On 19 Feb 97 at 9:50, QUB wrote: Queen rearing kit systems
 
> Q breeder and perhaps amateur, a dying art.  These systems offer an
> easy method of rearing perfect queens and you don't need to have 20/20
> vision!  There is also the potential for 100 per cent success.
> What do the Q rearing experts think of these systems when compared to
> grafting?
> What are the pros and cons?
 
We have tried a number of different ideas, Jentner, Cup Kit and finally
ended up grafting as our preferred method.
        The main problems that we experienced with the kits, they can be erratic.
Over the years we have had various problems.
        Perhaps I should explain!
        The kits should be placed in the breeder hive 24 hours before the queen
is introduced, this will allow the workers to clean cells and for the kit
to warm to brood temperature. On one occasion the bees filled it with
nectar, in spite of it being in the middle of the cluster. When the queen
has laid in the kit the front retaining queen excluder is removed to allow
the queen access to the rest of the hive. After the eggs hatch (3 days)
the workers start to feed the larvae, at which time the cell plugs are
removed to the cell builder hive. On occasion the workers had removed
all the eggs, and at three days the kit was empty!!
        If you are only making a few queens and only making nucs to take those
cells when made, this perhaps is no problem. But, if as we do, you have
baby nucs with mature queens waiting to be 'picked' for sale, then you
have a problem. The kit has failed, you can't take queens without
re-celling, otherwise they will try to raise their own, and emergency
queens from baby nucs are no good! The failure of the kit under these
circumstances can be a major disaster, and put your system back by almost
a week.
        Another area we have had problems with is superscedure of our breeder
mothers. It would appear that the interruption of brooding patterns starts
the bees into superscedure mode. We have to also consider the extra queen
handling. To use the kits the queen has to be found, and placed into the
kit. In both of these cases there is the potential damage to a very
valuable breeder mother, something which we can't afford to happen.
        As to needing 20/20 vision to graft? I use reading glasses and have
arrived at two accessories which help. A pair of clip on magnifiers or
better still a binocular headset, a single magnifier is no good as you
need two eyes for depth perception. I once tried a single magnifier and
damaged too many larvae by squashing them with the grafting tool.
        There is a lot of equipment on the market to assist the grafting process,
it is not the problem that a lot of bee keepers think it is.
        In conclusion, if you only want a few queens, kits are satisfactory. If
you want to make a considerable amount of queens, at a guaranteed time
interval, then graft.
 
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