Reply from Steve Clifford Thanks, gray beard, I'm flattered. Yes, the response has been good.....plan to do one this spring....will graft, make splits, plant the cells, view the results. Thanks again!
Comment from Steve Clifford Thanks, Roger....appreciate your comment. If I make it to next spring, it'll be 50 years of beekeeping for me. I can't imagine anything I'd rather have spent my life doing.
Me too and need more close can see exactly what you doing and when to put those queen house and how to know where those virtualizes witch the gemais and unvirilized is male how to know between them and recognised? And most if we found how to pick it up put it in that plastic ? Need more information thanks and tell we can put separate any virgin queen can put in one hive and what it need to make too many hive?separated from each other’s
Comment from Steve Clifford Kawa.....thanks for your questions and comments.....this was our first attempt at a queen rearing video, and comments like yours have been very helpful. We plan to do another video next spring where we start cells, make splits (new hives), and place the queen cells into the splits. Thanks again!!
Like many experts in their field, you make it look so very easy. As a newbie beekeeper, I appreciate just how difficult it is to achieve what you're doing. Thanks ever so much for sharing your expertise.
Reply from Steve Clifford tasmedic, your kind words are greatly appreciated. I was so very fortunate early in my beekeeping career to meet and go into business with the late great bee man Larry Gunter. He and his brother Richard ran 9,000 hives in my home state of North Dakota....they'd purchased a 1,500 hive outfit in NE Saskatchewan and asked me to buy in and run it. I worked with them 11 winters in their winter digs in SE Texas, where Larry "made a queen man out'a me". Thanks again.
Reply from Steve Clifford Really nice to hear, thank you, Randy! It was my good fortune to learn from the late great beekeeper Larry Gunter. This is my 51st year with the bees, and I put in my first graft yesterday. Thanks again!!
From Steve Clifford-Thanks so much....this spring will mark 50 years of beekeeping for me.....I was lucky to break in with some extremely talented people. I ran 1,800 hives in Saskatchewan, Canada, and worked winters in SE Texas raising queens for many years. Semi-retired now on the beautiful coast of British Columbia, I have it down to 100 hives. Special to hear from the UK....my mother was a WWII warbride. Thanks again. Steve
Comment from Steve Clifford. Thanks so much for the kind words, Danelle. I was so fortunate early in my beekeeping years to meet my friend, business partner and mentor, the late great beekeeper Larry Gunter. I worked with him for 11 winters in SE Texas. I'll never forget the morning of the first winter when he said, "well, come on, Clifford; I'm gonna make a queen man outa ya".
Comment from Steve Clifford. Thanks, Joe.....I worked with the Gunter Brothers for 11 winters in SE Texas.....we sold many many thousands of ripe cells to migratory beekeepers......hardly a dull moment.
Looking forward to your next video! I'd like to see how you put the new queens back into the hive. I have the most awesome, calm hive and would love to make a new queen for a new hive. Thanks for this video! 🐝
Enjoyed watch you. Such passion. May work for you what I have found for myself if I put a undrawn wax frame in with the queen cells I don't get extra wax around the queen cells. 🐝
Great video. Thank you. Each one of those cells will head-up a new nucleus, nuc, or replace a depleted queen. I hope you show us the mating and inspection to see the new queens at work.
From Steve Clifford Thanks, Carroll.....am quite pleased with the reaction. Plan to do another this spring.....rear cells, make splits, plant the cells, view the results. Thanks again for the kind words.
Thx for the excellent Comment and history. Wow What a life of bees. Hanging with you for a while would help anyone. They are graced by your presence. Excellent videos. I really appreciate them as I know many are as Well. Fine Fine job Bill Blue Diamond Apiaries
Kind words, William, thanks so much. I got lucky early in my bee years and fell in with the late great bee man Larry Gunter. I bought into a 1,500 hive outfit in NE Saskatchewan with Larry and worked with him in SE Texas for 11 winters. Thanks again. Steve
From Steve Clifford Kind words, Rogehni......Thanks so much. I'm very grateful I discovered honeybees when I did, and that I was so lucky to learn from real pros.
I started out bee keeping in the mid sixties an never thought I wanted to do grafting but the prices in today’s world it is just about a have to now . I did my splits but that takes to long on getting a queen back to keeping a hive strong for production. Thanks for your video’s keep up the great work. THANKS
Comment from Steve Clifford. Thanks much, Kathy! We've had a good response......plan to do another next spring....graft, finish cells, make splits, plant the cells. I totally agree on the price thing.....I'd have never made it in the business if I hadn't learned to raise cells. The guy I learned from always said you're way better off with a good cell than a caged queen. Thanks again, and Cheers!! Steve
I wish I had watched your video first. Thank you for walking through each step explaining as you worked. So many "experts" on you tube do not have competent communication skills and skip steps in the process. I prefer old school approaches as well. I never understood why so many try to reinvent the wheel. Thank you again Steve!!!
Reply from Steve Clifford Kind words, John, thanks very much. I was so very lucky to get involved with the great beekeeper Larry Gunter early in my beekeeping career. I worked with Larry for 11 winters at their winter quarters in SE Texas, and bought into their new outfit in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. Larry and his brother Richard made 9,000 nucs for their North Dakota outfit every Texas spring, and 1,500 packages for me. Larry put me to work in the queen yard from the very start, and we sold thousands of ripe cells to other migratory beekeepers. I was so very lucky indeed. Thanks again.
Very informative and excellent job presenting the material. My question is how do you get a hive with such a huge number of bees. Do you add bees from other hives? If so wouldn't they have be nurse bees otherwise they just leave and go back home.
From Steve Clifford. Kenneth.....I mark exceptional honey producers in summer.....if they winter well and aren't crabby they qualify.....hopefully by cell-rearing time they're strong enough, or close. The queen/brood portion should be nine frames of brood....I always have a few "donor" hives ready to help out. Yes, young bees and hatching brood added stay there. I wish I'd mentioned that the one pitfall is to leave the brood box too weak, as there's considerable drift back to the bottom cell box that first day. The two frames of brood go back to the queen/brood box or into another hive.
Nice video and even nicer calm bees ! I'm thinking of raising queens next spring, but I'd like to understand why things are done, so - what purpose does the double screen board serve? wouldnt a queen excluder be as good at keeping the queen away? What impulse is driving the nurse bees? emergency? Thanks for any answers you can provide.
Reply from Steve Clifford The double screen isolates the queenless broodless starter box enough to urge them to rear the grafted cells. The young nurse bees in the starter that had been feeding brood are suddenly without anything to feed....when the grafted larvae go in they are happy to jump in and feed them. Yes, emergency plays a part....the bees suddenly isolated with no brood and no queen are up the creek, no paddle....the grafted cells are their only hope to get back to normal. When they are reversed 24 hours later they simply go ahead and keep rearing the cells to their maturity. A queen excluder would not spur them to feed the cells the way the double screen does. I like to double queen honey producing hives, and the double screen works well for that purpose also. Thanks for your interest.
Hey Steve. Thanks. I’m over in Grapeland Texas. Southeast. Where did you learn exactly. Thanks for the great videos. Raising our own queens. Self taught from you and others online
Hey, Willam, thanks for the kind words. I started out in ND, got a hive, worked for Powers, then got a job as a state field inspector for ND. I answered an ad for bees for sale, went to the guys house end of the afternoon.....Larry Gunter came out with a 6 pack in hand, he squeezed into my little Mazda truck and we went out and made a deal on 20 singles I think. Larry & his brother Dick ran 9,000 in ND in those days. We went for a steak, and on about the third beer he says " why don't you come up to Canada and run a bee outfit for us?" Two years previous they'd bought a 1,500 hive outfit in NE SK, some amazing bee country. I bought in with them, and headed to SE Texas, Sour Lake, to work for the winter. When grafting time came, he said "c'mon, Clifford, I'm going to make a queen man out'a ya". We raised cells for 10,000 nucs, we had a few hundred baby nucs, we raised queens for about 2,000 packages for me, and as time went along we raised more and more cash and carry cells for smaller migratory beekeepers. At the end of my 11 winters there we were selling thousands of cells out the door. Bumping into Larry at age 26 or so was truly a lucky day for me. I ran bees in SK for 40 years, and when the border closed in US packages and queens in 1987, I was suddenly selling a few thousand cells in SK every year. I'm mid-70s now, have moved to the West Coast of British Columbia, still keeping 50-60 hives, still raising cells, and am president of our local bee club and am on the executive of the BCHPA. Am also past president of the BC Bee Breeders Assn. Don't know what else I could have spent my life doing that might have been better. Thanks again! Steve Clifford
Reply from Steve Clifford. Well, thanks....practice, I guess. Marking queens is a big help in finding them, but I've never liked it. If you use nail polish (we used to go to the pet store and buy the poodle stuff, thinking it was better suited) the bees would chew away at it.....made me think it wasn't the best practice. Thanks again!
Reply from Steve Clifford. Kind words, thanks very much. I don't know what else I could have spent my life doing that would have been as satisfying and challenging as keeping bees. I've worked bees in North Dakota, Texas, California, New Zealand, Hawaii, produced honey in Saskatchewan for 40 years, and now am semi retired in Beautiful British Columbia. When I rough it out I've produced somewhere around 4 1/2 to 5 million pounds of honey in my time. I'm still involved in bee politics, one of the stickier parts of the business, pardon the pun. My newest challenge is writing a book about my 50 years as a beekeeper. Please wish me luck! Thanks again! Steve
I actually caught 6 virgins from the grafts in the cell builder. Released them in the Nucs. There were 25 total so, I am just worried about my breeder Queen that was down under I did graft very small larva, just almost same size as the eggs. Thanks for all the advice. We had major thunderstorms which could have had some effect on their early emergence as well. Im just going to lean toward the conservative side and pull them at 9 days next time. Thanks again
Curious.....we used to do 9 dayers in my years in Texas, but only when we had to. We commonly put 9s in the incubators and grafted into the cell builders again. Hope your breeder survived.....virgins can slip thru an excluder.... Steve
I appreciate you sharing your queen cell procedure. with all the camera movement and moving boxes back and forth I get confused keeping track which box starts out in one position and when it is moved to another position . I often wonder if usoing two different color boxes. might help a newbie like me to understand and keep track better.
Thanks Steve. I needed queens for my splits and all the swarms I caught that I have split. Started March 5th. To date have caught 19. lol. I lost so many last year. I had 25 splits so needed queens. Yesterday and today I actually knotched a couple open young young brood frames. I did about 15-20. From natural comb so I can cut them out and place them instead of using the frame. then grafted 15 to put into another I had used already etc. I have some Carnolians and a couple ankle biter VSH queens that’ll help. I think we are definitely warmer and earlier down here as you know so I’ll probably be putting my grafts in my incubator. I just don’t want to shake them or screw them up. So I need to know the earliest I can pull them. Probably day 12-13 from egg I suppose. Earliest. But I know 14 is best.
@@stevesleep1939I am in Grapeland Texas. Southeast Texas not fay from where Steve Clifford started in bees. I have 250 acre farm down here. I’m a retired UPS Airline Captain. 67 in November. Raise Wagyu cattle with some Angus crosses. And my bees. Frowning my bees. Quickly. Caught 17+ swarms so far this year and have split some of them. Anyway. Nice videos y’all should do many more. I’m going to start my channel soon
@@stevesleep1939 keep me posted. I should put together all the different things I have shot to give a teaser to swarm traps. Or mine at least. They are different than everyone else’s but work great. Also my bee keeping adventures some here and there
Hey Steve. I did what you said. I waited ten days from the day after I grafted. Not the graft day. I grafted on the 19th of April. On the 29th which is ten days from the 20th. That’s the 29. I went out to pull the cells and e equine had emerged. I am so depressed as I had 24 Nucs made up from many different hives of brood and food etc. I guess I am going to have to put some QMP. Queen mandibular pheromone in each one to hold them from turning into laying workers before I can graft again and wait another 10 days. I did catch 5 of the Virgins and placed in the front door of each one. I could. From now on I will count the day I graft. Everything else you showed worked fine. But the time and now the fact that I have wild virgins in with my breeder is sad.
Reply from Steve Clifford. Only variable can be the size of the larvae you grafted. I've just finished two rounds of queen cells here on the BC Coast.....I grafted on a Sunday and took them out Wednesday, grafted Tuesday and took them out Friday, no hatching. I checked a couple of the nucs I celled and they had hatched. I've done it this way for 40 some years. Sorry you had trouble.....my advice is to not graft the tiniest larvae you can see, but the next size up. Good luck and all the best in your efforts. Steve
Kenneth.....I mark exceptional honey producers in summer.....if they winter well and aren't crabby they qualify.....hopefully by cell-rearing time they're strong enough, or close. The queen/brood portion should be nine frames of brood....I always have a few "donor" hives ready to help out. Yes, young bees and hatching brood added stay there. I wish I'd mentioned that the one pitfall is to leave the brood box too weak, as there's considerable drift back to the bottom cell box that first day. The two frames of brood go back to the queen/brood box or into another hive.
Reply from Steve Clifford. No.....both units need to be able to fly....the screen has to be thick enough so queen substance can't be shared. Thanks. Steve
From Steve Clifford : Thanks.....we plan to do one this spring.....gonna graft, make splits, plant cells. Those cups are JZBZ, easy to find. When I worked in Texas we acted as "prototype evaluators" for Jim Payson, who developed and marketed those cells. He listened to us quite a bit.
Reply from Steve Clifford. I guess they're mine....this is stock I've been keeping since my 40 years in Saskatchewan, producing honey and selling queen cells. I learned in my early years that if a hive was at all touchy it wasn't a breeder. Thanks!
Hi. We recently posted a new version that shows a lot more detail on the process including making splits. I think it will answer your question and give lots more info on the process. Cheers. Here is the link. th-cam.com/video/2XiY67rhbGc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UCfYo5JCTcZFlY68
@@stevesleep1939 hey Steve. Changed my name and channel. Trying to figure this all out. Um, well. If I can attach a video of one I will. But essentially it’s this: It is a frame with a Queen excluder built into it as well as a metal slide that can slide in or out of the top of the Queen excluder. As well it creates, right there where the slide is, an upper entrance You essentially create a bottom board that has a front and rear entrance that can be both closed or one or other open. This way you can create essentially, I think what you’re doing without having to move boxes. You just do the manipulations from the top making sure the queen stays in the bottom box with whatever she needs there. Open brood and the graft cells can be kept in the top. I suppose you have to move boxes once in the beginning but then none at all. Just go in and Out of the top box as needed. Just another way to manipulate. The. Screen bottom board is a wonder as well. This just closes the nursery bees off completely as well as movement is capable I think I am going to make a combo Queen excluder/cloak board/screen bottom board-snelgrove except you don’t need the screen just the six entrances. That would be cool. Thanks for talking to me. I am a retired UPS Captain. Used to fly up to all parts of Canada. British Columbia etc. wish I would have found you then would have come up for a visit. Easy to travel free back then. Bill
Well, Bill, sounds like it should work alright, but when you get long in the tooth old habits are hard to break. I'll probably just keep fixing those old double screens and doing it the tried and true way I've gotten used to. I have only been in BC for 7 years, I guess....kept bees in NE Saskatchewan for 40 years.....some of the best honey country in NA. Thanks and Cheers! Steve
@@stevesleep1939 I understand. It’s hard for me to change something I’ve been doing all my life and it works. Anyway, just thought I’d share. I did my first serious grafting and only got 23 out of 45. But maybe it was me or didn’t TV have enough bees. Did it the Randy Oliver way. Very similar to yours but used a swarm board instead of a double screen board. Also did it with three boxes. Of course Queeny is in the bottom box with an excluder on her, but second box had five frames of the food and comb from another box. Then a swarm board which was a top cover with the middle hole covered and the little 1” X 3/8” slot on board is cut out to 3” x 3/8”. Then a box on top of that had a frame of pollen, open brood with either a pollen or drawn comb. As many of all these boxes bees plus some more up there. The exit by the way is opposite of the bottom Queen box. So all the foragers can go home. Left queenless a day then grafted from a frame actually from the Queen below that was up there also. Then graft went in the middle on the top box and the next day saw the take of Queen cells. Then you take and remove the middle box and remove swarm board and the top grafted box sits on the excluder on top of the Queen and the other boxes frames ANC bees go around and next to the top five frames which brings it back to ten frames. It is now a Queen right finisher. Like yours. You should watch that video. Just for kicks. Ok bud thanks for all. Later….
10 days it's ripe, not counting grafting day.....put them in the morning of day 10. Allow 14-15 days to mate and start laying, if weather is good....allow a few more days if it's not.....I've seen 20 days to mate and start laying under really poor mating conditions. Thanks!
Reply from Steve Clifford When an egg is laid in a worker cell, it has been fertilized with a sperm and can become a queen. It will hatch into a larva after three days, and it is then given a feeding of Royal Jelly. It grows quickly, and soon it's feed becomes less rich and it called bee bread. It can be grafted into a queen cell within its first few hours of hatching into a larva. Look for a comb with eggs laid in worker cells and you will probably find larva ready to graft.
Every worker egg,,,,,,the drone eggs cannot. Parthenogenesis.....life without father.....the drones are not fertilized and therefore have haploid chromosomes instead of diploid.
I am still confused how the bees think they are queenless when evidently there is a quick just nearby. I would assume the bees can smell the pheromones of the queen a few centimeters away, but guess it works as they are building cells.
From Steve Clifford - The way I understand it they all share a bit of the queen pheromone.....when suddenly under the double screen they can't.....being broodless is key because the RJ feeding bees suddenly have nothing to feed. The first minutes that the grafted cells go in are crucial; the builder has to have enough power to feed them all quickly. Hope this helps.....Thanks!
Hi George. Good catch. We shot the entire video in one day so had to use the cell frame that Steve started 10days before. It had 2 bars. Also this comment from Steve Clifford. I was just trying to hurry things along.....two bars is normal.....I didn't go into the story of those JZBZ cell cups.....our outfit in Texas was asked by Jim Payson to be "prototype evaluators". The solid wax cups we'd used for years suddenly wouldn't work well, a scramble ensued, and JZs were the result.
From Steve Clifford. The burr comb is from a bit too much feed......it's a fine line....you want them prosperous, but the cell frame violates the bee space thing.
If this were my hobby I would FIND A WAY to create as many hives on my continent as possible. I have gone 4 summers now here in the north and haven't seen one, not one bee in the summers. Thank's be to God there are other pollinators out there but, this is scary.
I am going to try and make one of those Brass grafting tools. Showing where to pick them up and how to lay them down made a lot of sense. Those chinese grafting tools did not work well for me. Thanks for the tips.
Comment from Steve Clifford. I learned to make them by putting it in a drill, and spinning it against a grinding wheel......get it down to a sharp point, then flatten the end with a hammer, then put a bend on the bottom inch or so. Now some fine sandpaper. Hope that helps, good luck!! And thanks!!
PLEASE HELP: can someone pls tell me a safe for the bee deterrent? The bee keepers bees have pegged our property, our chickens feed, our RV (living in while we wait for our house to get done) as a place they are VERY interested in. I thought giving them sugar water at the far corner of the property would make them happy but they went through that like nobodies business and it seemed to make things worse. One came through the AC earlier, landed on me without knowing and stung right in the shoulder 😞 I love bees, but they’re a little out of control 😁😬 IF anyone knows how I can at least get them away from the feed and our RV that would be much appreciated!!
Comments from Steve Clifford Don't feed them sugar syrup....you'll just attract them. Pollen from flowers is their protein source.....when there's no bloom they'll look elsewhere.....as in your chicken feed. You need to enclose it so they can't get at it. I've had complaints like this from farmers and gone and seen bins with holes so big the pigs could walk in. We call it bee-tight. If you have nothing to attract them they'll be elsewhere. When spring comes they'll only visit your flowers. Cheers. Forgot about the sting part.....quite rare for a honeybee to sting away from their hive......they'll only sting while out foraging if it's self-defense.....the bee that stung you must have felt threatened. Unfortunate it ran into you. Cheers!
Try washing where they tend to gather, get the scent off. Don't use scented cleaners/oils as some can attract them or encourage them to stay. (I sometimes add lemon balm to my hive boxes when getting a swarm.)
If you’re up north would be a reason that your queen isn’t laying if it’s cold..and if it is you shouldn’t be in the bees anyway..and if you’re down south your should have some brood and if you don’t you need to combine these or something because they’re gonna go laying worker if your queens not good..which if she’s not laying in 2 months she’s not!
Reply from Steve Clifford. Yes, virgins will fight....laying queens not so much. You plant them 1/2 day or so before they hatch. Important to graft the same size larva so they're pretty much the same age.
My Bees get so mean in the rain and every colony ive ever seen gets mean in the rain this guys bees arent even bumping him. Edit: Lol now he is brushing his bees and they arent freaking out. This guys bees are on drugs. That's the one surefire way to tick bees off and thats to brush them. Now brushing them in the rain should get you full on attacked and chased.
You did not put back queens grow up to já I’ve you just take some baby queen in cooler the rest we not see that queen less need queen and how many baby put it back one enough or more ?
Comment from Steve Clifford Kawa.....thanks for your questions and comments.....this was our first attempt at a queen rearing video, and comments like yours have been very helpful. We plan to do another video next spring where we start cells, make splits (new hives), and place the queen cells into the splits. Thanks again!!
This is by far the best video on Queen rearing second to none. thanks to you both we would enjoy more .
Reply from Steve Clifford
Thanks, gray beard, I'm flattered. Yes, the response has been good.....plan to do one this spring....will graft, make splits, plant the cells, view the results. Thanks again!
These are the very type of beekeepers that we all need to listen to and learn of their natural ways of doing things. Thanks.
Thanks Roger. I will pass your comments on to Steve Clifford.
Comment from Steve Clifford
Thanks, Roger....appreciate your comment. If I make it to next spring, it'll be 50 years of beekeeping for me. I can't imagine anything I'd rather have spent my life doing.
I wood like to get more about the bee
Me too and need more close can see exactly what you doing and when to put those queen house and how to know where those virtualizes witch the gemais and unvirilized is male how to know between them and recognised? And most if we found how to pick it up put it in that plastic ? Need more information thanks and tell we can put separate any virgin queen can put in one hive and what it need to make too many hive?separated from each other’s
Comment from Steve Clifford
Kawa.....thanks for your questions and comments.....this was our first attempt at a queen rearing video, and comments like yours have been very helpful. We plan to do another video next spring where we start cells, make splits (new hives), and place the queen cells into the splits. Thanks again!!
Like many experts in their field, you make it look so very easy.
As a newbie beekeeper, I appreciate just how difficult it is to achieve what you're doing.
Thanks ever so much for sharing your expertise.
Reply from Steve Clifford
tasmedic, your kind words are greatly appreciated. I was so very fortunate early in my beekeeping career to meet and go into business with the late great bee man Larry Gunter. He and his brother Richard ran 9,000 hives in my home state of North Dakota....they'd purchased a 1,500 hive outfit in NE Saskatchewan and asked me to buy in and run it. I worked with them 11 winters in their winter digs in SE Texas, where Larry "made a queen man out'a me". Thanks again.
WOW! I had no clue but extremely informative and very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing your passion. Bravo!
You just explain everything so well
The way you ensure your Queen Cell is amazing.
this was amazing and real informative thanks Steve
Thank you for sharing mr. Steve. Wish a Happy New Bee Year.
This is awesome. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Wow, best queen rearing video I've seen. Plan is to rear some of my own in the spring. I'll be rewatching this for sure. Thanks.
Nice method, good video. Thanks for the explanation. Gets me thinking
Thank you Steve, excellent job explaining the process of queen rearing.
That is one of the better videos I’ve ever seen on queen rearing. Thanks Steve
Reply from Steve Clifford
Really nice to hear, thank you, Randy! It was my good fortune to learn from the late great beekeeper Larry Gunter.
This is my 51st year with the bees, and I put in my first graft yesterday.
Thanks again!!
Good work. Neat clean simple instruction.
This was very nice to watch and I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing and have a nice safe day!!!!
Great tips Steve lots of great information about queens breeding 🐝🐝🐝
Hi from UK beekeeper
Happy New Year 2023
From Steve Clifford-Thanks so much....this spring will mark 50 years of beekeeping for me.....I was lucky to break in with some extremely talented people. I ran 1,800 hives in Saskatchewan, Canada, and worked winters in SE Texas raising queens for many years. Semi-retired now on the beautiful coast of British Columbia, I have it down to 100 hives.
Special to hear from the UK....my mother was a WWII warbride.
Thanks again.
Steve
you are a true master of your craft
Well done sir thank you for all that amazing information! Keep up the good work!
Comment from Steve Clifford.
Thanks so much for the kind words, Danelle. I was so fortunate early in my beekeeping years to meet my friend, business partner and mentor, the late great beekeeper Larry Gunter. I worked with him for 11 winters in SE Texas. I'll never forget the morning of the first winter when he said, "well, come on, Clifford; I'm gonna make a queen man outa ya".
Outstanding tutorial
Absolutely fascinating! I love your old school methods
Comment from Steve Clifford.
Thanks, Joe.....I worked with the Gunter Brothers for 11 winters in SE Texas.....we sold many many thousands of ripe cells to migratory beekeepers......hardly a dull moment.
Thank you Sir. That was very interesting.
Outstanding video and queens. I have SUBSCRIBED! Thank you very much for this video.
Looking forward to your next video! I'd like to see how you put the new queens back into the hive. I have the most awesome, calm hive and would love to make a new queen for a new hive. Thanks for this video! 🐝
From Steve Clifford Thanks so much, Linda.....as a matter of fact, that's the plan for the next one.....see you there!
Ran across your channel. Excellent info. Just subbed.
Súper excellent queen grafting tutorial video
I must say far - yours is the Best
Thank you so much!
Thanks for sharing! I will be doing this next season.
Very interesting and informative! Love your videos!
Thanks much, Liz.....planning to do more!
gosh queenless cell starter for 15-20 mins.. so interesting.. thanks for your knowledge! nice clear explanation regards the frame configuration
Enjoyed watch you. Such passion.
May work for you what I have found for myself if I put a undrawn wax frame in with the queen cells I don't get extra wax around the queen cells. 🐝
i have no interest in bee keeping but this is a really really cool video, i hope that you and your bees have a nice day
Great video. Thank you. Each one of those cells will head-up a new nucleus, nuc, or replace a depleted queen. I hope you show us the mating and inspection to see the new queens at work.
From Steve Clifford
Thanks, Carroll.....am quite pleased with the reaction. Plan to do another this spring.....rear cells, make splits, plant the cells, view the results. Thanks again for the kind words.
Thx for the excellent
Comment and history. Wow
What a life of bees. Hanging with you for a while would help anyone. They are graced by your presence. Excellent videos. I really appreciate them as
I know many are as
Well. Fine
Fine job
Bill
Blue Diamond Apiaries
Kind words, William, thanks so much. I got lucky early in my bee years and fell in with the late great bee man Larry Gunter.
I bought into a 1,500 hive outfit in NE Saskatchewan with Larry and worked with him in SE Texas for 11 winters.
Thanks again.
Steve
the Best work ever seen, you aswred all my questions , thanks you so much Sir
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Thanks for the kind words. I was very lucky, I learned from very good teachers.
Thanks again.
Steve
Well done👍
excellent video!!
Well explained process. You’re really a master bee keeper. God bless
From Steve Clifford
Kind words, Rogehni......Thanks so much. I'm very grateful I discovered honeybees when I did, and that I was so lucky to learn from real pros.
Such a beautiful video. I've watched every second of it with passion. And this is not my first beekeeping video. ;) Thank you for sharing.
From Steve Clifford
Kind words.....thanks so much
I started out bee keeping in the mid sixties an never thought I wanted to do grafting but the prices in today’s world it is just about a have to now . I did my splits but that takes to long on getting a queen back to keeping a hive strong for production. Thanks for your video’s keep up the great work. THANKS
Comment from Steve Clifford. Thanks much, Kathy! We've had a good response......plan to do another next spring....graft, finish cells, make splits, plant the cells. I totally agree on the price thing.....I'd have never made it in the business if I hadn't learned to raise cells. The guy I learned from always said you're way better off with a good cell than a caged queen. Thanks again, and Cheers!!
Steve
I wish I had watched your video first. Thank you for walking through each step explaining as you worked. So many "experts" on you tube do not have competent communication skills and skip steps in the process. I prefer old school approaches as well. I never understood why so many try to reinvent the wheel. Thank you again Steve!!!
Reply from Steve Clifford
Kind words, John, thanks very much. I was so very lucky to get involved with the great beekeeper Larry Gunter early in my beekeeping career. I worked with Larry for 11 winters at their winter quarters in SE Texas, and bought into their new outfit in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. Larry and his brother Richard made 9,000 nucs for their North Dakota outfit every Texas spring, and 1,500 packages for me. Larry put me to work in the queen yard from the very start, and we sold thousands of ripe cells to other migratory beekeepers.
I was so very lucky indeed.
Thanks again.
i do notkeep bees but I fund this super interesting, I am sure your calm manner raises calm bees
Very informative and excellent job presenting the material. My question is how do you get a hive with such a huge number of bees. Do you add bees from other hives? If so wouldn't they have be nurse bees otherwise they just leave and go back home.
From Steve Clifford.
Kenneth.....I mark exceptional honey producers in summer.....if they winter well and aren't crabby they qualify.....hopefully by cell-rearing time they're strong enough, or close. The queen/brood portion should be nine frames of brood....I always have a few "donor" hives ready to help out. Yes, young bees and hatching brood added stay there. I wish I'd mentioned that the one pitfall is to leave the brood box too weak, as there's considerable drift back to the bottom cell box that first day. The two frames of brood go back to the queen/brood box or into another hive.
Thanks....wasn't without ups and downs, but mostly good!
Thanks!
Fascinating
Great video!!
Thank you for sharing. I love this method. First try…25/25
Nice video and even nicer calm bees ! I'm thinking of raising queens next spring, but I'd like to understand why things are done, so - what purpose does the double screen board serve? wouldnt a queen excluder be as good at keeping the queen away? What impulse is driving the nurse bees? emergency? Thanks for any answers you can provide.
Reply from Steve Clifford
The double screen isolates the queenless broodless starter box enough to urge them to rear the grafted cells. The young nurse bees in the starter that had been feeding brood are suddenly without anything to feed....when the grafted larvae go in they are happy to jump in and feed them. Yes, emergency plays a part....the bees suddenly isolated with no brood and no queen are up the creek, no paddle....the grafted cells are their only hope to get back to normal. When they are reversed 24 hours later they simply go ahead and keep rearing the cells to their maturity.
A queen excluder would not spur them to feed the cells the way the double screen does.
I like to double queen honey producing hives, and the double screen works well for that purpose also.
Thanks for your interest.
@@stevesleep1939 thanks for the prompt and clear reply. good luck
Need more of such video
After days you can ship them out or use these in queen less Nucs ?
very interesting Steve ,,,,
learnd alot, very interestin
You are the king of queens
Nicest comment!
Excellent
His bees are so calm
Reply from Steve Clifford
I'm pretty sure they respond to good handling......Thanks!!
Hey Steve. Thanks. I’m over in Grapeland Texas. Southeast. Where did you learn exactly. Thanks for the great videos. Raising our own queens. Self taught from you and others online
Hey, Willam, thanks for the kind words. I started out in ND, got a hive, worked for Powers, then got a job as a state field inspector for ND. I answered an ad for bees for sale, went to the guys house end of the afternoon.....Larry Gunter came out with a 6 pack in hand, he squeezed into my little Mazda truck and we went out and made a deal on 20 singles I think. Larry & his brother Dick ran 9,000 in ND in those days. We went for a steak, and on about the third beer he says " why don't you come up to Canada and run a bee outfit for us?" Two years previous they'd bought a 1,500 hive outfit in NE SK, some amazing bee country. I bought in with them, and headed to SE Texas, Sour Lake, to work for the winter. When grafting time came, he said "c'mon, Clifford, I'm going to make a queen man out'a ya". We raised cells for 10,000 nucs, we had a few hundred baby nucs, we raised queens for about 2,000 packages for me, and as time went along we raised more and more cash and carry cells for smaller migratory beekeepers. At the end of my 11 winters there we were selling thousands of cells out the door.
Bumping into Larry at age 26 or so was truly a lucky day for me. I ran bees in SK for 40 years, and when the border closed in US packages and queens in 1987, I was suddenly selling a few thousand cells in SK every year.
I'm mid-70s now, have moved to the West Coast of British Columbia, still keeping 50-60 hives, still raising cells, and am president of our local bee club and am on the executive of the BCHPA. Am also past president of the BC Bee Breeders Assn.
Don't know what else I could have spent my life doing that might have been better.
Thanks again!
Steve Clifford
Wow, that's amazing you can find the queen in all those thousands of bees.
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Well, thanks....practice, I guess.
Marking queens is a big help in finding them, but I've never liked it. If you use nail polish (we used to go to the pet store and buy the poodle stuff, thinking it was better suited) the bees would chew away at it.....made me think it wasn't the best practice.
Thanks again!
@stevesleep1939 You're very welcome and thank you for what you do to educate others on taking care of one of the world's most important creature.
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Kind words, thanks very much. I don't know what else I could have spent my life doing that would have been as satisfying and challenging as keeping bees. I've worked bees in North Dakota, Texas, California, New Zealand, Hawaii, produced honey in Saskatchewan for 40 years, and now am semi retired in Beautiful British Columbia. When I rough it out I've produced somewhere around 4 1/2 to 5 million pounds of honey in my time. I'm still involved in bee politics, one of the stickier parts of the business, pardon the pun.
My newest challenge is writing a book about my 50 years as a beekeeper. Please wish me luck!
Thanks again!
Steve
@stevesleep1939 damn, impressive. Good luck and I would bee your 1st customer on the book.
Thanks....wasn't without ups and downs, but mostly good!
Thanks!
This was TERRIFIC! I have SUBSCRIBED…thank you - much appreciated.
Kind words, Dan, thanks very much!
I actually caught 6 virgins from the grafts in the cell builder. Released them in the Nucs. There were 25 total so, I am just worried about my breeder Queen that was down under
I did graft very small larva, just almost same size as the eggs. Thanks for all the advice. We had major thunderstorms which could have had some effect on their early emergence as well. Im just going to lean toward the conservative side and pull them at 9 days next time. Thanks again
Curious.....we used to do 9 dayers in my years in Texas, but only when we had to. We commonly put 9s in the incubators and grafted into the cell builders again. Hope your breeder survived.....virgins can slip thru an excluder....
Steve
how do you know which larvae cells to graft ?
hello your video is very good
I appreciate you sharing your queen cell procedure. with all the camera movement and moving boxes back and forth I get confused keeping track which box starts out in one position and when it is moved to another position . I often wonder if usoing two different color boxes. might help a newbie like me to understand and keep track better.
You the man I liked
Thanks Steve. I needed queens for my splits and all the swarms I caught that I have split. Started March 5th. To date have caught 19. lol. I lost so many last year. I had 25 splits so needed queens. Yesterday and today I actually knotched a couple open young young brood frames. I did about 15-20. From natural comb so I can cut them out and place them instead of using the frame. then grafted 15 to put into another I had
used already etc. I have some Carnolians and a couple ankle biter VSH queens that’ll help.
I think we are definitely warmer and earlier down here as you know so I’ll probably be putting my grafts in my incubator. I just don’t want to shake them or screw them up. So I need to know the earliest I can pull them. Probably day 12-13 from egg I suppose. Earliest. But I know 14 is best.
Sounds like you're doing fine....exactly where are you?
@@stevesleep1939I am in Grapeland Texas. Southeast Texas not fay from where Steve Clifford started in bees. I have 250 acre farm down here. I’m a retired UPS Airline Captain. 67 in November. Raise Wagyu cattle with some Angus crosses. And my bees. Frowning my bees. Quickly. Caught 17+ swarms so far this year and have split some of them. Anyway. Nice videos y’all should do many more.
I’m going to start my channel soon
@@stevesleep1939my bee company is Blue Diamond Apiaries, LLC
We are in the planning stages of a video on making mini nucs. Hopefully shoot in the next week or so.
@@stevesleep1939 keep me posted. I should put together all the different things I have shot to give a teaser to swarm traps. Or mine at least. They are different than everyone else’s but work great. Also my bee keeping adventures some here and there
damn impressive
There were soooo many bees in that hive!!
I’m from southeast Texas, Beaumont Tx
Hey Steve. I did what you said. I waited ten days from the day after I grafted. Not the graft day. I grafted on the 19th of April. On the 29th which is ten days from the 20th. That’s the 29. I went out to pull the cells and e equine had emerged. I am so depressed as I had 24 Nucs made up from many different hives of brood and food etc. I guess I am going to have to put some QMP. Queen mandibular pheromone in each one to hold them from turning into laying workers before I can graft again and wait another 10 days. I did catch 5 of the Virgins and placed in the front door of each one. I could. From now on I will count the day I graft. Everything else you showed worked fine. But the time and now the fact that I have wild virgins in with my breeder is sad.
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Only variable can be the size of the larvae you grafted. I've just finished two rounds of queen cells here on the BC Coast.....I grafted on a Sunday and took them out Wednesday, grafted Tuesday and took them out Friday, no hatching. I checked a couple of the nucs I celled and they had hatched. I've done it this way for 40 some years.
Sorry you had trouble.....my advice is to not graft the tiniest larvae you can see, but the next size up.
Good luck and all the best in your efforts.
Steve
Also while you were grafting and for the 24 hours after putting the grafted cells in, where were the frames of brood that were taken out.
Kenneth.....I mark exceptional honey producers in summer.....if they winter well and aren't crabby they qualify.....hopefully by cell-rearing time they're strong enough, or close. The queen/brood portion should be nine frames of brood....I always have a few "donor" hives ready to help out. Yes, young bees and hatching brood added stay there. I wish I'd mentioned that the one pitfall is to leave the brood box too weak, as there's considerable drift back to the bottom cell box that first day. The two frames of brood go back to the queen/brood box or into another hive.
Comments are from Steve Clifford.
I dont have a double screen like you like you do , so can i use a plastic to seal it completely between the two boxes ?
Reply from Steve Clifford. No.....both units need to be able to fly....the screen has to be thick enough so queen substance can't be shared.
Thanks.
Steve
Very good vid make more.
Could you put a link to were you got the cups u used.
From Steve Clifford : Thanks.....we plan to do one this spring.....gonna graft, make splits, plant cells. Those cups are JZBZ, easy to find. When I worked in Texas we acted as "prototype evaluators" for Jim Payson, who developed and marketed those cells. He listened to us quite a bit.
@@stevesleep1939 Thanks for the quick reply I live about 2hrs west of Dallas.
wow they were so calm despite all the moving around. what breed do you have?
Reply from Steve Clifford. I guess they're mine....this is stock I've been keeping since my 40 years in Saskatchewan, producing honey and selling queen cells. I learned in my early years that if a hive was at all touchy it wasn't a breeder. Thanks!
How many queens will hatch from your batch? What will you do with the extras if there is more than one? Not a bee keeper just a bee lover.
Hi. We recently posted a new version that shows a lot more detail on the process including making splits. I think it will answer your question and give lots more info on the process. Cheers. Here is the link. th-cam.com/video/2XiY67rhbGc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UCfYo5JCTcZFlY68
@@stevesleep1939 just watched it. You two are a great team! Really enjoyed both videos.
Not a beekeeper or even a bee enthusiast but I watched the entire video…..and now I’m gonna go graft some sh!t.
Hi Steve, do you lick your grafting tool between grafts@
Hey Steve
Bill from East Texas again. Hey do you ever use a cloak board so you don’t have to lift the boxes here and there?
Thx
Bill
Hey, Bill....I've heard the term "cloak board" but darned if I know what it is....can you describe it for me?
Thanks!
Steve
@@stevesleep1939 hey Steve. Changed my name and channel. Trying to figure this all out. Um, well. If I can attach a video of one I will. But essentially it’s this:
It is a frame with a Queen excluder built into it as well as a metal slide that can slide in or out of the top of the Queen excluder. As well it creates, right there where the slide is, an upper entrance
You essentially create a bottom board that has a front and rear entrance that can be both closed or one or other open. This way you can create essentially, I think what you’re doing without having to move boxes. You just do the manipulations from the top making sure the queen stays in the bottom box with whatever she needs there. Open brood and the graft cells can be kept in the top. I suppose you have to move boxes once in the beginning but then none at all. Just go in and
Out of the top box as needed.
Just another way to manipulate.
The. Screen bottom board is a wonder as well. This just closes the nursery bees off completely as well as movement is capable
I think I am going to make a combo Queen excluder/cloak board/screen bottom board-snelgrove except you don’t need the screen just the six entrances. That would be cool.
Thanks for talking to me. I am a retired UPS Captain. Used to fly up to all parts of Canada. British Columbia etc. wish I would have found you then would have come up for a visit. Easy to travel free back then.
Bill
Well, Bill, sounds like it should work alright, but when you get long in the tooth old habits are hard to break. I'll probably just keep fixing those old double screens and doing it the tried and true way I've gotten used to.
I have only been in BC for 7 years, I guess....kept bees in NE Saskatchewan for 40 years.....some of the best honey country in NA.
Thanks and Cheers!
Steve
@@stevesleep1939 I understand. It’s hard for me to change something I’ve been doing all my life and it works. Anyway, just thought I’d share. I did my first serious grafting and only got 23 out of 45. But maybe it was me or didn’t TV have enough bees. Did it the Randy Oliver way. Very similar to yours but used a swarm board instead of a double screen board. Also did it with three boxes. Of course Queeny is in the bottom box with an excluder on her, but second box had five frames of the food and comb from another box. Then a swarm board which was a top cover with the middle hole covered and the little 1” X 3/8” slot on board is cut out to 3” x 3/8”. Then a box on top of that had a frame of pollen, open brood with either a pollen or drawn comb. As many of all these boxes bees plus some more up there. The exit by the way is opposite of the bottom Queen box. So all the foragers can go home. Left queenless a day then grafted from a frame actually from the Queen below that was up there also. Then graft went in the middle on the top box and the next day saw the take of Queen cells. Then you take and remove the middle box and remove swarm board and the top grafted box sits on the excluder on top of the Queen and the other boxes frames ANC bees go around and next to the top five frames which brings it back to ten frames. It is now a Queen right finisher. Like yours. You should watch that video. Just for kicks. Ok bud thanks for all. Later….
Fed them too.
Sir, how long does it take to get fully matured?
10 days it's ripe, not counting grafting day.....put them in the morning of day 10. Allow 14-15 days to mate and start laying, if weather is good....allow a few more days if it's not.....I've seen 20 days to mate and start laying under really poor mating conditions.
Thanks!
Lijepo👍
I have a question how do you know which one can raise as a queen bee when you are using the needle tool to pick it up Thank you in advance
Reply from Steve Clifford
When an egg is laid in a worker cell, it has been fertilized with a sperm and can become a queen. It will hatch into a larva after three days, and it is then given a feeding of Royal Jelly. It grows quickly, and soon it's feed becomes less rich and it called bee bread. It can be grafted into a queen cell within its first few hours of hatching into a larva. Look for a comb with eggs laid in worker cells and you will probably find larva ready to graft.
@@stevesleep1939 thank you so much Do you have social media so I can follow your work? Instagram etc.
So are you're tryna say every egg can raise as queen be I'm I right? Sorry for my English
Every worker egg,,,,,,the drone eggs cannot. Parthenogenesis.....life without father.....the drones are not fertilized and therefore have haploid chromosomes instead of diploid.
I am still confused how the bees think they are queenless when evidently there is a quick just nearby. I would assume the bees can smell the pheromones of the queen a few centimeters away, but guess it works as they are building cells.
From Steve Clifford - The way I understand it they all share a bit of the queen pheromone.....when suddenly under the double screen they can't.....being broodless is key because the RJ feeding bees suddenly have nothing to feed. The first minutes that the grafted cells go in are crucial; the builder has to have enough power to feed them all quickly.
Hope this helps.....Thanks!
The one you put in the hive only had a single bar. The one you take out had 2 bars. What's up with that?
Hi George. Good catch. We shot the entire video in one day so had to use the cell frame that Steve started 10days before. It had 2 bars.
Also this comment from Steve Clifford.
I was just trying to hurry things along.....two bars is normal.....I didn't go into the story of those JZBZ cell cups.....our outfit in Texas was asked by Jim Payson to be "prototype evaluators". The solid wax cups we'd used for years suddenly wouldn't work well, a scramble ensued, and JZs were the result.
Lol I see the burr comb had a bit of nectar in it by the look of your fingers!
From Steve Clifford. The burr comb is from a bit too much feed......it's a fine line....you want them prosperous, but the cell frame violates the bee space thing.
👍👍👍
Is good
If this were my hobby I would FIND A WAY to create as many hives on my continent as possible. I have gone 4 summers now here in the north and haven't seen one, not one bee in the summers. Thank's be to God there are other pollinators out there but, this is scary.
I am going to try and make one of those Brass grafting tools. Showing where to pick them up and how to lay them down made a lot of sense. Those chinese grafting tools did not work well for me. Thanks for the tips.
Comment from Steve Clifford. I learned to make them by putting it in a drill, and spinning it against a grinding wheel......get it down to a sharp point, then flatten the end with a hammer, then put a bend on the bottom inch or so. Now some fine sandpaper. Hope that helps, good luck!! And thanks!!
@@stevesleep1939 Thanks Mr Clifford, I can do that!
Great video thx4share 👍
Thanks!
need a different camera angle to see how you remove larvae from cells.
Melifera workers accepte corniolan queen???
Reply from Steve Clifford
Yes.....Carnolian queens are common in our apis melifera stock.
PLEASE HELP: can someone pls tell me a safe for the bee deterrent? The bee keepers bees have pegged our property, our chickens feed, our RV (living in while we wait for our house to get done) as a place they are VERY interested in. I thought giving them sugar water at the far corner of the property would make them happy but they went through that like nobodies business and it seemed to make things worse. One came through the AC earlier, landed on me without knowing and stung right in the shoulder 😞
I love bees, but they’re a little out of control 😁😬
IF anyone knows how I can at least get them away from the feed and our RV that would be much appreciated!!
Comments from Steve Clifford
Don't feed them sugar syrup....you'll just attract them. Pollen from flowers is their protein source.....when there's no bloom they'll look elsewhere.....as in your chicken feed. You need to enclose it so they can't get at it. I've had complaints like this from farmers and gone and seen bins with holes so big the pigs could walk in. We call it bee-tight. If you have nothing to attract them they'll be elsewhere. When spring comes they'll only visit your flowers. Cheers. Forgot about the sting part.....quite rare for a honeybee to sting away from their hive......they'll only sting while out foraging if it's self-defense.....the bee that stung you must have felt threatened. Unfortunate it ran into you. Cheers!
Try washing where they tend to gather, get the scent off. Don't use scented cleaners/oils as some can attract them or encourage them to stay. (I sometimes add lemon balm to my hive boxes when getting a swarm.)
If you’re up north would be a reason that your queen isn’t laying if it’s cold..and if it is you shouldn’t be in the bees anyway..and if you’re down south your should have some brood and if you don’t you need to combine these or something because they’re gonna go laying worker if your queens not good..which if she’s not laying in 2 months she’s not!
Need loader volume. Otherwise excellent video
But if you store them together, they'll kill each other, right?
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Yes, virgins will fight....laying queens not so much. You plant them 1/2 day or so before they hatch. Important to graft the same size larva so they're pretty much the same age.
My Bees get so mean in the rain and every colony ive ever seen gets mean in the rain this guys bees arent even bumping him.
Edit: Lol now he is brushing his bees and they arent freaking out. This guys bees are on drugs. That's the one surefire way to tick bees off and thats to brush them. Now brushing them in the rain should get you full on attacked and chased.
Cant hear your video very well
There's no sound. I checked other videos that play alright, but this one has no audio.
51,000 views and you are the first with no sound. I checked it just now and the sound is fine. Sorry.
@@stevesleep1939 I believe you... I actually REPLACED my speaker, and it's working now. Sorry for worrying you, my bad!!
@@stevesleep1939 Also, having finished the video _with sound_ I have a whole new appreciation for this art. What you do is absolutely amazzzing!!🐝
You did not put back queens grow up to já I’ve you just take some baby queen in cooler the rest we not see that queen less need queen and how many baby put it back one enough or more ?
Comment from Steve Clifford
Kawa.....thanks for your questions and comments.....this was our first attempt at a queen rearing video, and comments like yours have been very helpful. We plan to do another video next spring where we start cells, make splits (new hives), and place the queen cells into the splits. Thanks again!!
Great video!!
Thanks so much.....was fun to do and have had lots of positive comments.....Thanks!!
You the man I liked