I am planning on raising 3 - 4 queens this season from a NWC queen heading up my most productive colony.  I'll place the old queen with some bees in a nuc (just in case, she'll be needed later) and crowd the rest of the bees in the orignal hive w/ a frame of fresh eggs to build emergency cells from.

For the reasons discussed here recently, I could end up with a queen of inferior size.  So, once the emergency cells are capped, I plan to place screen cages over several of the largest cells (destroying the rest) so that the cells are not destroyed by bees or another queen.  As the emergence date approaches, I'll check the cages daily.  When emerged, the virgins will stay in their cages for a maximum of 24 hours.  When I see a nice, plump virgin I'll transfer her to a mating nuc.  I'll cull any small size virgin.

Will this work for me?  Does anyone practice such queen raising?  I made up a few cages last season and was successful in isolating the virgins as long as the cages were pressed deeply into the comb (otherwise, the bees chewed the comb to get under the cages & free the virgins).

Thank you.

Waldemar

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