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!!
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!
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!!
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.
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
Kind words, thanks very much.....I was very lucky to hook up with very skilled beekeepers early in my bee time and I'm grateful. The worker egg hatches in 3 days, gets fed Royal Jelly immediately....I think what we graft are only a few hours old. They grow quickly.....one approach is to contain the queen with an excluder trap with a comb to catch good grafting material....tried it and didn't like it....better to let her lay and hunt the good stuff down. Thanks again, greatly appreciated.
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
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.
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.
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.
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! 🐝
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.
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".
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
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
I’ve watched both of these. Really well explained and a pleasure to watch thank you. brilliant well done. What age would you say? The sells are from the day? The Queen laid the egg when you pull them out to transfer. ❤
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. 🐝
Sorry for the late reply. I missed this one. Thanks for your comment. Yes, when I raised queen cells in SE Texas, we'd place two frames of foundation each side of the frame of cells in late spring when the honeyflow began......helped lots with the burrcomb. Thanks again.!!
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
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
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
soy de mexico y he sido apicultor desde los 70. muchas gracias por subir este video, una explicacion clara y muy interesante sobre la cria de abejas reina. dios te conceda mas años y gracias por compartir tus experiencias. comentas que trabajaste al sureste de texas, podrias decirnos dónde. vivo en sonora México y tenemos el mismo clima y conficiones de texas. que fecha se comienza la cria de reinas y cuando termina ???.
Reply from Steve Clifford Thank you. I worked at Sour Lake, TX......the heart of "The Big Thicket". I worked with the Gunter Brothers, who produced honey in North Dakota, running 9,000 hives there in summer. They'd truck 2,000 hives to Texas in fall and split them into 9 or 10 thousand in spring. Queen cell rearing began at the first flush of hatching drones. Besides cells for those nucs, we raised cells for laying queens and we sold thousands of ripe cells to smaller commercial beekeepers. The brothers bought a 1,500 hive honey business in NE Saskatchewan, which I bought into and managed. In mid-April we'd shake 1,200 packages and I'd hit the road with them, usually alone, making the 2,400 mile drive. The early part of the journey was hot, the middle just fine, and the top third was cold. There would often still be snow up there, and getting the packages installed in good shape was always a challenge. I'm planning on writing a book on my beekeeping journey this winter.....wish me luck!
felicidades, el mejor video de cria de reinas que he encontrado y creeme que he visto cientos. estoy preparándome para crías mis propias reinas en marzo por lo que debido a tu experiencia que mes me recomiendas EMPEZAR pues tengo entendido que tenemos el mismo clima que en Texas. sería para mí muy valiosos tus consejos sobre el tema y si te parece enviarte por correo electrónico el equipo que estoy armando para tal efecto y me des tu valiosa opinión. nuevamente muchas felicidades y mi agradecimiento por compartir tus valiosas experiencias....muchos no lo hacen al menos tan completo y bien explicado. cuídate y que dios te bendiga y te conserve muchos años mas. un caluroso.abrazo.❤
y lo del libro ...no lo pienses, tengo la seguridad de que será un exito pues tienes mucha experiencia que sería de mucha utilidad para apicultores apasionados como yo.!!! empiesalo YA, no lo dejes para después pues este nunca llega. !!!
Hey Steve Bill Gayle down here in Grapeland, Texas. Any chance you and Mr Sleep can make a video on strictly setting up your cell builder prior to grafting. You don't really show how you get the box full of bees with the two frames heavy with pollen and the Queen box etc. Let's say you have a very strong double deep that your going to start the process and both top and bottom are full of bees with say a total of 6-8 frames of capped and Open brood as well as honey frames. Some drawn all the way out as wel I am starting to get ready to make my Fall splits Meaning, I am taking either double deeps or heavy singles and splitting them for the fall. After splitting them by drawing nurse bees above a Queen excluder onto most of the brood after making sure the Queen is below, I then will leave 2-3 frames of brood both open and capped plus food and then frames of drawn comb or foundation and replace the Queen excluder with a double screen board and set the new split on top of the original hive for the fall/winter. They live through the winter much better. I will place a frame feeder below and a bucket feeder on top as we are going into a dearth. Anyway feed very light syrup at 2-waters to one syrup. So anyway. Have shown a few people your videos. They all are asking to see the setup of the cell builder completely You kind of jump right into it being ready to go. Thanks for everything. Wish we lived closer. I'd be hangin as much as possible with you guys. Bill Gayle Blue Diamond Bees 936-545-3385
Raising Queen Cells With a Simple Queen-Right Cell Builder I’ve had more than one experienced cell rearing beekeeper tell me that this won’t work, but I can assure you that it does. When it’s “ready to get ready”, the hive will have seven frames of brood and two combs of heavy honey and pollen in the bottom chamber. It will have a queen excluder, and over the queen excluder the second deep will have an inside feeder and two combs of heavy honey and pollen…..heavy on the pollen. The bee population must be very heavy, and of utmost importance, they must be flying only to the bottom entrance, no secondary entrances allowed. To get it ready to accept a graft, set the top box with the frame feeder and honey/pollen combs off to the side, go through the brood chamber with brood and queen and find the queen. Once the queen is found, set the brood frame with her on it in a separate box. Now place the cell box with frame feeder and two pollen combs on the bottom board, and shake the bees from three or four frames of brood into the cell box, and fill the frame feeder with syrup. Now exchange the queen excluder for a double screen, with an entrance to the back of the hive. Place the brood box on top of the cell box, and replace the frame of brood with the queen. Now the importance of having the hive flying only to the bottom entrance comes into play. The field bees will exit the top box and fly back to the cell box on the bottom. If they had an upper entrance they’d simply rejoin the queenright box up above, so they must be fixed to the front bottom entrance. The bees in the bottom cell box are now faced with every possible reason to feed freshly grafted cells. They are queenless, and have no brood to start emergency cells. They are crowded, and the young bees that had been feeding larvae have nowhere to put their feed. They are, essentially, up the creek with no paddle. Grafted cells may be placed in the bottom box almost immediately and, if the population is correct, they will be fed immediately. The next day the hive should be taken apart and the queenright portion placed back on the bottom board. Two combs of young brood should be removed. I use my breeder hives as cell builders…..when I am getting the hive ready to receive a graft, I’m also looking for frames to graft from….I’ll put a tick in the top bar of these frames, and they’re often chosen to join the cells when reversing. Now replace the two combs of brood with empty frames, and replace the double screen with a queen excluder, and place the cell box on top. The two frames of brood are now placed alongside the frame of grafted cells, so the top box will be feeder, pollen comb, brood comb, cell frame, brood comb, and pollen comb. This will coax young bees up thru the excluder to help feed the cells. The exception is if there is a nectar flow and the bees want to build burr comb in the cell frame, frames of foundation may be placed in the cell box to give them a place to draw comb. The cells should be taken out and placed the morning of the 10th day, not including the day of grafting. They will hatch somewhere by morning of the 11th day. Hey, Bill....wrote this for our BC quarterly mag this past summer....hope it answers some questions for you. Thanks so much for your interest.....Steve and I are gonna finish a video today, subject is two-queening. Tough to get more than 40-50 pounds here on the Sunshine Coast.....two queeners often hit 200.....best one I had last year did 259....good clean fun! Steve   
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!
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.
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.
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
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
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!
Reply from Steve Clifford. The larvae, when grafted, are feeding on a small pool of Royal Jelly.....when you transfer them, the bit of jelly sticks to the cell cup.
Sorry for the late reply. I missed this one. They have to be hand carried, not shipped.....have tried with no luck. Yes, queenless nuc, queenless for 2-3 days is best. Thank you!
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.
I am confused. Trying to learn this stuff. I have never seen so many bees in a box. Isn't the idea to make more hives? Or is this about creating a desire to swarm? I am certain he is an expert
Reply from Steve Clifford The idea is to have more than enough bees to raise a relatively large number of queen cells at one time. I'm pretty conservative, only grafting 40 cells in a cell builder.....many folks start far more. If the cell builder has a marginal population, your success rate will be less and the size of the finished cells will be less than desired. To make more hives effectively, having mature cells to plant in them at the correct time is crucial. Thanks! Steve
@stevesleep1939 thanks for replying. I am down in South Texas, North of Houston, wishing I was up in that cool weather. I have notifications on and looking forward to learning more.
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.
@@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!
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.
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.
Reply from Steve Clifford. Depends on what I'm doing.....you get good at getting stung. I only wear gloves while pulling honey, or maybe shaking bees with the shaker box. The piece of stomach muscle that pumps the venom thru the hollow stinger will take up to 20 minutes, so getting to feel the sting as it's happening amd scraping the stinger out quickly matters lots. Happy to say I've never gotten one on the eyeball. The ones that go under your fingernail are kinda rough.
Reply from Steve Clifford. Well....if you have no combs of pollen worth a try.....when you graft into a cell builder regularly, like every nine days, you see how quickly they use up the stored pollen. Best is lots on the comb and lots coming in. Good luck!
iyi günler ben türkiyeden sizi takip ediyorum ben kralice üretiyorum carnika videonuz çok güzel kraliçe arıyı üst kata aldıktan sonra ne kadar zamanda transfer yapıyorsunuz
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!!
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!
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!!
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!
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.
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!!
The way you ensure your Queen Cell is amazing.
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.
WOW! I had no clue but extremely informative and very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing your passion. Bravo!
Can't wait till spring to try this.... thank you for taking the time to share your gift.
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
Thank you Steve, excellent job explaining the process of queen rearing.
Kind words, thanks very much.....I was very lucky to hook up with very skilled beekeepers early in my bee time and I'm grateful. The worker egg hatches in 3 days, gets fed Royal Jelly immediately....I think what we graft are only a few hours old. They grow quickly.....one approach is to contain the queen with an excluder trap with a comb to catch good grafting material....tried it and didn't like it....better to let her lay and hunt the good stuff down.
Thanks again, greatly appreciated.
Wow
What a life of bees.
Hanging with you for a while would help anyone.
Reply from Steve Clifford
That's about the nicest comment I've received on this video. Thank you!!!!!
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
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.
Outstanding video and queens. I have SUBSCRIBED! Thank you very much for this video.
Thank you for sharing mr. Steve. Wish a Happy New Bee Year.
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.
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.
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.
This was very nice to watch and I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing and have a nice safe day!!!!
gosh queenless cell starter for 15-20 mins.. so interesting.. thanks for your knowledge! nice clear explanation regards the frame configuration
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
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!
You just explain everything so well
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.
This is awesome. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
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".
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
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
Ran across your channel. Excellent info. Just subbed.
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
@@stevesleep1939wow amazing story thanks for sharing
de todos los videos que he recortido sobre el tema EL MEJOR. !!!!
excelente!!!
I’ve watched both of these. Really well explained and a pleasure to watch thank you. brilliant well done. What age would you say? The sells are from the day? The Queen laid the egg when you pull them out to transfer. ❤
Súper excellent queen grafting tutorial video
I must say far - yours is the Best
Nice to hear.....Thanks very much!!
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. 🐝
Yes, when the flow comes along good to sandwich the cell frame with two frames of foundation.
Thanks!
Sorry for the late reply. I missed this one. Thanks for your comment. Yes, when I raised queen cells in SE Texas, we'd place two frames of foundation each side of the frame of cells in late spring when the honeyflow began......helped lots with the burrcomb. Thanks again.!!
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this knowledge ❤
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
He is famous for beekeeping on the history channel
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!
Very interesting and informative! Love your videos!
Thanks much, Liz.....planning to do more!
Thanks....wasn't without ups and downs, but mostly good!
Thanks!
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
Outstanding tutorial
This was TERRIFIC! I have SUBSCRIBED…thank you - much appreciated.
Kind words, Dan, thanks very much!
Thank you very much. Transfer the queen cells early on the 10th day, not including the day you graft. Good luck! Do you have the new Trilops mite yet?
i do notkeep bees but I fund this super interesting, I am sure your calm manner raises calm bees
Some folks believe they recognize their keeper.....I'm sure they recognize the way they're handled.
Thanks!!
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
Thank you Sir. That was very interesting.
you are a true master of your craft
I learned from some pretty good folks.....Thanks very much!!
how do you know which larvae cells to graft ?
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
soy de mexico y he sido apicultor desde los 70.
muchas gracias por subir este video, una explicacion clara y muy interesante sobre la cria de abejas reina.
dios te conceda mas años y gracias por compartir tus experiencias.
comentas que trabajaste al sureste de texas, podrias decirnos dónde. vivo en sonora México y tenemos el mismo clima y conficiones de texas. que fecha se comienza la cria de reinas y cuando termina ???.
Reply from Steve Clifford
Thank you. I worked at Sour Lake, TX......the heart of "The Big Thicket". I worked with the Gunter Brothers, who produced honey in North Dakota, running 9,000 hives there in summer. They'd truck 2,000 hives to Texas in fall and split them into 9 or 10 thousand in spring. Queen cell rearing began at the first flush of hatching drones. Besides cells for those nucs, we raised cells for laying queens and we sold thousands of ripe cells to smaller commercial beekeepers. The brothers bought a 1,500 hive honey business in NE Saskatchewan, which I bought into and managed. In mid-April we'd shake 1,200 packages and I'd hit the road with them, usually alone, making the 2,400 mile drive. The early part of the journey was hot, the middle just fine, and the top third was cold. There would often still be snow up there, and getting the packages installed in good shape was always a challenge.
I'm planning on writing a book on my beekeeping journey this winter.....wish me luck!
felicidades, el mejor video de cria de reinas que he encontrado y creeme que he visto cientos.
estoy preparándome para crías mis propias reinas en marzo por lo que debido a tu experiencia que mes me recomiendas EMPEZAR pues tengo entendido que tenemos el mismo clima que en Texas.
sería para mí muy valiosos tus consejos sobre el tema y si te parece enviarte por correo electrónico el equipo que estoy armando para tal efecto y me des tu valiosa opinión. nuevamente muchas felicidades y mi agradecimiento por compartir tus valiosas experiencias....muchos no lo hacen al menos tan completo y bien explicado.
cuídate y que dios te bendiga y te conserve muchos años mas.
un caluroso.abrazo.❤
y lo del libro ...no lo pienses, tengo la seguridad de que será un exito pues tienes mucha experiencia que sería de mucha utilidad para apicultores apasionados como yo.!!!
empiesalo YA, no lo dejes para después pues este nunca llega. !!!
Thank you very much!!
You are the king of queens
Nicest comment!
His bees are so calm
Reply from Steve Clifford
I'm pretty sure they respond to good handling......Thanks!!
Thanks for sharing! I will be doing this next season.
this was amazing and real informative thanks Steve
Thank you for sharing. I love this method. First try…25/25
Hey Steve
Bill Gayle down here in Grapeland, Texas. Any chance you and Mr Sleep can make a video on strictly setting up your cell builder prior to grafting. You don't really show how you get the box full of bees with the two frames heavy with pollen and the Queen box etc.
Let's say you have a very strong double deep that your going to start the process and both top and bottom are full of bees with say a total of 6-8 frames of capped and Open brood as well as honey frames. Some drawn all the way out as wel
I am starting to get ready to make my Fall splits
Meaning, I am taking either double deeps or heavy singles and splitting them for the fall. After splitting them by drawing nurse bees above a Queen excluder onto most of the brood after making sure the Queen is below, I then will leave 2-3 frames of brood both open and capped plus food and then frames of drawn comb or foundation and replace the Queen excluder with a double screen board and set the new split on top of the original hive for the fall/winter. They live through the winter much better. I will place a frame feeder below and a bucket feeder on top as we are going into a dearth. Anyway feed very light syrup at 2-waters to one syrup.
So anyway. Have shown a few people your videos. They all are asking to see the setup of the cell builder completely
You kind of jump right into it being ready to go.
Thanks for everything. Wish we lived closer. I'd be hangin as much as possible with you guys.
Bill Gayle
Blue Diamond Bees
936-545-3385
Raising Queen Cells With a Simple Queen-Right Cell Builder
I’ve had more than one experienced cell rearing beekeeper tell me that this won’t work, but I can assure you that it does.
When it’s “ready to get ready”, the hive will have seven frames of brood and two combs of heavy honey and pollen in the bottom chamber.
It will have a queen excluder, and over the queen excluder the second deep will have an inside feeder and two combs of heavy honey and pollen…..heavy on the pollen. The bee population must be very heavy, and of utmost importance, they must be flying only to the bottom entrance, no secondary entrances allowed.
To get it ready to accept a graft, set the top box with the frame feeder and honey/pollen combs off to the side, go through the brood chamber with brood and queen and find the queen. Once the queen is found, set the brood frame with her on it in a separate box. Now place the cell box with frame feeder and two pollen combs on the bottom board, and shake the bees from three or four frames of brood into the cell box, and fill the frame feeder with syrup. Now exchange the queen excluder for a double screen, with an entrance to the back of the hive. Place the brood box on top of the cell box, and replace the frame of brood with the queen.
Now the importance of having the hive flying only to the bottom entrance comes into play. The field bees will exit the top box and fly back to the cell box on the bottom. If they had an upper entrance they’d simply rejoin the queenright box up above, so they must be fixed to the front bottom entrance.
The bees in the bottom cell box are now faced with every possible reason to feed freshly grafted cells. They are queenless, and have no brood to start emergency cells. They are crowded, and the young bees that had been feeding larvae have nowhere to put their feed. They are, essentially, up the creek with no paddle. Grafted cells may be placed in the bottom box almost immediately and, if the population is correct, they will be fed immediately.
The next day the hive should be taken apart and the queenright portion placed back on the bottom board. Two combs of young brood should be removed. I use my breeder hives as cell builders…..when I am getting the hive ready to receive a graft, I’m also looking for frames to graft from….I’ll put a tick in the top bar of these frames, and they’re often chosen to join the cells when reversing. Now replace the two combs of brood with empty frames, and replace the double screen with a queen excluder, and place the cell box on top. The two frames of brood are now placed alongside the frame of grafted cells, so the top box will be feeder, pollen comb, brood comb, cell frame, brood comb, and pollen comb. This will coax young bees up thru the excluder to help feed the cells. The exception is if there is a nectar flow and the bees want to build burr comb in the cell frame, frames of foundation may be placed in the cell box to give them a place to draw comb.
The cells should be taken out and placed the morning of the 10th day, not including the day of grafting. They will hatch somewhere by morning of the 11th day.
Hey, Bill....wrote this for our BC quarterly mag this past summer....hope it answers some questions for you. Thanks so much for your interest.....Steve and I are gonna finish a video today, subject is two-queening. Tough to get more than 40-50 pounds here on the Sunshine Coast.....two queeners often hit 200.....best one I had last year did 259....good clean fun!
Steve



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!
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.
Good work. Neat clean simple instruction.
Nice method, good video. Thanks for the explanation. Gets me thinking
wow thank you, I will give a try. where can I buy the frame, bars and queen cells like you are using in Canada ?
You're very welcome, my pleasure. The Mann Lake Bee Supply catalog has everything you need. The Bee Maid shops carry their products.
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
Finally a simple Queen rearing video out here
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.
excellent video!!
Well done👍
Dave Hackenburg ‘s wife showed me how she hatched out Queen cells in her trailer oven - timing is critical she said !
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.
Not a beekeeper or even a bee enthusiast but I watched the entire video…..and now I’m gonna go graft some sh!t.
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
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!
When grafting the larver what hold the new queens from falling out?
Reply from Steve Clifford.
The larvae, when grafted, are feeding on a small pool of Royal Jelly.....when you transfer them, the bit of jelly sticks to the cell cup.
Need more of such video
After days you can ship them out or use these in queen less Nucs ?
Sorry for the late reply. I missed this one. They have to be hand carried, not shipped.....have tried with no luck. Yes, queenless nuc, queenless for 2-3 days is best.
Thank you!
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.
I’m from southeast Texas, Beaumont Tx
I am confused. Trying to learn this stuff. I have never seen so many bees in a box. Isn't the idea to make more hives? Or is this about creating a desire to swarm? I am certain he is an expert
Reply from Steve Clifford
The idea is to have more than enough bees to raise a relatively large number of queen cells at one time. I'm pretty conservative, only grafting 40 cells in a cell builder.....many folks start far more. If the cell builder has a marginal population, your success rate will be less and the size of the finished cells will be less than desired. To make more hives effectively, having mature cells to plant in them at the correct time is crucial.
Thanks!
Steve
@stevesleep1939 thanks for replying. I am down in South Texas, North of Houston, wishing I was up in that cool weather. I have notifications on and looking forward to learning more.
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.
Thank you so much!
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!
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.
There were soooo many bees in that hive!!
I don't put lots of cells in.....people smile when you sell them nice full size cells.....they frown when you try to hand them runts.
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.
How many times a day do you get stung?
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Depends on what I'm doing.....you get good at getting stung. I only wear gloves while pulling honey, or maybe shaking bees with the shaker box. The piece of stomach muscle that pumps the venom thru the hollow stinger will take up to 20 minutes, so getting to feel the sting as it's happening amd scraping the stinger out quickly matters lots. Happy to say I've never gotten one on the eyeball. The ones that go under your fingernail are kinda rough.
very interesting Steve ,,,,
Thanks....has held my attention for 50 years now.
could you use a pollen sub in the bottom box?? thanks
Reply from Steve Clifford.
Well....if you have no combs of pollen worth a try.....when you graft into a cell builder regularly, like every nine days, you see how quickly they use up the stored pollen. Best is lots on the comb and lots coming in. Good luck!
iyi günler ben türkiyeden sizi takip ediyorum ben kralice üretiyorum carnika videonuz çok güzel kraliçe arıyı üst kata aldıktan sonra ne kadar zamanda transfer yapıyorsunuz
Thank you very much. Transfer the queen cells early on the 10th day, not including the day you graft. Good luck! Do you have the new Trilops mite yet?
Great video!!
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.
hello your video is very good
Great information
Fascinating
Indeed. Thanks!!
Hi Steve, do you lick your grafting tool between grafts@
Timing is critical
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!
Excellent
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!
damn impressive