I would be interested to hear others thoughts on grafting.  Here are mine.

 

Grafting tools and cups:

 

I started with a quill cut to shape and the end bent over to make a spatula.
I then decided to use a cranked metal grafting tool with the tiny spatula
end.  It was more robust and good when I used it with home-made wax cell
cups as I could press it into the wax slightly to release the larvae, but it
was not as good with the plastic cups which I now use.

 

I moved to the Chinese grafting tool.  These originally had a bamboo
‘pusher’ which seemed to work very well; with practise it became the tool of
choice.  I find the latest versions with plastic ‘pushers’ are not as
satisfactory.

 

The drawback with the Chinese tool is that with very small larvae it is easy
to squash them between the tongue and the pusher when trying to push them
off into the cup.

 

Age of larvae:

 

Some books tell you to graft larvae the size of a lower case ‘c’ “on this
page” – which is perhaps set in 10pt or 12pt.  Others say that the larvae
should be as young as possible and you will find these at the edge of a
patch of eggs.

 

The difference is probably 2 day old larvae vs 12 hour old larvae (I seem to
remember reading that Brother Adam would sit up all night waiting for eggs
to hatch!).

 

Does it really make any difference to the quality of the finished queen?

 

Harvesting cells:

 

We are usually told to harvest cells 10 days after grafting but... cells
that are grafted at 12 hours will be one and a half days behind those
grafted when they are two days old, so presumably should not be moved until
day 11 or even 12.

 

Over time my grafting skills have improved, if that is the right word, and I
can now graft larvae that are almost impossible to see – but am I just
making life more difficult for myself.  Would my queens be just as good if I
used bigger larvae?

 

Best wishes

 

Peter 

52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

 

 


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