>I guess it's just me, I hate it when things do not go as planned and I have
to think of a new way around something. I usually close young bees into a
ventilated box for 24 hours with food and water, after the 24 add the
grafted cells, pull them out after 24 hours and add every thing to a big
hive with a queen exculder to finish the cells.

Me too, but is there any good reason not to just open that box and let them fly?

> Going out today to feed and probably give them all a third brood box just to give some space. I usually run two deeps
but have enough equipment that the strongest hives can go into three.

I find it amazing the number of brood boxes that you folks use!  I hate doubles as they are so hard to work compared with singles; the idea of three is just too much!  I am also thinking that your Langstroth is 50% bigger, so three is four and a half times my ideal!  What is amazes me more is that the US average crop per colony is less than mine - guess yours all goes into the brood boxes!

>Every year it seems the weather becomes more of a challenge along with the
health of the bees.

Could not agree more.  My thinking now is that climate is a much bigger problem than all the diseases - including varroa - and the pesticides.  Given a half-decent season for weather our bees thrive, but a poor one, like 2012, leaves them very vulnerable to all the other problems.  If (when) the climate changes even more (and perhaps more rapidly) I do wonder whether they will cope - they have no God-given right to survive, any more than other species that have not.

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

Thanks,
Karen

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html