Hi Allen, his correspondent, and all

> I find up to 20% are
> not viable.

There are failures at every part of the queen raising process, I reckon
between 50% and 55% of cells grafted, actually end up as mated queens
leading a colony.

There are variances in different seasons, but any sharp change should be
looked at in detail.

I have experience of Jenter box methods, but find that the fault is that you
are always unsure of the age of the egg, unless you inspect every hour.
Because of this, I (and several others that I know) now use grafting only,
but use the Jenter and Cupularve cell cups to graft into.

> thus is akin to trying to give
> someone a haircut over the phone.

Agreed here, but for a start I would look at pollen provision, not
forgetting that stored pollen will not be used if it is more that 80 mm from
where it is actually required (before you ask... No, I don't know why).

Another thing that I would look for would be residues in wax, because a
queen cell is constructed of a mixture of new wax and wax fragments from all
over the nest.

But in any case ALWAYS aim to produce more queens than you need, because
there will be some that are below par that should be replaced.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Fall Back M/c, Build 6.02 (stable)

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