Transferring Grafting Frame To Cell Finisher (Step 3) JC's Queen Rearing Series
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- JC's Queen RearingSeries, Video 3. Learn the steps to transfer the queen grafting frame to the cell finisher, we are just days from having queen cells. Learn how to raise your own queen honeybees in my queen rearing series. Previous video "Grafting Day" • JC's Queen Rearing Ser...
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Great video again JC
You are so good. You help me
Clear crisp & concise
Great video series
Glad you enjoy it!
So far so good
I like the voice over. It definitely takes away any chance of wind and external noise from drowning out what you say. Keep on keeping on jc!
Thanks for sharing your queen starter/ finisher videos .
Love this series. It's the direction I want to go with my bees. RZ
Thank you for taking the time to put these videos together. It gives newer beekeepers the confidence to move forward. All the steps and tools are in the videos. Just wanted to take the time to say thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Great series, helped me a lot. Thank you!
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
👍
Just a thought, leave a queen cell in the nuke. They can finish it
good vid ...i think its better like that one can hear you better ......cheers
Very informative video.
Hey JC, love this series. I'm also literally in the middle of my first attempt at grafting thanks to your videos and the Queen Rearing Essentials book. I will see in the morning if any took. I had a terrible time seeing and getting the eggs out; I think they were very new as they were very tiny w/ minimal jelly. Luckily my daughter has much better eyes and loaded up all my cups in short order. Unfortunately, b/c of work schedule the nurse bees had to stay 48 hrs isolated in the starter and now 48 hrs w/ the grafts. Even if we have a very low success rate we're going to keep doing this. Your series has really made the process straight-forward. I definitely will find a better magnifier w/ light like you showed on one video. And I like the idea of just turning the starter into another split.
So glad this series is encouraging beekeepers to try raising queens. It does take lots of practice, even I am still learning tricks to make acceptance better. I hope you gave them plenty of water since they stuck in there for a longer period. That would be my only concern. I hope you find many accepted cells today! Best of luck!
Hi Jason I'm wondering the necessity of having the cell finisher with the queen at the bottom (under the queen excluder)? Just wondering why we need the queen there at the bottom?
I'm in Franklin Co! We tried grafting today from your videos. Been watching them awhile.
Great video series! Very informative. It raises a few questions for me. Instead of breaking up the cell starter, could you have done another set of grafts the next day? Assuming the answer is yes, would the finisher be able to handle two queen cell frames, or would you be wise to make a second finisher? Also assuming the answer being yes, how long could the cell starter continue to operate before the bees get a little crazy and start laying drone cells? I would think you could get a couple weeks out of them, that being the time it takes for them to raise a queen. You probably wouldn't want to leave them locked in for that long though. You might have to shake some more nurse bees in as some begin to forage. What is the purpose for locking them in? The nurse bees shouldn't be trying to return to their mother hive.
I literally just finished grafting my first hive mainly using your tutorials...so thank you. Grafting was WAY harder than I anticipated. I had trouble seeing the larvae even using an articulating arm magnifier and a head mounted magnifyer....depth perception gave me problems. Then the Chinese grafting tool did not work for me at all...I kept tearing thru the cell wall....the JZBZ tool worked the best, but I still had issues...almost seemed too big...kept losing the larvae on cell walls....then I had hard time transferring the larvae to the cups...didn't want to disengage from the tool head.....All in all a very difficult thing to master. ...Took me 75 minutes for 40 cells...not sure if that toasted the frame of brood or not...hope not it was totally loaded with eggs and brood.
Thanks for the tutorials once again!
That's awesome your giving it a try! You just describe my first couple of times grafting. You have to find the tools that work for you and just keep practicing. When you think your good at it, practice more. Best of luck, hope they all take for you. You could sell they extra cells if you didn't need them.
Kevin McMahon I had similar problems until someone suggested using a size 000 sale art brush. It is gentler on the larvae and I find it much easier to use than other tools.
I know, right! Did you see in Jason's video that about 100% took. That's excellent. Next year I'll be attempting it with a "modified" chinese grafting tool. Basically what is done is to sand down the thickness of the tip until it is very flexible. I followed Joe May's instructions and you can definitely tell the difference. Here's a link to his video on that: th-cam.com/video/A_lkl6DCCyM/w-d-xo.html
And Jason, if cross posting isn't good for your channel, let me know and I won't do it again. Keep these videos coming... And I kind of like the voice over. I know it is more work, but as said above the audio quality is much, much better.
Well, my first attempt ended in complete failure. Went to transfer to cell finisher and there wasn't a single bee on my queen rearing frame...they were all huddled on the honey frame. Not sure what happened, but not one cell was touched. On to plan "B" Might not have been enough pollen as pollen frame was empty.
I'll try anything once!
Good job on the voice over work Jason. I've not gotten my nicot system out of storage yet. I've been doing walk away splits on mine and having pretty good luck with that so far, now THAT'S CHEATING! lol. I don't think I've got enough equipment to bother with making a bunch of queen cells now, I've about gotten everything filled up with bees and have more I can split yet.
Our forage here is so heavy this year my bees have just been busting at the seams. I put a super on one of my production colonies last week, I went by to check on them this morning and they had it filled up (frames were already drawn). It was so heavy it busted through the pallet I had it sitting on. I had a job picking it up and sitting it back level. My forage plots are just starting to peek blooms out on the mustard and buckwheat. I got another 400 pounds of buckwheat seed in last week I have to plant if it quits raining, along with 200 pounds of Sanfoin and 100 pounds of sunflowers. My farms going to look like freaking paradise this year!
One problem I've ran into with the walk away split four frame nucs is that they're working so fast that by the time the queen is made and mated, the little four frame nuc is honey bound. I had to split two nucs yesterday and make a new colony just to give the newer split room for the queen to lay.
I've been fighting the heck out of hive beetles already too. Had one weak colony so far that got over ran but I got them in time and saved them by reducing them and giving them some donor brood. Damn beetles are a menace, do you have them up there yet?
Good ole walk away splits! I just made 2 myself but think I may end up grafting a 3rd round. I've been using the incubator and it's working very well after the cells are capped. (Video coming) I think long term you get a better queen when you graft vs emergency queens but that's my observation.
The Black Locust just popped here. It's Ohio best nectar producer. Last year using the Broodminder to watch the weight gain the hives gained around 7 pounds a day in nectar. The problem I see this year is it been raining about everyday too. Glad to hear the plots are taking off. I'm waiting for that video?
I have seen hive beetles but do not have issues with them. I really wonder if full sun plus my chickens isn't keeping them away. I don't know much about beetles but I imagine they come out of the ground, right? Best of luck with them!
I'm looking forward to a video on the incubator!!!
I imagine a proper queen builder colony likely over feeds the queens and therefore build bigger and stronger queens than emergency queens. The queen cells I've been finding are nice and plump though so it's hard to complain. My biggest complaint with it is that it's time consuming and unpredictable. It's hard to beat banked queens of known age and consistent quality for sure.
I'll try to take and post a short clip of the forage plots here when they pop. They aren't much to see at the moment. I guess the clover plots look good but everyone knows what ladino clover looks like. I'm getting ready to mow and spray the grass out of those.
Our locusts bloomed out a week or so ago. It's a good flow here as well but it's super short lived and a little sparse. Our blackberry bloom is pretty substantial here, moreso than the locusts and also the yellow and white sweet clovers.
I don't think the full sun helps with the beetle problem as I've had issues with them in hives in both full sun and shade. Chickens would probably help a lot. David at Barnyard bees claims they do. Yes, beetles pupate in the soil. Their maggots come out of the hive, drop to the ground where they pupate and emerge later. Some diatomaceous earth under the hive racks may work too. Nasty little bastards.
You are a natural teacher - so patient, so thorough, I understand what you are saying, and you are repetitive, which is always helpful when trying to memorize things. Its also reassuring, because you reinforce something, and that lets me know I got it. I don't have bees yet, will probably want a year under my belt before I start using this information, which gives me plenty of time to internalize your teaching. Thank you sir.
Thanks Julie! That's been my thing since I started making videos. I wanted to make sure to get clear steps and information. I see so many videos that skip steps or information leaving the viewer with more questions than they had before they even watch the video. I wanted to avoid that and I feel it's working thus far.
Yes it is. Great job!
Jason, hope y’all are staying safe. My question is can I use my starter as finisher as well? I’m having a hell of a time fighting the Chinese tool. Getting it under the larvae is a pain is there something I can do?
Why do you have to give the queen cell frame back to the mother hive to finish them out? Can the cell starter box that got them cells started not finish them until your ready to separate all the queens?? I’m brand new to all this and these series are a huge help
The mother colony has more nurse bees than the starter colony therefore they can do a better job at finishing the last stages of the cells. The starter can finish cells just not as many as a finisher. Hope this helps. Good luck!!
Hello (Turkey)
What you did was "loop" this video. It's very common in the movie industry. lol
If you are using your cellphone to record the videos, you should be able to use a Bluetooth to record the audio. Just make sure that you get a good Bluetooth (don't go cheap).
Great video, and great series. Thanks.
I do use my phone but have never heard of recording with Bluetooth. I will have to look into that. Thanks!
I thought you said you've done this before.😂👍 JK great series keep em coming you gotta ETA for the queens off the beast momma.
Nope first time man, I am just winging it. Watched a couple of YT videos and now I am a pro. lol JK
I don't have an ETA at this time on the queens, sorry!
Gooe vedio
Jason, thanks for the videos!
I’ve been doing walk away splits for a few years now.
My question is if you put the old Queen on the bottom brood box with the Queen excluder on top, then the cups in the next box to be raised as Queens, does the old Queen feramones keep the nurse bees from making queen cells ? Do thy think that they are Queen less ? With the old Queen down below....
I am not sure they think they are queenless. Think about swarm cells as the active queen is present when those are drawn out. I think it's just the fact that the nurse bees have larva hanging vertically and the queen can't get to them to destroy them.
What kinda of success rate are you having with walk aways? It's my experience that the rate is low but maybe it was my approach.
Jason Chrisman I only have 5 -7 hives at any one time at the moment, with that said, I say my splits are a 50/50 gamble .
Last season I split my best hive, old Queen and much bees to a new location, success . The queen less hive made 11 cell, split them in to 4 nucs and got 3 queens.
This year 2 swarms when I was out for 2 months and lost both new queens. Tried splits from the big hive and lost 2 of the splits queens
I love your videos! Great work. I was wondering can I use this "finish" process as a queen bank for a temporary situation? I received a couple of queens but I need to make sure that I have my set up correct before I place them into a hive..
Hey Jason. Great series! I am making up 11 nucs tomorrow as i have been following your directions on the queen rearing process and have 11 cells looking pretty good. Any chance you will have the next video out tonight so i can watch for tips ? 😉
Hello Erik, Glad your enjoying the series. I am sorry to say but the next video will not be released until Sunday or at least that is the plan. This series has been put together from the 3 times I raised queen so far this year but I still need to make the video of the splits. I have cells that will be ready to emerge soon. In the meantime maybe this older video of mine will help th-cam.com/video/999X4o0bzw4/w-d-xo.html. Again I apologize for the video not being ready, it's hard to balance everything I need to do along with getting the next video out.
Also if you have any questions about split I can answer them.
Thanks for the reply Jason. I have watched all your videos and they gave me the confidence to give it a try... so far so good!
Jason Chrisman hey Jason.. yesterday i pulled the quren cells from the nucs.. i had 5 unemerged queen cells. I opened them up and found "mummy" like queens. Can you tell me why that would be? I followed the steps laid out in your video. I am assuming it may have had something to do with low temperatures. Thanks
JC, great videos
2 questions.
What do you use for smoker fuel?
For the cell starter, Instead of waiting 9 days to insert a queen cell could you add a frame or two of eggs/ larva from the same Queen that you grafted from? Using a wax foundation they possible would create more queen cells as a back up that could be cut out?
I have been using pine needles for smoker fuel because it's here in the bee yard.
You could easily add open brood but it's my experience that cutting out cells never goes as planned. Plus every spot you would cut out a cell they would build drone comb to fill the holes.
Yesterday I moved a frame to the cell finisher and from 29 cups it seems 17 or so were drawn out, possibly more. Not bad for first time. Last year I used the Nicot box but it very time-consuming and locking the queen up for 4 days not so good either. I used the starter bees as a split as well. You idea with the water container worked very well, had only about 4 dead bees in it. Thanks for the spreadsheet, it is very handy. Now waiting is the hard part :-).
Jason, I'm planning on following this plan next spring. Back to the cell starter, could that be on top of a regular hive, separated by a double screen board? Then for this step you could remove the double screen board and add the queen excluder. Would this work?
So it is ok to add the grafting frame with nurse bees into the cell finisher and they will not fight? I did not know that. THANKS! Makes everything much easier.
Jason what are you using to film or record your videos? The quality is great the sound is very clear and thanks for putting them together
Randy, I just use my phone to record the video with an external mic. I also use Adobe Premiere Pro as my editing software. Glad you enjoy the videos!
Great video Jason, especially for a newbie like me 😊. One question...if your grafting is very successful and you end up with multiple Queens what do you do with them? I understand you use one for the new split but what about the rest? Thanks!
Thanks! You could make several splits or sell the queen cells. Or if you get the queens mated you could sell mated queens.
yesterday i garfted my larvae on my jb bz cups and stuck them in my cell starter everything was going prefect i had hundreds of nurse bees taking care of the the grafts today i had to put my grafting frame above my cell finisher which is above a queen excluder and the nurse bees went down to the brood box below so i watched this video and took two frames from below the queen excluder that had brood and i samwhiched them between the the grafting frame and now everything is fine once againthe nurses are now back tending to the cells. my only question is their was a 3 hour time frame that the grafts were not being tended too so are these grafts ruined?
im hoping im good and dont have to restart the process
when can i check back to see if the grafts have taken 9 days? i only ask because now the nurses are no longer tending to bottom bar of grafts only the top bar the frame i use only accepts 2 bars of jzbz cell holders each holds about 15 cell cups.
Bula Jason, what is the need for the cell finisher, can the cell starter be used as cell finisher as well? thanks
Hello. Yes, the starter can be the finisher but don't expect a bunch of cells or huge cells.
Nice Jason! Maybe I missed it but when did you go back and check for any potential missing eggs in the two frames above the queen excluder. Any concerns of a queen cell developed there?
No I don't go back. I checked them when setting finisher up, if I fail them then all is lost. I do want brood above excluder to place grafting frame between though. I try to make sure it's older brood they can't raise a queen from.
Jason Chrisman now I understand. Ensuring the brood is older. Good point. Thank you for responding Jasón!
Hello Jason, If i wanted to do this on a small scale sat 10 queens at a time could i use a healthy nuc as a cell finisher? Thank you so much for the videos that are extremely informative and helpful!
You can but I wouldn't expect all of the graft to survive. There just isn't enough bees in a nuc to finish the cells and do hive duties.
@@JCsBees Thank you for your reply! Can't wait for more videos.
JC, No feeder in the finisher box? I thought i saw somewhere to add 1/1 because they use a lot to make the Jelly, and the cells?
Feeder isn't needed if you add at least a frame of honey. I figure they would rather have honey than sugar syrup.
Jason, I am currently in process of raising queens with your method. I have 6 cells that the bees are working on. Today is day 8 according to your queen rearing calendar. I have 2 cells that are capped already, the rest are still open and being worked on. These that are capped, will they develop as a full fledged queen or will she be a small, not very good queen? Not sure I should even bother with them. And, all the empty little cups that the grafts did not take in, are they reusable or do they have to be tossed out?
Congrats! It's an awesome feeling to be able to raise your own queens. The 2 that are capped were older larva when you grafted that's why they are now capped. I would say they would be poor quality queens but I'd still give them a chance to prove themselves. I empty cups can be reused if the larva wasn't excepted. Just throw away the cups with cells after the queens emerge. Best of luck!
@@JCsBees OK, thanks, I figured but wanted the experts opinion. Thanks for all you help!
Great videos! Why do you have to use a cell starter and a finisher? Starter & finisher are QL and only have honey, pollen and brood. Good point taken about placing cells between the 2 frames of brood, uncapped? The difference between the starter and finisher is the finisher is QL with uncapped brood? Thanks for your time
The cell finisher is in no way QL. Why would you think it is? Have you watched the previous videos?
@@JCsBees why have both a starter and finisher? I assumed you had a use for the starter, perhaps to make a split. Otherwise, what's wrong with leaving the queen cells in the starter until they are capped? On that day, you can still use the starter to add a virgin queen from your incubator, etc. The mother hive could be done with the whole process right after you graft. The only difference I see is that the mother hive has open brood on each side of the queen cells but the whole point of that is to place nurse bees an both sides of the queen cells. The starter is full of nurse bees not preoccupied with other brood.
Do you recommend using a Queen excluders? Some people say not to because its harder on the workers. Your thoughts on them?? Thanks for the videos.
I do use an excluder and will continue to. I have heard what some say but have never witnessed it being hard on the workers.
When you transfer the frame with the queen cells from the starter hive to the finishing hive, does the finishing hive always accept the bees that you have moved
Most of the time there is zero issue but from time to time they may fuss a little. One option is to leave the starter for use as a queen-less nuc.
I got a question Jason, how soon after you put the cells in the finisher hive can you check them?
Like I grafted on 16th of May and I put my cells in on 17th of May, so what is the soonest that I can check them, to see how many good queens I have so I know how many nukes to make up??
Great question! If you grafted on the 16th, the cells will be capped on the 20-21st (today). So you could check today but if you do be extremely careful with the grafting frame. The cells are very sensitive now. It would safer to wait until the 26th as it's much easier on the cells.
Thanks Jason, so they are capped already
Yes they should be.
When you say place the grafts between two brood frames do you mean sealed brood or open brood?
Doesn't much matter as long as it's brood.
I don't understand the reasoning behind having a cell starter and cell finisher. Why not just let the nurse bees in the starter continue to take care of them until they are capped? Or even till 10 days after the grafting... EDIT - I see you replied below with what is possibly the answer: "There just isn't enough bees in a nuc to finish the cells and do hive duties.". If that is the case why can't the Finisher also be the Starter?
I also don't understand why to close off the starter if they are all nurse bees. Thanks, enjoying this older series while I contemplate trying this myself in my first year.
So they finish the queen cells with a queen in the box below the queen excluder?
Correct!
Thank you. And let me add that I really like your instructional style. You don't assume your viewer know anything
Thanks! I was taught when teaching someone to not assume, teach them as they are brand new to the topic.
Jason do you think there’s mature enough drones in or area in S.D. for good fertile mating queens?? This time of the year so to speak
I really can't answer that as I have no idea. How long have the drones been present? Any idea? I like them to be present for 6 weeks at least. This allows them to mature and the population to build.
Hi Jason, I have also understood that if you mix bees they will fight, I have used news paper to combine bees. When you are shaking bees into a box to build it up for a starter won't those bees fight each other? Thanks for any info you can give. Love your videos.
The bees he shook into the starter came from the same mother colony. Later in the process he does take the queen cells from the starter and moves them back to the finisher/mother hive above a queen excluder. But note, almost every bee in the starter, ESPECIALLY the bees covering the queen cells are nurse bees. Nurse bees are very docile and do not fight.
@@aarongriffin81 I can see why the nurse bees want to be in a queen right hive but why wouldn't the finisher hive bees (the ones with queen) not attack the nurse bees attached to the queen cell frame? I did not know you could do that lol. TIA
How do we know if a cell was excepted?
I thought you had a queen in the bottom of your finisher separated by a queen excluder.. if that's true.. what keeps them from swarming when you have 20 or so capped queen cells in the top box. P.S. I'm brand new to beekeeping
Sir are you use the queen excluder again or not ???
Yes he is. The queen would kill them.
Shakenbake 68-69 is correct! Leave the excluder on, otherwise I would have noted to remove it.
Thanks sir
You mention checking to see which cells got accepted but they all looked the same to me. How can you tell?
There is royal jelly inside the accepted cells. Plus those cells are usually longer.
What's the build on the spacer for your the bottom of your grafting nuc? Does it have screen on it?
It's explained in the first video of the series th-cam.com/video/NCFPpBGhvks/w-d-xo.html
Ok thx. Also thanks for the series. Haven't tried to graft yet but at least I have something to fall back on to study.
What is the purpose of moving the graphing frame from cell builder to finisher hive. Why not allow the cell builder complete the build?
I wondered this too
Jason I would like to get a mic where kind do you have and where did you get it. Thanks
This is the one I use and it works very well. amzn.to/2PKUroU
This guy is All over TH-cam bee videos in the comments.
JC you could watch videos about central banking, The Creation of the Federal RESERVE, or fractional reserve banking....
Anywho, see you in the bee videos comments
I ain't no body but a beekeeping, cattle farming, country boy, so wonder why there is that connection? 😉
Hows it going Jason?
Everything is going well, just been really busy with the cattle. We switched things up a bit which I explain in my newest farm video coming out soon. Between the farm and building up nucs for customers, I am having no problems with sleeping. lol How are things going for you?
It's been kind of the same thing here. Trying to get the row crops planted between rains and get spraying done. It's been a rough spring here for crops from being too wet.
I've been having my best year yet with bees. Everything I've done this year so far has turned out well. Splits worked great, honey crop is heavy, etc. Two of my bee food plots did poop out though from being too wet. Even the ladino clover couldn't take the water. It's just now getting dry enough again to do field work and there's rain in the forecast tonight and tomorrow :( I'm so far behind I don't think I'll ever catch up on stuff.
I harvested the first honey of the year yesterday and it's the best I've ever taken off so far. I can't keep any space on the bees, as soon as I put a new super on they fill it up. I've never had bees work so well as this year. I guess with all the rain and the clover, the nectar flow is just that good. It's sure something to take a lid off a hive and it's so damned full of bees they just bubble out the top. One of my biggest hives put off a swarm three days ago, it was the size of a bushel basket and took up an entire ten frame. I made a split of it last effing week? I put in 7 drawn frames and three empties, checked it this evening and the three empty frames are drawn and have nectar and eggs in them O.o, I've just never seen them go like that, it's amazing. I have to move it this evening and add a super to it already. My production hives already have three full supers. I've regained all my losses from winter, plus a few more and I'm out of equipment again....
It's a crap load of work but it's a blast. I know what you mean about sleeping.
What could a guy sell the cells for? Like money wise, what are they worth??
A few years ago, I was posting cells on Craigslist for $8 each but now I am seeing them bring around $12 each.