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For me the most difficult thing to get a grasp on and the most critical thing for queen rearing, other than the obvious issues of timing, was the cell starter. The most important thing about a cell starter is that it's overflowing with bees. Queenless is helpful too, but if I had to choose between queenless and overflowing with bees, I'd go for the bees. You want a very high density of bees. This can be in a small box or a large hive, it's the density that is the issue, not the total number. There are many different schemes to end up with queenless crowded bees that want to build cells, but don't ever expect a good amount of cells from a starter that is anything less than overflowing with bees.
The next most important issue with the starter is that it's well fed. If there is no flow you should feed to make sure they feed the larvae well.
Most of the rest of the complexity of the many queen rearing systems, which often seem at odds with one another, are tricks to getting consistent results under all circumstances. In other words, they are important to a queen breeder who needs a consistent supply of queens from early spring until fall regardless of flow and weather. For the amateur queen breeder, these are probably not so important as is the timing of your attempts. Rearing queens during prime swarm season just before or during the flow is quite simple. Rearing queens in a dearth or later or earlier than the prime swarm season will require more "tricks" and more work. For starters I would skip these "additions" and adopt them one at a time as you see the need.
A Cloake board (Floor Without a Floor) is a useful method. You can rearrange things so that part of the hive is queenless during the starter period and queenright as a finisher without a lot of disruption of the hive. But it's not necessary.
The simplest way I know of is to remove a queen from a strong colony the day before and cut it down to minimum space (remove all the empty frames so that you can remove some boxes and, if there are supers that are full remove those). This may even put them in a mood to swarm, but that will make a lot of queen cells. Make sure there aren't any queen cells when you start and if you use them for more than one batch be extra sure there are no extra queen cells in the hive as those will emerge and destroy your next batch of cells.
Another method is to shake a lot of bees into a swarm box aka a starter hive and give them a couple of frames of honey and a couple of frames of pollen and a frame of cells.
Caste Hatch Cap Emerge
Queen 3½ days 8 days +-1 16 days +-1 Laying 28 days +-5
Worker 3½ days 9 days +-1 20 days +-1 Foraging 42 days +-7
Drone 3½ days 10 days +-1 24 days +-1 Flying to DCA 38 days +-5
Using the day the egg was layed as 0 (no time has elapsed)
Bold items require action by the beekeeper.
Day Action Concept
-4 Put Jenter cage in hive Let the bees accept it, polish it and cover it with bee smell
0 Confine queen So the queen will lay eggs of a known age in the Jenter box or the #5 wire cage
1 Release queen So she doesn't lay too many eggs in each cell, she need to be released after 24 hours
3 Setup cell starter Make them queenless and make sure there is a VERY high density of bees. This is so they will want queens and so they have a lot of bees to care for them. Also make sure they have plenty of pollen and nectar. Feed the starter for better acceptance.
3 ½ Eggs hatch
4 Transfer larvae and put queen cells in cell starter. Feed the starter for better acceptance.
8 Queen cells capped
13 Setup mating nucs Make up mating nucs, or hives to be requeened so they will be queenless and wanting a queen cell. Feed the mating nucs for better acceptance.
14 Transfer queen cells to mating nucs. On day 14 the cells are at their toughest and in hot weather they may emerge on day 15 so we need them in the mating nucs or the hives to be requeened if you prefer, so the first queen out doesn't kill the rest.
15-17 Queens emerge (In hot weather, 15 is more likely. In cold weather, 17 is more likely. Typically, 16 is most likely.)
17-21 Queens harden
21-24 Orientation flights
21-28 Mating flights
25-35 Queen starts laying
28 Look for laying queens in nucs (or hive being requeened). If found (in nucs), dequeen hive to be requeened
29 Transfer laying queen to queenless hive to be requeened.
Two By Four mating nucs. Four nucs with two frames each in one ten frame sized box. Note the blue cloth sticking out. These are canvas inner covers so I can open one nuc at a time without them boiling over into the next nuc. Also note the Ready Date Nuc Calendars on the end.
A note on mating nucs. In my opinion it makes the most sense to use standard frames for your mating nucs. Here are a few beekeepers who agree with that:
"Some queen-breeders use a very small hive with much smaller frames than their common ones for keeping their queens in till mated, but for several reasons I consider it best to have but the one frame in both the queen-rearing and the ordinary hives. In the first place, a nucleus colony can be formed in a few minutes from any hive by simply transferring two or three frames and the adhering bees from it to the nucleus hive. Then again, a nucleus colony can be built up at any time or united with another where the frames are all alike, with very little trouble. And lastly, we have only the one sized frames to make. I have always used a nucleus hive such as I have described, and would not care to use any other."--Isaac Hopkins, The Australasian Bee Manual
"for the honey-producer there seems no great advantage in baby nuclei. He generally needs to make some increase, and it is more convenient for him to use 2 or 3-frame nuclei for queen-rearing, and then build them up into full colonies...I use a full hive for each nucleus, merely putting 3 or 4 frames in one side of the hive, with a dummy beside them. To be sure, it takes more bees than to have three nuclei in one hive, but it is a good bit more convenient to build up into a full colony a nucleus that has the whole hive to itself."--C.C. Miller, Fifty Years Among the Bees
"The small Baby Nucleus hive had a run for a while but is now generally considered a mere passing fad. It is so small that the bees are put into an unnatural condition, and they therefore perform in an unnatural manner...I strongly advise a nucleus hive that will take the regular brood-frame that is used in your hives. The one that I use is a twin hive, each compartment large enough to hold two jumbo frames and a division-board."--Smith, Queen Rearing Simplified
"I was convinced that the best nucleus that I could possibly have, was one or two frames in an ordinary hive. In this way all work done by the nucleus was readily available for the use of any colony, after I was through with the nucleus...take a frame of brood and one of honey, together with all of the adhering bees, being careful not to get the old Queen, and put the frames into a hive where you wish the nucleus to stand...drawing up the division-board so as to adjust the hive to the size of the colony."--G. M. Doolittle, Scientific Queen-Rearing
"Where queen breeding is the prime object, the tendency is to use as small hives and as few bees as possible, so that the largest possible number of queens may be reared with the bees and equipment available. However, many of the most successful queen breeders find serious objections to baby nuclei and small mating boxes, and advocate nothing but standard frames for mating-hives."--Frank Pellett, Practical Queen Rearing
Years Ending in:
Until you get the hang of it, there is always the risk of hurting the queen. But learning to do it is a worthwhile undertaking. I would buy a hair clip queen catcher and a marking tube and paint pens. Practice on a few drones with a color from a couple of years ago, or better yet the color for next year, so you don't confuse the drones with the queen. Use the current color for the queen.
My preferred method is to buy a "hair clip" queen catcher, a queen muff (Brushy Mt.) and a marking tube and a marking pen. Catch the queen gently with the hair clip. It is spaced so as not to easily harm the queen, but still be careful. If you put this and the marking tube and the paint pen (after it is shaken and started) in the queen muff then the queen can't fly off while you do this. Take the marking tube and slid out the plunger. If you move away from the hive you can lose some of the bees that are in and on the clip. Don't shake it while holding the clip portion or you may shake the queen out. If you take it in a bathroom with a window and turn off the lights you can be more assured she won't fly off. Or buy a queen muff from Brushy Mountain. Use a brush or a feather and brush off the workers as they come out and then try to guide the queen into the tube. She tends to go up and she tends to go for the light, so open the clip so she will run into the tube. If she doesn't and she runs onto your hand or glove, don't panic, just quickly drop the clip and gently but quickly put the tube over her. Cover the tube with your hand to block the light so she runs to the top of the tube. Put the plunger in. Be quick but don't hurry too much. Gently pin the queen to the top of the marking tube and touch a small dot of paint (start the paint pen on a piece of wood or paper first so there is paint in the tip already) on the middle of the back of her thorax right between her wings. If it doesn't look big enough just leave it. You need to keep her pinned for several more seconds while you blow on the paint to dry it. Don't let her go too soon or the paint will get smeared into the joint between her body sections and it may cripple or kill her. After the paint is dry (20 seconds or so) back the plunger up to halfway so the queen can move. Pull the plunger and aim the open end to the top bars and the queen will usually run right back down into the hive.
Some quotes from Jay Smith (famous queen breeder and beekeeper who probably raised more queens than anyone who ever lived)
Queen longevity:
From "Better Queens" page 18:
"In Indiana we had a queen we named Alice which lived to the ripe old age of eight years and two months and did excellent work in her seventh year. There can be no doubt about the authenticity of this statement. We sold her to John Chapel of Oakland City, Indiana, and she was the only queen in his yard with wings clipped. This, however is a rare exception. At the time I was experimenting with artificial combs with wooden cells in which the queen laid."--Jay Smith
I would point out that Jay says: "This, however is a rare exception."
I think three years has always been pretty typical of the useful life of a queen.
Emergency queens:
"It has been stated by a number of beekeepers who should know better (including myself) that the bees are in such a hurry to rear a queen that they choose larvae too old for best results. later observation has shown the fallacy of this statement and has convinced me that bees do the very best that can be done under existing circumstances.
"The inferior queens caused by using the emergency method is because the bees cannot tear down the tough cells in the old combs lined with cocoons. The result is that the bees fill the worker cells with bee milk floating the larvae out the opening of the cells, then they build a little queen cell pointing downward. The larvae cannot eat the bee milk back in the bottom of the cells with the result that they are not well fed. However, if the colony is strong in bees, are well fed and have new combs, they can rear the best of queens. And please note-- they will never make such a blunder as choosing larvae too old."--Jay Smith
Quinby seems to agree:
"I want new comb for brood, as cells can be worked over out of that, better than from old and tough. New comb must be carefully handled. If none but old comb is to be had, cut the cells down to one fourth inch in depth. The knife must be sharp to leave it smooth and not tear it."--Moses Quinby
"If it were true, as formerly believed, that queenless bees are in such haste to rear a queen that they will select a larva too old for the purpose, then it would hardly do to wait even nine days. A queen is matured in fifteen days from the time the egg is laid, and is fed throughout her larval lifetime on the same food that is given to a worker-larva during the first three days of its larval existence. So a worker-larva more than three days old, or more than six days from the laying of the egg would be too old for a good queen. If, now, the bees should select a larva more than three days old, the queen would emerge in less than nine days. I think no one has ever known this to occur. Bees do not prefer too old larvae. As a matter of fact bees do not use such poor judgment as to select larvae too old when larvae sufficiently young are present, as I have proven by direct experiment and many observations."--Fifty Years Among the Bees, C.C. Miller
A beekeeper can keep a number of queens in one hive if you get bees that are in the mood to accept a queen (queenless overnight or a mixture of bees shaken from several hives) and the queens are in cages so they can't kill each other. I've done these with a 3/4" shim on top of a nuc or a frame with plastic bars that hold the JZBZ cages. I put a frame of brood in periodically to keep them from developing laying workers or running out of young bees to feed the queens.
(Floor With Out a Floor aka Cloake Board). Used to allow converting a top box on a queen rearing hive to change from a queenless cell starter to a queenright cell builder or finisher. This one is made with a 3/4" by 3/4" piece of wood with a 3/8" x 3/8" groove in it. Hang it out 3/4"or more in front and put a piece across the front under the sides to make a landing board. Cut a piece of 3/16" or 1/4" luan to slide in for a removable bottom. Coat edges with Vaseline to keep the bees from gluing it in. From left to right: The frame on a hive with the floor out. Inserting the floor. The FWOF with the floor in.
The names of queen rearing methods get a bit confusing. Here's some more information to add to the confusion: Queen Rearing Methods
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I've always found the names of queen rearing methods a bit confusing. The more I researched them the more confusing I found them. Here are some of my discoveries:
Nichel Jacob was a German scientist/beekeeper who discovered that workers could raise a new queen from a young worker larvae in 1568.
Schirach, based on this work was the first to graft that we know of. -- A.M. Schirach, ("Physikalische Untersuchung der bisher unbekannten abet nachher entdeckten Erzeugung der Bienenmutter," 1767):
M. Schirach's famous experiment on the supposed conversion of a common worm into a royal one, cannot be too often repeated, though the Lusatian observers have already done it frequently. I could wish to learn whether, as the discoverer maintains, the experiment will succeed only with worms, three or four days old, and never with simple eggs. --Francis Huber, New Observations on the Natural History of Bees Letter IV.
Which Huber repeated in 1789 and published in 1794:
"I put some pieces of comb, with some workers eggs, in the cells, and of the same kind as those already hatched, into a hive deprived of the queen. The same day several cells were enlarged by the bees, and converted into royal cells, and the worms supplied with a thick bed of jelly. Five were then removed from those cells, and five common worms, which, forty-eight hours before we had seen come from, the egg substituted for them. The bees did not seem aware of the change; they watched over the new worms the same as over those chosen by themselves; they continued enlarging the cells, and closed them at the usual time" --Francis Huber, New Observations on the Natural History of Bees Letter IV.
And Doolittle repeated in 1846:
In this work I often found partly-built queen-cells with nothing in them, or perhaps some would contain eggs, which, when I found them, I would take out, substituting the larvae in their places. As a rule, I would be successful with these, as well as with those that were put into the cells that contained royal jelly, but now-and-then a case would occur when only those placed in royal jelly would be used. -- G.M. Doolittle, Scientific Queen Rearing Chapter V
Doolittle does not take credit for inventing the queen cup:
I remember that away back in some of the bee-papers, some one had proposed making queen-cells to order, on a stick, for a penny a piece, and why could I not so make them? It would do no harm to try, I thought; therefore I made a stick, so that it would just fit inside of a queen-cell, from which a Queen had hatched, and by warming a piece of wax in my hand, I could mould it around the stick, so as to make a very presentable queen-cup.
So the "Doolittle method" was not, by Doolittle's admission, invented by Doolittle. This should be the "Schirach Method" or maybe even the "Jacob Method".
Alley only used the "swarm box" as a way to convince the bees of their queenlessness. Then he put them in a queenless cell starter hive. So the concept of starting cells in a "swarm box" did not originate with Alley since he never actually used it.
Alley suggested using old brood comb and he attached it to the bottom of existing comb and not a "cell bar".
Elements of this show up in the Hopkins and Smith methods, but no one, that I know of, is using the Alley method commercially.
Albert Cook published this in 1876. As far as I know Miller never claimed he originated this method, he just popularized it. So the "Miller" method is really the "Cook" method. There are still hobbyists doing this. I know of no commercial queen breeders doing this.
But Isaac Hopkins gives credit to an unnamed Austrian beekeeper for inventing the method that is usually attributed to him. This method is in the 1911 version.
His own method was a modified "Alley method" with new comb instead of old comb waxed to cell bars, instead of the bottom edge of some comb. About his own method Hopkins says:
I have tried several methods for raising queen cells, but none have given me so much satisfaction as the one I first saw described in Gleanings in Bee Culture for August, 1880 by Jos. M. Brooks and which I have since practiced. It is very similar to Mr. Alley's method, explained in his "Handy Book" --Isaac Hopkins, The Australasian Bee Manual 1886 Chapter XII pg 211
So Hopkins actually used a modified Alley Method, basically substituting new comb for old comb which he lays no claim to, but instead gives credit to Joseph Brooks.
I can't find information on what "Case" recommended, so I can't say if this is really the "Case Method" or not.
Smith gets credit for originaing starting the cells in the swarm box, rather than just using it to convince the bees of their queenlessness. Smith, however gives that credit to Eugene Pratt. Grafting, of course, is the "Doolittle method" which was invented by Schriach. Usually when referring to the "Smith Method" as opposed to the "Doolittle Method" the distinction is in the use of the "Swarm Box".
This, of course, is the actual Hopkins method (or more accurately the Joseph M. Brooks method), which Hopkins wrote about 63 years before Jay Smith did. Which is really only the Alley method with new comb. I have no doubt Smith came up with it himself after observing emergency cells on new comb compared to emergency cells on old comb, but the main concept is a rehash of the Alley method with new comb and a cell bar. Of course there are many details that Smith had refined over the years, but the basic concept, as Jay Smith says, is just the Alley method with new comb.
If it deserved a new name to distinguish it from the "Alley Method" this should be the "Hopkins Method" or, better yet, the "Brooks Method" or maybe just the "Alley Method with new comb".
Of course it's too late to straighten it all out now.
Michael Bush
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