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.
 
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