Dave Cushman wrote:
> I agree with Peter that priming cells with royal jelly is not worth the
> effort,

I raise about 1000- 2000 queens a year; going on 25 years.  I've tried dry
grafting, double grafting, and priming.
My best results are with priming with royal jelly taken from young cells (<3
days old) while the jelly is still thin.
Priming allows one to quickly graft young larvae without damage.  My best
queens come from larvae that are only a few hours old--the same length as
the egg is long.  I graft about 150 in a half hour, and get usually about
90% take under good conditions.    Much poorer take very early or late in
the season.  24 hrs after grafting, the tiny larvae are floating in a huge
pool of fresh jelly, and have their full larval life to differentiate into
great queens.

I need more magnification each year since I turned 40 (I'm 55 now). I use a
krypton headlamp now to direct light.

I like the clear plastic JZ's push in cups, since I can see if there is
remaining jelly at the bottom of the cell after the queen has spun her
cocoon.  If there is excess jelly left, you know that she's been fed to
excess.  If there's no jelly left, you don't really know if she was fed
enough.

Randy Oliver

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