The Cell Builder explained: Q and A 

You need to look at the colony. The only to know is to know the facts. If it is queenless you might be able to help the colony by adding a new queen. Good luck.

William Southey hi William. The reason you may not combine them after 24 hours is you may want to put in the next load of cells. That’s the beauty of this system. You can raise one batch and use the original set up as the finisher, or you can use the cell builder colony to raise several loads of cells on subsequent days that you distribute to strong finishers. The last load you run if you use it to run many loads would be about after 6 runs. Then this lady run is the one you would combine and use the colony as the finisher! It’s really your choice on how many cells you want to raise and what resources you have! Hope this answers your question? Regards, Richard.

Ok, great. Thanks for replying. I only want to do one run so I'll combine the colony again after 24 hours. I was just wondering if there is a reason you mention only combining the colony after 5 days again once cells are capped, but if 24 hours will work I dont see why I need to wait for the cells to be capped to recombine. Sorry if I'm a little unclear or pedantic, I'm going to do my first attempt at queen rearing and just wanted clarity on how soon I can recombine the colony. Thanks again

William Southey your correct to ask.24 hours is fine, just remember if you put a lot of cells through , they will reduce the number of finished cells down to around 40, if the cell builder is strong at the start. If you distribute them to individual finishers you may have stronger cells finished (I put 14 , one cell bar, in each finisher) If you just use the main starter and ressemble it, be sure to only graft a max of about 40, otherwise if they do finish all the cells, done may have less royal Jelly than they possible could have! Remember it’s all in the Jelly!!

Thanks Richard, I'm going to do 30 so should be fine. Thanks for your help and input!

Hi , you can help augment The drones by several ways, all described towards the end of the first video “ the cell builder explained” re the queens yes, you can “bank” them For a little while but you Really need to get them In to nucs or mini mating nucs. Once their mated and start to Lay you can remove some of the brood to Manage the population so their less likely to swarm or abscond! But it’s all a juggling act! Hope this helps and good luck!!

Good luck!!

UK Here We Grow no I don’t usually have an issue but may be I could share what I do! Thanks for the ideas!

@@richardnoel3141 Yeah I am always looking to see how others do theirs and hadnt noticed one on your channel, just wanted to check I hadnt missed it. Look forward to it later in the year :)

ro boto you can use any method you like, this method combines the swarming impulse and the emergency response, you get technically emergency cells, but their the same as swarm cells because yes, you did initiate that response but also You made sure the colony was packed with food and resources so they couldn’t do anything but draw up really good cells full of Royal Jelly! It all comes down to what works best for you!!!! You should try both methods. The swarm box starter is the same as the queen right finisher in many ways! Just queens absent or in different places! We use a queen right colony for finishing because the queen is laying in to cells beneath the queen excluder but also the nurse bees in that colony are feeding young larvae! When their in feeding mode it’s no Problem for them to finish other cells, worker brood, queen cells, it’s no different to them Once the cels are started they automatically finish them!!

Right , OK thanks for that Richard. Great videos. Almost impossible for one to fail with so much info.

ro boto very kind thank you, but just make sure you get the queen or allthe queens out! That’s the only problem done have had other than not enough bees, is a rogue virgin going in! Check out my other video called the cell builder explained, questions and answers. It’s got a lot of info there too! Thanks for your questions!!🙌

Daniel Crisan hi , thanks for your kind comments. You need to contact keld through his website or on Facebook a d keep mailing him! You should look at a minimum of an island mated queen to Give good F1’s ! I know he has some available still: buckfast.dk/index.php/en/home ! If you need contact me on Facebook messenger or Instagram to talk further! He has a Facebook site too! facebook.com/Buckfast-Denmark-168775216524662/ Hope this helps!

greg rae no we graft a larvae in to a cup, put it in to a hopelessly queenless colony then wait 10 days. You may find this difficult to understand if your not a beekeeper?

Thank you!

Never tried it, but you risk affecting the queen. Apivar is a hard treatment! It’s also expensive! Your better off trying Oxyalic acid before she starts laying. Then you get most of your phoretic mites.

@@richardnoel3141 thank you

Hi Richard, ok i graft a normal amount say 14 x 4 when i am just making a standard amount of cell, to supply us with a few nucs and the continual ,mating of queens during the summer. when i need a lot i really graft double, so 14 x 4 x 2. (and run two cell builders or loads another up very closely timed to the first one) I dont get all the grafts accepted but i certainly get more accepted than i would do if i didn't graft the second frame. When doing the second frame, you need to remove the accepted cells as early as possible, 6 to 12 hours if possible, before the bees reduce the accepted cells down to around 40 to 50. thats what they always seem to do. You can move the cells to the incubator on day 6 as soon as their capped over or after, but the earlier you move them, the more vulnerable they are to getting knocked. You must treat them with great care and make the movement swift as you can. Its critical during the metamorphosis their not knocked.. Hope this answers your question? will message you re the other question, Richard.

Hi Jason, ok well like i say, you must find a method that works for you. however. i find the cloak board a little messy and not as clean cut.(just my opinion) Strictly speaking its very similar, like lots of methods because essentially your creating an area with an already strong colony that has compartment that becomes hopelessly queen less when you slide in the draw above the queen excluder (cloak method) so if it works for you, then i say use it. My whole objective here is to try and also help folks underside a little of the biology of whats actually happening during the process of making a hive hopelessly queen less. understand that and you can do anything in any configuration that works for you., whether your raising 3, 30 or 300 cells this can do all that and you get to use the bees again afterwards. No resources are wasted if you understand the options.

Yes Richard, I hear where you're coming from. I see that you're trying to pass on the fundamental concepts rather than profess particular methods. I did find the cloak board a bit messy because in order to entice the nurse bees up above the queen excluder initially, I had to leave a few frames of brood up above the excluder, but then once the board is in and it's time to drop the grafts in, the brood is supposed to be removed from top box, and I just found it a bit overwhelming with such a massively strong box to try and re-shuffle the box so there was no open brood left in it, and to ensure there was honey and pollen beside the grafts.. though I dare say I could get it to work great for me if I learn from my mistakes and give a second or third go. The grafts I did manage to successfully raise queens from this year were done in a 5-frame nuc box which was starter and finisher in one. I definitely noticed that they ended up with less cells than they initially accepted. You pointed out about distributing the cell bars to various hives for finishing so as to avoid them tearing down excess cells. In that regard, I suspect the same problem might occur in using the cloake-board method because one hive is expected to finish all which they started. have you ever checked out the NZBEES.NET forum? I think you would love it. it's very professionally set up and search feature works well. lots of experience and activity on there.

Jason Kelly thanks Jason will have a look! Thanks for your reply!!

cheers Richard! yeah no hassle mate. That site is pretty epic I think you'll agree :) I just spent my birthday marking queens and adding varroa treatments. I'm pretty sure that counts me as obsessed lol. I was telling my associate about your starter method, and distributing the accepted cells etc. looking forward to making some fat ones next spring. Getting ready for winter here. I've left my bees with heaps more honey than they need, so they'll be happy. I got my fair share too. busy times for you at the moment, hope it all goes well for you the spring build up. any swarm traps out?

cool ill give you a message sometime soon cheers

Grounded generally no, just respect the bee space at all Times and if necessary use a sheet of fresh foundation somewhere when your cells go in the boxing you have a flow on. This keeps the wax builders occupied!!

Grounded hi, you can remove started cells from the starter 6 hrs after if you wish, but I wait untill 24 hours usually! Then add the next graft. You can do this 4 or 5 times then leave the last load of grafts in the builder to it can be used to finish the cells! Or just graft and on day 6 reassemble the colony and use it to keep the cells warm and looked after, ( above the excluder)) so you can yes, put your queen back underneath, remove the cells on day 10 from grafting! It’s so easy to use this method to suit your needs and the number of cells you need! Try it and you will see! Best of luck!

No i dont purely because I've never had and real problem in finding larvae the correct age, but it would still help me i agree its a great idea and is another tool to grafting efficiently

ok Simon, thanks for your question. if you go to "the cell builder explained, questions and answers" that should clear ups few of your questions. but... it depends, sometimes if a cell binder performs really well I will keep that queen going and add a second 10 frames of brood and use it all over again 10 days later. I graft from mid may to mid august, how many cycles, good question.!🤪 no idea really. I make about 150 nucs each year. my queens are distributed between queens for mating nucs, queens for requesting swarmed colonies and queens to put straight in to nucs. I can't really answer your last question, I put in capped brood like him, yes of course, but I am not sure what exactly your asking. hope this helps. Richard

Swarming is not as controllable as we'd like out to be. The best you can do is make sure the colony always has room to do whatever they need, but there is a balance to this as well, if you give them too much space when it is cold it will take from the heat produced and needed to keep the brood warm. Also as Richard showed, when adding a box take some frames from the box below to help them realize it belongs to their hive. Love to read that a new beek is enjoying the experience! Are you in a region where winters are cold and long?

yes i dont make them produce comb but the do naturally because as well as nurse bees, you end up with a lot of wax builders. this interns means combined with the prolific amount of food and resources, you need to think ahead and give those wax builders something to build on, so i stick in frames of foundation. it all helps produce better cells.

i dont have a copy as of yet, but you can download them i am sure. their free to view, if you watch the adverts!! lol

My main method is changing queens at the end of the second year. As a professional now, I find its impossible to be able to carry out swarm prevention methods with all colonies, at all times of the year. However, correct supering giving bees space as they run out of it, is critical. In some years here we have a lot of swarming, in others, a lot less. We know when swarming will peak and at the end of our two main flows is when we harvest and make splits, which goes a ,long way to reducing the swarming impulse. For me though, requeening at the end of every second full season goes a long way to keeping the colonies strong with less swarming. If you have time, there are numerous ways and specific methods you can use to try and stop the queen going but in reality there just not possible or practical when your managing large amounts of colonies. knowing your flows well with timely management of supering is hugely important.

Tasos Degiannis your better off removing the first started cells after 24 hours , then removing them to a finisher. Then your cell builder becomes hopelessly queen less again whilst it’s still in building mode. You will get cells built on day six if you put in another load but the response from the bees isn’t usually as good! Give it a try! If you put successive grafts in to the biilder, you can get many many cells accepted and just distribute these to strong finishers. You can get 200 cells easily if you work it right! good question ! Thanks, best of luck

Hi Simon, it depends on what you do with the cell builder once you've done your graft, if you remove them after 24 hours like i do then you can put thought a second, third and fourth load though. The issue seems to come when you leave them in there until day 5 and reassemble the colony. Then remove them on day 10, then its wise to shake out the bees after harvesting, leaving the top box on after removing the frames. and restocking the box with 10 frames more of brood.(above the queen excluder) They will eventually slow down their cell drawing up capabilities, you can re energise the by adding more brood then making it hopelessly queen less again. its an on going cycle. hope this helps.

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Stephen Chilcott thanks for your comments and your problem Isn’t unique. You probably would be better making walk away splits this year because you really need more than say two or three colonies to make it worth while. Sorry to hear about your losses. So many have suffered this winter. You can try just making a cloak board up and sliding that between the two but it’s no different to shaking out the brood box in to an empty hive and adding some grafts. You using the same principle. The emergency response. The problem you have is, what can you do with the cells. You will have only a few nucs to put all your cells in. I understand your frustrated ! Best of luck!

Richard, thanks so much for the response and advice to not try getting over ambitious. Two weeks ago I added pollen sub and 1:1 syrup, the hive is still 2 deeps and a honey super on top. Yesterday I opened it up and it's thriving, not packed with bees, but definitely full. On the bottom of the top deep there was 1 swarm cell, that had no egg or larvae (that I could see) and it was obviously not capped. Do you think I should a) wait to find an egg in that cell, find the queen, put her in the bottom, and pull off that top deep that has plenty of bees and brood (capped and uncapped) and just move that and start it as its own hive. b) Take the queen, bottom deep, and super and move that to a new location, leaving the colony with 1 deep to make its own queen. or c) something else? Sorry for such a basic question but I've watched hundreds of youtube videos heard a hundred opinions on it, just wanted to get your take. Thanks again!

thank you, just sharing the facts I found hard to learn. we can all benefit from each others wisdom.

Thanks, you too. don't forget to post your results if you can! looking forward to hear how you get on.

Dan Sebastian Ecobici foarte binevenit. vă dorește bine pentru anul 2019.

Now I see that I answered in my native language. Thancks for videos! I find you when I was looking at Michael Palmer's clips.

Thanks for your kind words Charles. I got a lucky break when Mike Palmer taught me!. its only right to try and share with others. Good luck for this season!!!