Grafting Queens

As I previously mentioned I'm trying my hand at breeding queens. I'm also aware that the queens in my second apiary are nearing the end of their productive life and I need to replace the queen I sent north, which has arrived and is in good health.

I spoke to the beekeeper I sent the queen and he said they were quite loud when they arrived and to calm them down he wet his finger and let a little water run down the inside of the cage. This calmed them immediately. I hadn't thought about water for them before, but the candy is quite dry. The queen is now in the destination hive so hopefully all is well and the candy has been removed.

Today I grafted 5 grubs into Bozi queen cups. These are plastic cups that make it very easy to transport the queen cells to the nucs or an incubator for hatching. The cups cost about $NZ0.10 each and can be reused. My supplier sells them in bags of 100 so I haven't had to reuse any yet.

This photo shows the top bar of my grafting frame. The white spot marks position #1.

The Bozi cells are secured to the frame by being pressed onto plastic feet. I bought the feet from a plastics supply company and then used short screws to fix them to the frame. Once the cells are capped a gentle twist will remove it from the frame. This also makes it a lot easier to do the graft as the cup can be held in a comfortable position into the grub is place it in.

I use a 'Chinese' grafting tool because that works for me. There are many other tools that people use ranging from a small paintbrush to a flattened bike spoke or coat hanger. It doesn't really matter as long as you can pick up and release the grub. The chinese grating tool has a flexible tounge which is used to pick the grub up and a push button, much like a Bic pen, on its top that is used to push the grub into the cup.

A well fed, healthy hive is much easier to graft from because there will be a large about of royal jelly in the cells with the grubs. This lubricates the pick up and release process so that it becomes a very smooth action. The grubs on the right side of the bee are well fed are ideal for grafting.

Below are photos of each graft I did. Number 3 looks like a bad one but the others seem fine. It will be interesting to see which ones the bees accept.

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