Hi,

> Another technique to moisten the grafting tool  
>

Someone needs to change the subject over to "Grafting/Transferring Queen Rearing" if the subject is going to continue on that path. The subject in use currently does not use the Grafting/Transferring Queen Rearing technique. I know enough about the technique I choose to not use it and prefer the one that Jay Smith primarily settled on in his later years after realizing the Grafting/Transferring Queen Rearing technique had its flaws in producing the very best of Better Queens. He explains very clearly why it is so in his book "Better Queens", it all has to do with having the bees choose the correct age of the larvae and also how many will be started by the cell builder hive. Bees look at artificial queen cups with a beekeepers transferred larvae in them as already started queen cells, and will do their best to continue working on them and finish them even if they can not do their best job they would have done if they were the ones starting them, because they will only start what they know they can finish really good and complete. Bees choice not the beekeepers, I know the bees know better than a beekeeper what is best for them, but they will live with what the beekeeper does most times. Like Mike Palmer says to some degree; "Bees make better beekeepers than beekeepers make bees."

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA

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