Grafted on May 5th for the first time as a relatively new beekeeper (4th year). Used your cell builder concept and grafted 16 cells. When I removed the bars from the cell builder I had 8 successful cells stuffed full of royal jelly and larva! Installed the bars into a finisher hive and keeping my fingers crossed they all get capped! Some might think 50 percent isn't that great but for a first-timer I'm thrilled!
That's awesome! A high success rate is great but any acceptance at all is rewarding. My rate is far from perfect and I am always learning ways to improve it. I recommend you check to see if all 8 cell get finished before you make splits. I remember years ago, I made a bunch of split then only got a few cells. It was a mess. Also keep an eye for early emergence of a cell, she would kill the rest. Best of luck!!
I'm pleased with my 50 percent... any more and I'd have to purchase a bunch more equipment as it is I might have to start improvising - I'd always laughed at folks using a piece of plywood for a lid but I'm beginning to understand! Already I'm up to 24 hives (went into and came out of winter with 9) and I've sold three nucs so far with more orders to fill. I'll be keeping a close eye on the grafted cells progression. Intend to move the capped cells, when they are ready, into mating nucs (3 frame) and taking them to a DroneCongreatonArea where PennState has a queen breeding program outyard. I'll create five frame nucs once the queens are laying by giving her more drawn comb and brood/bees. Thank you for the encouragement and great videos!
Thank You for sharing this information - you do great videos! I am a beginner beekeeper - but can see that I will need to learn how to do this to scale up.
Love the video this will help me so much getting started grafting. My most defensive bees are my best. Every attempted robbing gets beat back and they make the best brood and honey production. I rarely lose hives in the winter or due to mites/SHB. Wouldn't trade them for docile ones for anything.
Thanks Jason. Great video. I love the pictures of the larva. Now I know for sure which ones to take. I have watched other bee keeping channels on queen rearing, but yours has the best pictures of what to do. Take care. Looking forward to then next one. Tim
I have a tip that a duck wing works well as a bee brush. Thanks again for the refresher vid. (probably not a good idea to have dragged the queen cells thru the smoke before inserting them in starter colony. Will be interested to hear if it had any affect)
I've done it this way several times and never noticed it playing much effect of getting cells drawn out but maybe the acceptance rate would be higher without smoking. Something to consider for sure!
I meant more when the cell frame you were carrying were dragged thru the smoke (smoke was sitting on top of the cell builder. It was inadvertent)...I wonder if this has a scent affect....something to watch.
Enjoy watching your videos and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to make a inner cover with screen wire to smoke the bee's down so you don't lose as many.
Thanks. I am gonna guess your meaning for the cell starter? I see no harm in using a screened inner cover as long as you have an outer cover to keep them in the dark when no working them.
Yes sir I have used them on the hives gives them somewhere to put a lot of propolis, but I always cover them. Never tried queen rearing I'm retired now and am excited to try new adventure. Really like your videos you are down to earth. If I ever get up your way I may contact you and drop in.
JC: Thank you very much for all you do to help other beekeepers. Where do you buy the yellow or other color tags that you attach to a hive body in order to identify your hives please?
I'm glad my videos are helpful and the tags are just livestock tags. You can get them on Amazon or Tractor Supply Company (TSC) carries them. They come in many shapes are colors.
Excellent tip about the brush. Yesterday I transferred a frame of eggs and larvae to our observation hive and I used a small limb with leaves (I learned that from a video and it works great). I tried using a brush ONCE and you are absolutely right about getting stung if you use a hair brush. I'll have to get a nylon bristled one.
Jason Chrisman, I think it is very similar to yours, 3 deep frames. I based it on your videos and Michael Bushes advice on his site. I added a 1/4" hole to the top and a special mason jar lid with about a 3" piece of brake line for the feeder. Thanks for another great idea, BTW. Those brake line mason jar feeders are really great. Something I learned the hard way is you have to make sure you clean up the hole. I didn't and I had a couple jars completely drain into a couple of hives. All it takes is a little splinter touching the tip of the brake line tip and it'll wick all the water out of the jar.
Nice! I haven't used my OB hive for a couple of years now, kinda miss it. Great observation of the jar feeders. I have consider trying to make them with plastic mason jar lids as they do not gum up like the metal. I'm thinking maybe JB weld to attach the brake line.
We couldn't see how you were placing the young larvae into the cup with the royal jelly, was there a trick to that? Also where did the royal jelly come from did the bees start filling those cups for you after day 1? Just a newbie, grateful for your kindness to share your knowledge.
I understand I did not show the process of grafting very well but the basics are there. It's takes practice to get it right and lots of it. I would suggest you just try it. The royal jelly is put there by the bees to feed the larva.
Jason, had some success with this. I amazed myself. Now looking to split and sell some of my queens. Thanks once again. I do have a question. I harvested 2 boxes of frames of honey and realized that some are not capped and some far from it. I also have a box of harvested frames that I used an extractor for so the wax is pretty good. I have an established hive and a new one with 2 brood boxes. How should I distribute these frames of partial honey and harvested honey? Been enjoying the videos for several years now.
I guess I would swap out frames that the bees are not using now if there is any. If there isn't any then, I would set out the extracted frames and let the bees clean them up then store them, the partial frames about have to go into a hive somewhere or another. If not, then you'll have ants everywhere. If you set out the extracted frames set them away from the hive so it doesn't cause a robbing issue. Hope that helps and congrats on the queens.
Nice video. The close up of the larvae was great. It would have been even nicer to shoot the video straight down (close up) while you were grafting. I'd like to see how you work the grafting tool.
I just noticed the cork for your smoker... excellent idea. Is that just a piece of wood or something special? Great video, nice shot of the correct age larvae.
Hey Jason, going back through this as I want to graft this year. I'm confused as to why do you not want the bees in the starter hive to have access to the outside world? Thanks.
Hey Joe, It's a way of forcing them to raise queens. If you make up the cell starter correctly (only nurse bees) then they can't fly anyways so being trapped is no big deal.
They do alter them but it's nothing we can see. What they do is polish the cup which helps boost acceptance. I know without giving them cells to polish, that acceptance is extremely low
Lava have almost zero tolerance to UV, the Sun is not your friend when grafting at least in the land down under where we have the hole in the ozone layer. I graft in my vehicle parked away from the Sun and use a torch, that way my Lava do not get a tan.
What's the advantage of using the starter colony vs the finisher colony to polish the cups? I always put them in the finisher to polish them before grafting and adding to the starter...
No. Once spring starts just start building up a colony with pollen patties then by the time the weather warms up enough to queen rear your colony should be in 2 deeps.
It's safe to produce queens up to about the end of August then the drone will be getting booted from colonies and there will be no male to mate the queens.
I'd say nice job Jason but I'll wait until we see if this works....if not I'm just going to make fun of you. LOL Have you tried the Nicot system? I'm going to use mine this week, I'm waiting for a new bee jacket at the moment.
Come on man , Give me some credit. You really think this is my first time doing this? lol I don't use the Nicot because it's cheating to people who can graft. Wish I knew you were looking for a new jacket, I have a few 3 layer vented jackets I am trying to unload...Cheap too! Best of luck with your cheating systems. lol
Lol, ZING! This must be at least the second time you've done this because I've seen you do it before. ;) I grafted a few last year, I didn't enjoy it at all. I am piss poor at it and felt like I wasted too many larvae trying to get them out and transferred. I don't mind a cheat if it's more efficient and makes better use of resources given my poor ability level. I'm a huge cheater, I have bought mated queens for years, lol. I didn't care for the grafting tool I was using for one thing, the one you're using in this video looks like it'd be a lot better than the one I had, it'd smoosh the larvae pretty easy and they wanted to stick to it too much. You have a store that sells bee suits? You should stop encouraging bee keepers to cheat by using those bee suits! They need to be all natural, naked bee keepers! ROFL. Thanks for another good video Jason! I'll keep your store in mind for future purchases, I didn't recall you sold stuff like that. I see it in the description now that I expanded it out.
Oh boy, what did I start. lol I took a 3 day queen rearing class back in 2011and have been playing with it ever since. In the last 3 years, I used my skills to make some extra cash and it's working. The class I took cover every way to rear queens even the cheating system or I mean Nicot. lol Nothing wrong with it if it works for you but it's far from my cup of tea.The jackets I am speaking of are not on any of my links, they are here at my home. I bought them a few years ago to sell and have never pushed them very hard so I still have 3 to sell. lol They are nice though. Have a good day, buddy!
I have 2 large three layer vented jackets. They are very nice jackets I just don't need more than one. lol I'd give someone a very good deal on them if they were interested.
i am very interested in staghorn sumac for my smoker. i’m drying it now for next spring. any help in finding out more. any suggestions you be helpful. hope you do more on sumac
Why the hurry to take the grafting frame out after 24 hrs.? Unless you want to drop another in behind it. But wouldn't the starter Nuc make a longer cup with 48 hrs. that then could be transfered to the finisher level?
In the spring when I start rearing queens daytime temps are in the mid 40's (F). I usually try and graft in my truck though so the larva doesn't chill. You have to work faster when it cool outside.
The calendar should work on a smartphone but the timing varies. Once she emerges it usually takes a week or so before she goes on mating flights then another 3-4 days before she starts to lay.
Jason Chrisman Thanks for the quick reply...I did a split with swarm/emergency/or whatever cells and much to my surprise a queen appeared...checked yesterday and no eggs yet...still too early then...thanks again bee brother!
Grafted on May 5th for the first time as a relatively new beekeeper (4th year). Used your cell builder concept and grafted 16 cells. When I removed the bars from the cell builder I had 8 successful cells stuffed full of royal jelly and larva! Installed the bars into a finisher hive and keeping my fingers crossed they all get capped! Some might think 50 percent isn't that great but for a first-timer I'm thrilled!
That's awesome! A high success rate is great but any acceptance at all is rewarding. My rate is far from perfect and I am always learning ways to improve it. I recommend you check to see if all 8 cell get finished before you make splits. I remember years ago, I made a bunch of split then only got a few cells. It was a mess. Also keep an eye for early emergence of a cell, she would kill the rest. Best of luck!!
I'm pleased with my 50 percent... any more and I'd have to purchase a bunch more equipment as it is I might have to start improvising - I'd always laughed at folks using a piece of plywood for a lid but I'm beginning to understand! Already I'm up to 24 hives (went into and came out of winter with 9) and I've sold three nucs so far with more orders to fill.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the grafted cells progression. Intend to move the capped cells, when they are ready, into mating nucs (3 frame) and taking them to a DroneCongreatonArea where PennState has a queen breeding program outyard. I'll create five frame nucs once the queens are laying by giving her more drawn comb and brood/bees.
Thank you for the encouragement and great videos!
Probably the best video I have seen on grafting queen cells. Super educational!
Thank you!
Thank You for sharing this information - you do great videos! I am a beginner beekeeper - but can see that I will need to learn how to do this to scale up.
Love the video this will help me so much getting started grafting. My most defensive bees are my best. Every attempted robbing gets beat back and they make the best brood and honey production. I rarely lose hives in the winter or due to mites/SHB. Wouldn't trade them for docile ones for anything.
So helpful, thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome series, great video! I am nowhere near doing this but I love watching you work your bees!
Thanks Jason. Great video. I love the pictures of the larva. Now I know for sure which ones to take. I have watched other bee keeping channels on queen rearing, but yours has the best pictures of what to do. Take care. Looking forward to then next one. Tim
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks for sharing, so very grateful
Greetings from Brazil!!!
I'll be glad when I learn enough to do it, it's a struggle too keep them going.
Great job! Looking forward to trying this myself.
Thank you. This is a great tool and easy to understand. I cant wait to try this year.
I just used a Chinese grafting tool for the first time... it's a game changer lol
I have a tip that a duck wing works well as a bee brush. Thanks again for the refresher vid.
(probably not a good idea to have dragged the queen cells thru the smoke before inserting them in starter colony. Will be interested to hear if it had any affect)
I've done it this way several times and never noticed it playing much effect of getting cells drawn out but maybe the acceptance rate would be higher without smoking. Something to consider for sure!
I meant more when the cell frame you were carrying were dragged thru the smoke (smoke was sitting on top of the cell builder. It was inadvertent)...I wonder if this has a scent affect....something to watch.
Good
Great info, It would be nice if this series was in a playlist.
It is ua-cam.com/play/PLPpU-kXaR-3eoDFKjbM5L4JWrDGCIlWao.html
thanks 4 info 2nd year trying queens,use ur directions,,,,got queens now.!!!
Very good. Thank you.
Enjoy watching your videos and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to make a inner cover with screen wire to smoke the bee's down so you don't lose as many.
Thanks. I am gonna guess your meaning for the cell starter? I see no harm in using a screened inner cover as long as you have an outer cover to keep them in the dark when no working them.
Yes sir I have used them on the hives gives them somewhere to put a lot of propolis, but I always cover them. Never tried queen rearing I'm retired now and am excited to try new adventure. Really like your videos you are down to earth. If I ever get up your way I may contact you and drop in.
Jason, My inner cover has a normal hole with a screen, makes it a whole lot easier for that first puff of smoke.
Amazed at the detail of your videos. Thank you.
Thanks. I have invested a lot of time into making them the best I could with what I have.
JC: Thank you very much for all you do to help other beekeepers. Where do you buy the yellow or other color tags that you attach to a hive body in order to identify your hives please?
I'm glad my videos are helpful and the tags are just livestock tags. You can get them on Amazon or Tractor Supply Company (TSC) carries them. They come in many shapes are colors.
I liked how you put the ezbz cups in the day prior to grafting so they “clean” them. They add some wax on as well right?
Usually you can not tell a difference in the cups after removing it to graft but sometime they will add a little wax.
Wow you have great eye site.
Excellent tip about the brush. Yesterday I transferred a frame of eggs and larvae to our observation hive and I used a small limb with leaves (I learned that from a video and it works great). I tried using a brush ONCE and you are absolutely right about getting stung if you use a hair brush. I'll have to get a nylon bristled one.
A large feather works very well also, say from maybe a turkey. So you have an OB hive? How many frame?
Jason Chrisman, I think it is very similar to yours, 3 deep frames. I based it on your videos and Michael Bushes advice on his site.
I added a 1/4" hole to the top and a special mason jar lid with about a 3" piece of brake line for the feeder. Thanks for another great idea, BTW. Those brake line mason jar feeders are really great. Something I learned the hard way is you have to make sure you clean up the hole. I didn't and I had a couple jars completely drain into a couple of hives. All it takes is a little splinter touching the tip of the brake line tip and it'll wick all the water out of the jar.
Nice! I haven't used my OB hive for a couple of years now, kinda miss it. Great observation of the jar feeders. I have consider trying to make them with plastic mason jar lids as they do not gum up like the metal. I'm thinking maybe JB weld to attach the brake line.
We couldn't see how you were placing the young larvae into the cup with the royal jelly, was there a trick to that? Also where did the royal jelly come from did the bees start filling those cups for you after day 1? Just a newbie, grateful for your kindness to share your knowledge.
I understand I did not show the process of grafting very well but the basics are there. It's takes practice to get it right and lots of it. I would suggest you just try it. The royal jelly is put there by the bees to feed the larva.
Does anyone know where I can buy the half vest veil Jason was wearing at the end?
I know, I know! It's from beeaccessories.co.nz/#products
My brush is all burnt up. Can I still use it? lol I think I laid my smoker on it.
You sure can, just not for beekeeping! lol
LOL
Can you explain more about rearing queens in the spring and summer? Why the summer also?
Jason, had some success with this. I amazed myself. Now looking to split and sell some of my queens. Thanks once again. I do have a question. I harvested 2 boxes of frames of honey and realized that some are not capped and some far from it. I also have a box of harvested frames that I used an extractor for so the wax is pretty good. I have an established hive and a new one with 2 brood boxes. How should I distribute these frames of partial honey and harvested honey? Been enjoying the videos for several years now.
I guess I would swap out frames that the bees are not using now if there is any. If there isn't any then, I would set out the extracted frames and let the bees clean them up then store them, the partial frames about have to go into a hive somewhere or another. If not, then you'll have ants everywhere. If you set out the extracted frames set them away from the hive so it doesn't cause a robbing issue. Hope that helps and congrats on the queens.
Nice video. The close up of the larvae was great. It would have been even nicer to shoot the video straight down (close up) while you were grafting. I'd like to see how you work the grafting tool.
I just noticed the cork for your smoker... excellent idea. Is that just a piece of wood or something special? Great video, nice shot of the correct age larvae.
Yes it's a piece of wood. I took it to the grinder until it was cork shaped. It does a great job of saving smoker fuel.
so does corking it stop the burning material from burning?
Yes!
Hey Jason, going back through this as I want to graft this year. I'm confused as to why do you not want the bees in the starter hive to have access to the outside world? Thanks.
Hey Joe, It's a way of forcing them to raise queens. If you make up the cell starter correctly (only nurse bees) then they can't fly anyways so being trapped is no big deal.
ارجو اضافة اللغة العربية ،،، متابعيك من بلد العراق
I'm not clear on why you placed the cups in the cell starter for 24 hrs before this step. Do the bees alter the cups in some way?
They do alter them but it's nothing we can see. What they do is polish the cup which helps boost acceptance. I know without giving them cells to polish, that acceptance is extremely low
Your daddy ever make it to Marshfield Missouri in the 80's ha look just like a good friend of my family!
Now that's funny! lol My dad was a milkman but he didn't travel!
Do you put any Royal jelly in the cup before inserting the larva? If so where do you get the Royal jelly?
Lava have almost zero tolerance to UV, the Sun is not your friend when grafting at least in the land down under where we have the hole in the ozone layer. I graft in my vehicle parked away from the Sun and use a torch, that way my Lava do not get a tan.
What's the advantage of using the starter colony vs the finisher colony to polish the cups? I always put them in the finisher to polish them before grafting and adding to the starter...
I don't know that one is better than the other to be honest. The main thing is just getting them polished.
So do you need to overwinter a double deep so there will be 2 deep boxes for spring to make the finishing box ?
No. Once spring starts just start building up a colony with pollen patties then by the time the weather warms up enough to queen rear your colony should be in 2 deeps.
@@JCsBees Well i am going to try this,i have built up to 26 hives but tired of buying queens thanks
Thanks Jason for this video. My question is how do you make the royal jelly that goes in the cell?
wjd
@Wilmer Duncan The nurse bees make the jelly. That's why it's important to have lots of young nurse bees in your cell starter.
How late in the summer can we safely run this process? I'm 200 miles straight north of you
It's safe to produce queens up to about the end of August then the drone will be getting booted from colonies and there will be no male to mate the queens.
I'd say nice job Jason but I'll wait until we see if this works....if not I'm just going to make fun of you. LOL
Have you tried the Nicot system? I'm going to use mine this week, I'm waiting for a new bee jacket at the moment.
Come on man , Give me some credit. You really think this is my first time doing this? lol I don't use the Nicot because it's cheating to people who can graft. Wish I knew you were looking for a new jacket, I have a few 3 layer vented jackets I am trying to unload...Cheap too! Best of luck with your cheating systems. lol
Lol, ZING! This must be at least the second time you've done this because I've seen you do it before. ;)
I grafted a few last year, I didn't enjoy it at all. I am piss poor at it and felt like I wasted too many larvae trying to get them out and transferred. I don't mind a cheat if it's more efficient and makes better use of resources given my poor ability level. I'm a huge cheater, I have bought mated queens for years, lol. I didn't care for the grafting tool I was using for one thing, the one you're using in this video looks like it'd be a lot better than the one I had, it'd smoosh the larvae pretty easy and they wanted to stick to it too much.
You have a store that sells bee suits? You should stop encouraging bee keepers to cheat by using those bee suits! They need to be all natural, naked bee keepers! ROFL.
Thanks for another good video Jason! I'll keep your store in mind for future purchases, I didn't recall you sold stuff like that. I see it in the description now that I expanded it out.
Oh boy, what did I start. lol I took a 3 day queen rearing class back in 2011and have been playing with it ever since. In the last 3 years, I used my skills to make some extra cash and it's working. The class I took cover every way to rear queens even the cheating system or I mean Nicot. lol Nothing wrong with it if it works for you but it's far from my cup of tea.The jackets I am speaking of are not on any of my links, they are here at my home. I bought them a few years ago to sell and have never pushed them very hard so I still have 3 to sell. lol They are nice though.
Have a good day, buddy!
what size are the jackets?
I have 2 large three layer vented jackets. They are very nice jackets I just don't need more than one. lol I'd give someone a very good deal on them if they were interested.
Do you request all your hives in spring? If do do you kill the old queen?
Correction: requeen
No. I don't replace all of my queens in the spring. Some do, some don't. It doesn't make since to me to kill a good laying queen.
i am very interested in staghorn sumac for my smoker. i’m drying it now for next spring. any help in finding out more. any suggestions you be helpful. hope you do more on sumac
Why the hurry to take the grafting frame out after 24 hrs.? Unless you want to drop another in behind it. But wouldn't the starter Nuc make a longer cup with 48 hrs. that then could be transfered to the finisher level?
what would you reccomend being the lowest temperature to graft??
In the spring when I start rearing queens daytime temps are in the mid 40's (F). I usually try and graft in my truck though so the larva doesn't chill. You have to work faster when it cool outside.
@@JCsBees thank you for youre reply :) we are about to try our first attempt at grafting right now! hopefully it works out!
What time of Davy do you these operations?
jason do you reuse the jzbz cups
Nope! Once they have had a queen emerge from the jzbz's I throw them away.
If a cell doesn't take will you return it in another round? Will they clean it and repolish it or is it best to start from scratch each time?
Where in ohio are you located? I'm also in ohio ..
Northern Licking county. Where are you?
I'm up in Wayne county
Jason Chrisman I'm also in wayne county
did a bee sting you in your boot at the end?
Great info J...Can you tell me how many days from new queen hatching until egg laying approximately?
Can't get your calendar...only have a crappy smartphone...lol
The calendar should work on a smartphone but the timing varies. Once she emerges it usually takes a week or so before she goes on mating flights then another 3-4 days before she starts to lay.
Jason Chrisman Thanks for the quick reply...I did a split with swarm/emergency/or whatever cells and much to my surprise a queen appeared...checked yesterday and no eggs yet...still too early then...thanks again bee brother!
It can take up to 3 weeks for her to go on mating flights if the weather is not good or if the colony needs fed. Are you feeding them?
Jason Chrisman Yes feeding both colonies
1st
Great videos!!
Thanks!