John Lewis asked:
 
>Did you get any direct replies on the jenter system quarry you posted?
>
>I am interested in trying to breed my own queens and was wondering about
>this system too.
>
I did see a very detailed reponse to Tom's query which covered the Jenter
kit design and use.  My comments are added in case they are useful to new
beekeepers planning to expand into breeding queens for their own use or sale.
 
We have been using a Jenter kit for 3 years, breeding about 200 queens a
year mainly for our own use while we work out the best procedures and
develop markets.
The Jenter kit appealed to us because we appreciate the control over the
critical timing of grafting freshly hatched larvae.  Because the queen will
have laid up to 99 eggs there is some wastage if you are only doing limited
numbers of cell grafts but you must have a strong cell starter hive for each
bar of cells.
 
Our most common causes of failure are:
 
1.  The queen is not laying when restricted to the laying cage.  Answer:
stimulate the hive with sugar syrup for 3 days beforehand.
 
2.  The queen has been locked up too long and has laid double in the cells.
The bees have cleaned out the cells and the queen relaid.  Answer:  shrug
shoulders and start again.
 
3.  Poor acceptance rate in cell starter hive.
Answer:  place cell bar in starter hive 24 hours before grafting for bees to
warm:
         stimulate hive with sugar syrup for 3 days before grafting:
         remove all fresh brood to ensure ample supplies for grafted cells
         add sealed brood frames to ensure bees of right age
 
4.  The bees have started queen cells elsewhere in the brood.  Answer:
Check all frames within week of placing grafted cells and destroy all
alternative cells.
 
5.  High loss rate from mating flights.  Answer:  place each mating nucleus
at different angle and with landmark tree or shrub to enable queen to orient.
 
Because of the cost of the Jenter kit I would not think it economic for
small beekeepers unless commercial queen breeding is anticipated.  In
Snelgrove's book "Queen Breeding" he describes a method of using a frame
with a strip of foundation at the top to produce small numbers of queen
cells.  The Demaree system (with its many variations) is also an economic
way to produce your own queens without incurring initial expense.  I am sure
the Demaree system has been well covered in previous Bee-L posts but if
anybody would like details of these two suggestions, please email me direct.
 
P.S.
Apologies to anybody failing to connect with me over the last few weeks.
During the course of upgrading the computer the Service Provider managed to
lose e-mail access for two weeks.  I referred to Joe Hemmens' excellent post
to find out how to search archives for the down-time.  Thank you Joe, it
worked fine.
 
Betty McAdam
HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
j.h. & e. mcadam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.eastend.com.au/hogbay/hogbay1.htm