Hi Yoon & all

> I am interested in a hand-off, queen-rearing procedure


Making splits almost implies that all the resulting queens will be
'acceptable' or at least required to do some duty. I think it is probably
the first method that any beekeeper tries for 'queen raising', but it does
not give very reliable results

With 'splits' there is not enough slack (spare queens) for culling of the
bad.

Grafting is a simple technique that takes little time and is very easy to
become skilled at. (any faulty eyesight can be corrected with spectacles or
binocular attachments to fit spectacles)

Couple grafting with reduced size mating nucs that are easy to populate and
you can raise enough queens to pick and choose the good ones. This costs
very little as the mating nucs are self sustaining. OK you have to make
special nucs... Most of the ones that are sold for mating purposes are not
quite large enough for assessment of queens. There are ways around this
using folding frames that will fit both a full sized hive and a half sized
one.

I reckon you will get out what you are prepared to put in, in other words...
Splits are easy and quick, but give poor queens. Grafting gives more scope
for queen quality, but costs a little time, a little effort and a small
capital outlay for equipment.

Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping and Bee Breeding Website
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman

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