On 23 Mar 98 at 20:39, Tom Jillette wrote:
 
> producer,etc) into 1/4 inch wax cell cups (I'm going to make
> myself), attached to small 'chips' which are further attached to
> crossbars in a frame (3 crossbars/frame).  I then plan on placing
> the grafts (two frames with 90 cups each) into a swarm box as
 
I can agree with most of the ideas in this post, but we have reduced
the amount of cells, per cell builder. We have found in pratice that
180 cells is far too many to be fed properly and tends to produce
small queens.
        Believe it or not, we are down to 45 at a time.
 
> 3.  In using a mini queen nucleus, is it o.k. to have only wax
> foundation in the frames, or is it a necessity to have drawn out
> comb?
 
Provided that the mini-nuc is fed, then you can use just foundation.
In fact some advise just a strip across the top bar, which leads to
soft frames. We find it is safer to have drawn foundation, you need
somewhere to hang the cell, and foundation doesn't give much of a
base to hang them off.
 
 
*******************************************
The Bee Works,9 Progress Drive, Unit 2,
Orillia,Ontario. L3V 6H1. Canada.
Phone/Fax 705-326-7171
http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks
Quality Bee Breeders.
e-mail <[log in to unmask]>
*****************************************