55:02 am »
When you pick up the cell punch do you need to say "Go ahead,make my day."
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Cell Punch
« Reply #19 on: June 24, 2014, 09:07:03 am »
 ;D   Thats reserved for anyone that disturbs me while using it.
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