Hi Jack & All

I'll jump in on this one and say all of the methods will work, some are 
better for some purposes and others are suited to larger scale operations.

But for an experienced beekeeper wishing to raise a dozen or so queens, 
I recommend...
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/method2.html

This can either raise queens or nucs or both at once. It has been 
revised over many years and produces thousands of pedigree queens every 
season in UK.

It relies on grafting, which is by far the easiest method of all of 
possibilities. None of the cupkit methods are as reliable and easy as 
grafting, by far the greatest input required from the beekeeper, is the 
care after the cells are started and that attention is the same whatever 
method is used to induce cell raising.

The only downside to this method, is making the sliding board to fit an 
existing wire queen excluder.

I say have a go... If it fails, then hopefully you will find out why and 
learn how to do it better next time.

If you have difficulty seeing to do the grafting, get your eyes 
re-tested. Normal eyes or properly corrected defective vision allows 
easy visibility of larvae.

Another thing often missed in grafting... Do not be afraid to cut away 
the bulk of the comb, almost down to the midrib... It makes seeing and 
doing a lot easier.

Make sure the grub that you graft is no larger than a comma on a printed 
page.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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