Bill Lord asked for, "tips for getting grafts accepted and cells built in
hot weather".


The conditions and the time of day with a temperature of 102 degrees that
Mr. Lord described is simply too hot to be out grafting larvae for either
a hobbyist or a commercial queen breeder although I will work my bees and
install 14 day old mature queen cells into mating boxes during the heat of
the day if I have to.  I am quite concerned with the phrase “getting
grafts accepted and cells built” more than a temperature of “102 F”
degrees”.

Nurse bees will build onto cups with viable larvae and accept and feed
grafted larvae if they are healthy, in new cups, and if there are enough
nurse bees to feed the number of cups given with grafted larvae. This of
course assumes that one either works with a queenless hive full of capped
brood and nurse bees or a queenright hive with an excluder separating the
queen below which must still have copious quantities of nurse bees. If
either of these two conditions are met, and only temperature is the
variable to one’s successful grafting I suggest that one must look at some
of the grafting techniques that will cause the loss of accepted cells.

Note: With this specific thread in mind I must assume that the creator has
not changed his methods of grafting nor has he changed his methods of cell
building or starting.

Most grafting is usually done in the morning hours in a sheltered area
after the field bees have started flying. A sheltered area can be a
building, the cab of a pickup truck, a van, or even in the shade under a
tree. The mid-day summer sun is quite high in the sky and not only will
ambient air temperature affect 1/2 day old larvae, direct sunlight
containing the full spectrum of radiation from the infrared to ultra
violet, approximately 400 to 700 nanometers, can quite quickly kill
honeybee larvae. Larvae are susceptible to both heat and light. Grafting
techniques that include open grafting without any cover or protection may
produce acceptable percentages of queen cells in late spring or early
summer, but the hot summer sun may cause an increase in larvae mortality
with open grafting even when the relative humidity is high and larvae do
not dry out.

Dr. Clarence Collison in the July 2005 issue of Bee Culture gave three
additional dangers associated with grafting larvae:

“Damaging the young larva while transferring.” “Having the larva dry out
while you are grafting a frame.” And, “ A break in the larva’s royal jelly
supply since the larva is not moved intact with its food supply.

Cheers,

Chuck Norton

Norton’s Nut & Honey Farm
Reidsville, NC

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::