omg finally. i've always wondered what carrie looked like and now we get to see her face. its very nice to finally meet you carrie :D not a faceless person wearing a bee suit and veil now. wow and you know how to graft bees. thats so cool.
You have a master of her art the with Kerry. I think you would be lost without her Ian😀 Nice to see the queen rearing in detail. Thanks for all the videos I feel I do learn a lot from them. Happy healthy bees and that's what it's all about. You do your bit then it's up to them to get that nectar in a make that honey
This is something that I want to start doing. But I am still in the studying part of just how to graft so these videos really help. Thanks for sharing.
Hang on to her, Ian!!!!! She can do it all! Glad you are getting better weather. S.F. Bay finally getting "normal" temps almost. May has been 15 to 20 below normal.
Long cells are fine mate they just have allot of royal jelly. Give those long cells a go and you will see they fine. We've tested both and found no difference in the Queens performance. It's up to you but just give it a go and see.
Fantastic video Ian!! Very nicely edited!! I'm certainly most appreciative of everything you've shown us thus far as you progress through your season. 🐝☮️☯️
This week, for the 1st time I'm going to try grafting! I hope all goes well! 1st, I need to make a cell builder! You're videos are so helpful! I so appreciate them! Thanks for letting us into your world!
@@carriemartindale-wetherup5243 I didn't graft. I still have bars with little cups, but I didn't graft. The hive I wanted to use wasn't strong enough. This has been a very hard Spring. The boxes haven't really expanded much. So...nothing happened in the end. I did make splits from a couple of hives which wanted to swarm. That alone made other hives weaker as I took resources from hives to make splits.
@@carriemartindale-wetherup5243 The last 3 year have been (I'm in Austin Texas) sooOooo insane, I mean ALL DAMN YEAR LONG. Last year started dry, got good for JUST a bit (month) then it got insanely hot all year long (and dry). Once again...this year I'll, hopefully, try fabricating queens (grafting). I make plenty of splits using just cells (I use just wire...so, that make it easy), but I really would like my hand at grafting. If we have a ~'normal' period, I'll start grafting soon (perhaps by late February), or in 2 weeks! You (I guess are the Carrie in the vid? If so, you ROCK!)
Kerry's success clearly demonstrates she knows what she is doing. She strikes me as key to the operation. However, getting information out of her sounds like an interrogation.
Hey Ian, how do you get the bees to polish the cups before grafting? Thanks for the video. Key info on the size of the cups. Never would have thought too long doesn't mean a bigger better queen. Also does the queen only eat royal jelly in the cell during her larvae stage or also during pupa stage?
Surprisingly I can see the right sized larva. With jewelers loop anyway. My problem is my hands shaking so much it makes it hard to get the dang thing on or off the grafting tool.
My wife must be my lady luck. Did 3 grafts. First was 2 out of 15. second was 2 out of 15. She sat in the cab of the truck during the 3rd to watch and right now they are about to cap 12 out of 15. I am curious as to whether there is a lag time between drones flying and being viable for breeding or if virgin queens need a certain temperature or condition met to breed. Drones have been flying for a week in vastly increasing numbers yet that virgin I found in Hive 1 over a week ago is still a virgin in hive 1. No eggs and no sign of her abdomen enlarging to produce eggs. I added a frame of brood yesterday cause they are all almost hatched out and the hive seems happy as a clam. Not something I ran across or remember running across in my research. On the bright side. my home made incubator is running like a charm. Last spring's lack of pollinators in my yard has most certainly been made up for. I would have a difficult time this spring checking off # of species. Bad thing though is wasps and Hornet populations are thick as thieves already. Have a red and a black current bush that seems to attract them. I killed over a hundred yesterday and you'd never tell I made a dent. Thinking I'm gonna need traps soon. After I killed so many yesterday the bees of every size and variety were on those blossoms but this morning it's all wasps and hornets again. They chase everything else away. I don't mind wasps and hornets. Like anything else they have a purpose. But, in numbers they are a major nuisance.
Was your 2015 queen, I think that’s the year you said, a queen you grafted or one you bought? How long do you find your grafted queens are good for? Do you find your bees are superseding them? I’m currently reading Better Queens who hadn’t found grafting to produce good queens yet you’ve talked about good queens in your apiary. Maybe Carrie could write a book, The Best Queens. Before jumping into backyard queen rearing I’m trying to learn as much as I can. Thank you for taking us into your apiary.
fern compton Graft queens are excellent queens, as long as the basics are followed strictly . Superceedure queens are best because they are naturally reared under ideal conditions. Emergency cells are terrible, built under panic conditions which leads to the bees making poor choices. But at the emergency stage, all they care about is getting a mated queen to reestablish the brood nest which they can then superceedure the Queen
Hi Ian. I have a question for you. I wonder about drones. You talk about no dandelion flow yet. If I remember correct you have only had mapple and willow pollen coming in to your hive. Where I live I wouldn't think about making queens until after dandelion flow because the drones wouldn't be mature. It takes normally 40 days before a drone is mature. I am sure you wouldn't be making queens unless it is succesfully. I wonder how you have drones mature for mating so quickly? It was only 'yesterday' your bees came out of winterstorage.
Great Ian....Do you find a lower success rate on the reused cups....after using the cups....cleaning them....and going through the prep within the host hive...I have....for some reason... a much lower success rate of the bees accepting them in round two on...
We have heard about mixed results, never really tried it on our own, honestly dont want to take the risk. But I am finding other ways outside of the hives to reuse cups.
Hi Sta rr, does this mean she get an all expense paid trip plus a fee? If not, the only way she will absorb the cost is if Australia is on her bucket list.
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog How did she come into your scope as a apairy worker. Is it just skill developed over years of working for you or was it more she wanted to work with bees and put the effort into finding the right place? In any case finding employees that good is rare. I remember a few years back having to run a 18 hour shift because the 3 people i hired (even though i needed 2) left 3 hours into the shift without completing an hours worth of work. Really wasnt fun with it being a 21 hour day with the commute. Goddamn is it hard to find good help haha.
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog How long has she been with the company/farm? Sorry for all the questions but i love seeing a working dynamic that actually functions. Ive been apart of so many shitty ones in the last few years where bad people are given priority and all the potential is left behind. So nice to see people who can identify and utilize the potential of their staff.
I used to graft into cups primed with 1:1 royal jelly to distilled water. We just dry graft now, meaning the larvae gets grafted with her own store of royal jelly.
I know as a videographer, the wind noise can frustrate the artistic hell out of you. Have you considered a "fuzzy dead cat" for your microphone? I've even seen creators cut a small piece and glue it over the microphone holes on the point-and-shoot cameras. It makes editing much more satisfying. If you aren't already privy to this info, I hope this is helpful.
