Rearing Queen bees to increase the number of colonies
Having read as much as I can about rearing queens I geared up to try my hand for the first time in
April 2009. Mastering the process promises to be as interesting as learning all the other
beekeeping skills has been but I feel it is a vital part of keeping bees as it will allow me to select
from the best colonies once my techniques are perfected.
Days 8 & 9 after splitting the bees were very cool and wet so my first attempt at grafting had to
wait until Day10 but there were plenty of larvae of the correct age in all four Nationals and masses
of empty queen cups in the upper box in two of them so I hope they’ve taken to my queen cells
with grafted larvae.
Day 11 is also a bit wet but I will need to visit all the hives before night to rearrange the boxes so
that the worker bees have access to the whole hive again and check how many of my queen cells
have been accepted. There was a break in the weather and I managed to look in all four Nationals
that I had used for my first try at grafting.
The weak colony in my garden had not adopted any of the cells, but it
was my first attempt. The book says not to use weak colonies but I
couldn’t resist trying. The second colony, in a neighbours garden, has
five or six cells which the bees seem to have accepted.
The remaining two hives in my apiary had masses of bees clustering all
over the cups so I suspect the atmosphere in the car was more suitable
for grafting than in the conservatory.
A few queen cells were accepted and have hatched, once they are
mated and set up in a Nuc or Warré hive they will begin to develop their colonies.
The process involves
splitting the two brood
boxes with the Queen and
lots of cells in the bottom
box and most of the eggs,
larvae and capped brood
in the box above.
A Queen Excluder is used
to restrict the movement of
the Queen.
After 8 days the eggs have
hatched and the larvae are
too old for the bees to
select one as a potential
Queen.
Then I introduce a special
frame with larvae of the
correct age grafted into
the queen cells and
hopefully many of them
will be accepted by the
bees and fed and
developed as Queens.
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SITEMAP
A Queen excluder is a
perforated sheet with
oblong holes large
enough for a worker to
pass through but not a
Queen.
It’s used to restrict the
access to the rest of
the hive by the Queen,
in particular the
Supers, where the
honey is stored.
If you contact me your
details will be kept only
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you in the future your
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given or lent to any
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organisation.
Your details are kept in
accordance with the
Data Protection Acts
1984 & 1998 all other
laws regarding the
keeping and control of
data will be complied
with.
Best is a very subjective comment but
for me it means best able to cope with
varroa, be calm to handle, winter well
and make some honey
Grafting is the process
of taking a larvae which
is a day or two old and
very carefully moving it
into a specially
prepared Queen cell so
that the bees will feed it
and develop it as a
Queen.
The Larvae is lifted with
a ‘spoon’ inserted
under the back of the
‘C’ shape and carefully
placed in its new home.
