Hi Mike,

I have done both methods. I used to do the miller method and was not please with the outcome because I would not get the number of cell take I desired and some of the cells were grouped together making it difficult to separate the for use. Also I was not pleased with the cell size and the queen cells looked more like emergency cells. 

The second method you describe I know as the Alley and Jay Smith method and after trying it last season I was very pleased at my first attempt and plan on doing it more next season with some modifications of my own design experimenting on attaching the row of cells to the top bars. Instead of waxing the row of cells to the bar I am going to try attaching it to the bar using sewing thread, it will be an experiment but I see no reason why it should not work if I do it right. The cells I produced using this method were beautiful and quite well developed, I think I have some pictures of them in my computer and ones of the homemade cell protectors I used to place the cells in the mating nucs. Somewhere on the internet there is a web page with Jay Smiths book on it called "Better Queens" that explains this method and Alley's book is on Cornell's web site of old books. I have both of these books and both are a really good read and I learned much from them both.

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---