Richard, thanks for the link, I will need to watch that a few more times to be able to absorb so much information. That guy sure knows what he is about. Even after the first viewing I picked up two most critical pieces of operational information. Thanks again. At the moment I have eight hives, and waiting for the results of my second grafting attempt, the first was a 100% fail, but have high hopes for the second go. Good wishes for your bee keeping work Robert (in NZ)
Yes it we put the pollen frame right next to the grafted tiny larvae, so nurse bees don't have to go far to find pollen, which they will make food for the larvae from. This seems to work, they certainly use it!!
+jean-francois dugong Yes , i wouldn't disagree, but for me the whole exercise in the queen rearing set up is to maximise the number of Nurse bees. With this method, you work to the formula and end up with a hive so overwhelmingly full of nurse bees that they make the most beautiful queen cells and their still full of royal jelly on the day of harvest. I say do what works for you. If you find another method that you like, then use it. The other beauty of this method is that i say, by removing the queen and taking away the bottom box (temporarily), the queen feels she's swarmed, so that does help take away her natural instinct to start swarm preparations. You reunite her a few days later on day 5 when the cells are capped over and she's lost the impulse. Its a great method on so many levels. Theres lots of other methods, but by adding 8 frames of brood, you create a monster!! on day 10, you can harvest the top box and make it in to two or three nucs, just move it 3kms away and add a queen cell or a mated queen!! Resources, resources, resources!!
Hi Tom, no their just a mixed packet i bought and theses were JZBZ. I've changed over completely to the Nicot system now. i dont use the queen confinement cage, just graft in to the cups. however it seems to work well. the Nicot system in terms of cups, seems to give you more options. just my point of view. lots in America use the JZBZ and have great results.
I'm curious you said the top box was brood brought over from your nucs and it is above the excluder. But at around the 6:00 minute mark you are going through that box looking for queen cells. You said at that point that there was a queen cup you destroyed with an egg in it. How could there be an egg if it was 8 days previous that you put that box on above the queen excluder?
Kip Glass your correct, it was the wrong terminology! i should have said a cell with a larvae in it! It may well have looked like that too but the whole process is about removing and cells that are being made in to queen cells and queen cells that are already closed over to guarantee that the colony you create is hopelessly queenless. Have a look at my more up to date video which is called “the cell builder explained” it’s a much better, clearer concise video.i should really be pulling that video in place of the new one! Thanks for your comment! Richard.
Thanks Richard for the great info.I see you dont put in your graft frame 24 hrs before you graft so they can clean and polish it. I always do that or is that a wasted move?Let me know please thanks Steveo.
Steve's Outdoor World it’s personal preferences. There’s evidence to suggest that it may help but I’ve never found any difference at all. I graft direct from brand new cups just out of the packet. I cover this a little in the “cell builder explained Questions and answers « Here’s the link : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yppRnZvn9oM.html
Hi Richard , I just wondered, I thought one would normally take the grafts from the starter after 24 hrs and put them in to a finisher, but with this method of turning the starter back into a finisher you did it after 5 days when the cells were already sealed, technically they're largely finished at this point. Just wondered if you could explain a little as to why it is done after 5 days as opposed to 24hrs . Many thanks, just found you on here and really enjoying the videos... 👍🏼
Digger D hi Digger, ok , I see your observation and your correct. This is the first of two videos I did. And after inserting the grafts, this is the Method where you leave the grafts in the same position until their capped over on day 5. Then I rearrange the colony and reassemble it as it was previously, with the queen and all Bees back on the same two boxes, so it becomes a finisher. In the second of my videos “ the cell builder explained “ all li am doing is yes, using the cell-builder as a starter. Then moving started cells to finishers 24 hours later! If you don’t need many cells, reassembling the colony on day 5, to its original con figuration to be a finisher is fine! The only issue potentially, is if a rogue virgin fly’s in to the cell builder between day 1 and 5, you will loose your cells! It can happerai
Richard you had your honey super you placed on the bottom of your cell builder below the queen excuder just above the brood box with the queen in it, leaving the potential for the queen to have been in the honey super you placed under your cell builder. Your queen excluder needed to be on top of the brood box with the queen in it so as to avoid any possibility of the queen ending up in your cell builder. If the queen was in your honey super you wasted your time grafting and placing the cell bar frame in the cell builder. You may have had eggs and larvae in that honey super as well with it being accessible to the queen. If there are larvae in the honey super, the bees may not have drawn out your grafted cells and filled them with royal jelly. It should have been above the queen excluder.
Great work Richard, going into winter here in NZ. Watching you and Ian Steppler coming out of winter make us very jealous but excited about next season. We will be up to a couple of hundred hives next spring and will be starting a nuc colony to supplement out production hives. For the first time we will be doing our own queen rearing, so you videos will come in handy. Great videos by the way, well filmed and narrated. Very well explained steps, cheers Ben
I want to thank you Mr Noel for answering my question about the acid vaporizer. Not all answer questions we watchers ask. I checked the price on the units, and the one like you used was around $400. Since I only have 12 hives at present, it would not be worth the investment. Thank you again for the information.
Ive been keeping bees for about 4 years now, so I have some understanding of bee keeping (but still lots t learn) however I found this the most confusing instructional queen rearing session, sorry for the negative comment but you lost me Robert
+Robert Ramsey-Turner No offence taken and thank you for your comments. This is not a TUTORIAL, this is just how i raise my queens. If you want to understand it more look at this presentation from Michael palmer at the National Honey Show, 2014. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R7tinVIuBJ8.html You may understand the process i am going through, a little better afterwards. However i admit, if you dont know the process, it can seem confusing. I will be filming a better version this spring summer, that i hope may be a better learning video. Regards and great beekeeping. Richard
yes, but what type of wood? here in Portugal hives are made of pine wood, so they are very heavy! and we use reversible hives which are smaller, you use dandant hives wich are bigger and it seams ligther
Marco Rodrigues there is many types of wood here available but it depends on price, like always. Most are cheap pine. Maritime pine is the most expensive here!all my hives are then painted with an exterior wood stain, this is why they look darker! hope this helps.
Thanks Richard. Well done! That is the Michael Palmer method cell builder when you create the hopelessly Queenless colony. Thank you for the step by step video. It really gives one an understanding of the method.
D Stuart yes, thank you very much. It's not a good as I wanted so I am filming a better version with More detail this as we speak. Hopefully it will be out in late autumn here! That's around October when I finally have time! Have a look then, I am Hoping it will be really informative! Cheers 01 03 2018 : heres the better video i was talking about. hope it helps. :ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TW_FJTnhilg.html
