Queen Bee Rearing | Queen Cell Grafting

On our recent trip to the bee yard we decided to take you along to see how we check our queen cells after we graft them. Normally queen cells are grafted on the fourth day after the eggs are laid, on this day it has hatched into larvae and we are able to transport them into queen cells cups.

  On the fifth day after grafting the larvae, (this is the ninth day of the larvae life) the cells should be completely drawn out, and capped. They are very fragile at this state of their lives, and so we use smoke and a bee brush to clear off the excess bees before checking the queen cells. At this time we determine our percentage of success and plan for splits, or orders that need to be filled.
  After the ninth day we can move them to our incubator to keep their temperature regulated until time to use.

In a future post and video we will show you step by step how we graft them, and what specifics to look for when choosing a frame of larvae to graft. ​