>Hello fellow beekeepers,
>
>    On this subject no one has mentioned the viability of larvae being
>grafted. How long can the larvae be out in the open without bees caring
>for them? It seems to me that there is only a certain amount of time
>before the larvae drys out or gets chilled. I have read the book The
>Hive and The Honey Bee on queen rearing section but they talk very
>little about this. Is there any way of telling if the larvae your
>grafting may no longer be any good, so as not to waste time on them? I
>am sure the bees will know by not building up the grafted cells that
>have poor larvae in them. My plan is to place a hot water bottle under
>the jenter box warmed to 90 degrees and try to keep the humidity up in
>the area used. When using the cell plugs only there should be much of a
>problem, but I plan on grafting some of the extra larvae not in the cell
>plugs. This is where the problem of drying out or getting chilled larvae
>could arise.
 
Drying out of the larvae is more inportant than heat. I attended a seminar
on queen rearing and a speaker said that sometimes they wrap a wet towel
around a frame that they were going to graft from, if transporting any
distance.
 
>Another question is the bees in the swarm box, how many times can they
>be used before they are too old to be used for starting queen cells?  I
>would guess maybe 3 times if  I repeated the cycle every two days, or is
>it best to start with fresh bees each time? The book above says the bees
>can produce royal jelly for the first 2 weeks of bees life, but I would
>think their less capable of producing royal jelly as they get older.
>
>Thanks for any feed back
>
>Elroy