We found several large colonies that were making swarm cells in preparation to swarm! That’s great news to us, as it lets us know it’s time to raise queens!
i was wondering about that. i'm like: sheesh he's in all these other videos having a great time no issues with your face. maybe had a good time on the weekend and got beat up 😮
Hey Richard.. did you try what l'm doing ? After caging, when they have a box of mostly capped brood. Not to make nucks immediately.. but let them all emerge and use the supercedure impulse they have against that caged queen. (15 days after caging). I graft on them, with the old queen still there in the cage.. just 5 on ich and split after.. make broodless nucks from them. Anyway, I did it 5 times so far and those are the queens l keep for myself. Could be just my preference and opinion, but I never seen bigger, better queens in 50 years. When you do it the hives are full with bee bread and those bees never fed any brood
Nobody has a comment on this method ? Nothing ? Good, bad... I just need a pocket of plastic cells and a grafting tool. They are all starter-finisers.. splits are made verticality.. one cell over the excluder, another over a double screen board above. One is for old caged queen replacement... If you didn't know it.. it takes 12 days of eating pollen for a nurse bee in this situation to accumulate her fat body tissue to be the healthier she can be..( l graft day 15-16) and this bees can live more than double life time in compare with normal summer brood feeding bees. Ofcourse, later after raising the next generation they are all gone fast. Nobody has an opinion on a new method ?
Great video and great info!! Thanks for sharing! Learned the same thing from Dr. Harris with regard to just seeing drones. He stated in a class I attended that it’s the nutrition that is present in the area as well to determine swarming. I used a cloake board last two years utilizing a whole colony rather than trying to assemble a man made builder. I know big operations need to build out their queen rearing colonies, but for a hobbyist utilizing the strength they have on hand has worked well for me.
Hi Cory, Thanks for showing us your queen rearing method. I'm wondering why the bees will use your grafted larvae and not larvae of their own. Cheers from Adelaide Australia where we're heading toward the winter.
That was just amazing. I have watch a lot of your videos and seen some of your FB post, but this was the best video of you taking the eggs out of the cells. Thanks for this video. Well done Jamie.
It does, I didn’t like it when I first tried it. You’ve got to hold the paddle between your “scissor fingers” lol! Then you can easily depress the tongue mechanism with your thumb, and it’s at the correct angle.
I open up the web store for virgin queen pre orders Jan 1. I’ll plan to send out an email heads up if you subscribe to my website email notifications. Thanks! stevensbeeco.com
My VSH journey is getting closer! I can't wait. I'm a little west of you in south central Missouri, I went through my hives today. I found cups but no cells. I believe you're a half zone warmer than me, so I'll need to watch for swarm cells pretty close in the next couple of weeks.
This is why I’m a big fan of how Michael Palmer does his queen rearing. If you find a strong colony and put 10 frames of emerging brood on top of it, you’re creating a monster that wants to swarm. Similar to what you’re doing but with a bit more force.
Palmer knows his stuff. But there is a difference between a boosted colony that didn’t display signs of swarming before grafting and one that is already triggered.
Ideally you could boost one that is already triggered. But there is always a trade off. They can handle more grafts if they’re boosted, but adding frames from other colonies increases the chance of pathogen transfer. I opt for less grafts, more builders. Then all your eggs aren’t in one basket, as some builders have bacterial funk going on from early spring stress and have a much higher cull rate even if the cells look good.
@@stevensbeeco767 Right, but if you stick 10 frames of emerging brood on top of an already strong colony and wait 10 days that triggers them to swarm. You’re basically forcing them into the situation rather than letting them get there on their own. That’s been my experience anyways, I always have to go through and cut out all the swarm cells when I do this. I 100% agree on the pathogen transfer, but with the hygienic testing and VSH assays I’m doing I would hope they can handle it.
I'll never say nothing against a method that works with them. Those are always the best. Great video, explained good.. and very nice grafting tool. Who makes them?
