En - Queen Project Manual 26 Pag

8/11/2019 En - Queen Project Manual 26 Pag

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OSBA

QUEEN PROJECT

-Manual-

Developed in 2007 by the Ohio State Beekeepers Association,for use as educational material for OSBA members


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he Ohio State Beekeepers Handbook for raising queens

TForward:For a number of years Ohio beekeepers have been concerned with the manyvariants arriving with our honey bees purchased from out of state but nowespecially from the South.

As Ohio beekeepers, we are deeply concerned with purchasing our queens from thesouth. The possibility of having Africanized Honey Bee Genes, (AHB) imported intoOhio is real.

Now, with the leadership of Joe Latshaw and the regional coordinators, Ohio StateBeekeepers Association is proud to be the sponsor of statewide Queen RaisingClasses.

This guide was written by Dana Stahlman, formerly a commercial queen raiser. Init, he shares his knowledge and experience to lead Ohio beekeepers into self reliance.It will no longer be necessary to purchase our queens from out of state and have tofear the AHB arriving within our spring packages.

Ohio beekeepers will be raising queens acclimated to our climate, not those thatflourish in the warmer areas of the United States.

The queen rearing classes led by OSBA comes at a time when Ohio queen rearing isnot only practical but essential.

This guide, Ohio State Beekeepers Handbook for Raising Queens, written by DanaStahlman will be an invaluable resource for Ohio beekeepers.

Ron Hoopes, PresidentOhio State Beekeepers Association


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The 2008 Ohio Queen Project Coordinators:

OQP State Coordinator Joe Latshaw [email protected] Buckeye Hills Paul Cline [email protected] Western Reserve Brian Neuman [email protected] Erie Basin Robert Hooker [email protected] Maumee Valley Tim Arheit [email protected] Miami Valley Ray Alley [email protected] Crossroads Joe Kovaleski [email protected] Ohio Valley Mark Zeiner [email protected] Heart of Ohio Roger Miller [email protected] Top of Ohio Tony Rimkust [email protected]

Introduction:

Queen Rearing is an essential part of beekeeping. All of us depend upon good queens topopulate our hives with large populations of worker bees which are healthy andproductive.

Ohio at one time was a leading queen producing state led by the A.I. Root Company. Areview of old bee journals reveals a number of queens being produced in Ohio durin g thelate l800s and early 1900s. By the 1920s most of th e commercial queen productionshifted to the south. It is entirely possib le that queen production may shift back to thenorth if cu rrent problems continue to plague southern queen producers.

Regardless, Ohio beekeepers have an opportun ity to do something about poor queensand possibl e introduction of AHB genes in our bees. The Ohio Queen Project is designedin the Ohio beekeepers interest of maintaining better queens and hopefully prov ideadditional income for those wishing to raise Ohio queens for sale. It will require thecooperative effort of all invo lved.

The second and maybe most impor tant part of the Ohio Queen Project is t he long termeffort to develop an Ohio Stock Improvement Program. At present, Joe Latshaw of New

Albany, Ohio has agreed to develop a long term plan for stock improvement andimplement it. The future for Ohio beekeepers having access to superior Ohio queen stockis at stake with this project. Identifying outstanding queen stock and using it in the OhioState Beekeepers Queen Project will depend on a large number of ind ividuals. Hopefullyin the years to come, Ohio beekeepers will bu y into the concept and share in its success.

This handbook is the property of the Ohio State Beekeepers Association and can becopied with permission by contacting the president of OSBA.
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Chapter One

Geographic Conditions affecting the production of Queens in Ohio

Ohio has a total of 41,330 square miles with a population of11,353,140. As the annual st atistics ind icate, there were 3224individual beekeepers registered in 2006 which is the highestnumber s ince 1999 .

Its highest point is Campbell Hill at 1,549 feet near Bellefontaine.It is approximately 200 + miles North to South and 200 + milesfrom East to West. The area near Cleveland is in the Lake ErieSnow Belt. Southeast Ohio is located in the foothills of the

Appalachian mountain chain. Northwest Ohio is par t of the greatblack swamp. Temperature variations will be found betweenNorth and South as well as East and West. These variations arequite noticeable when trees begin to leaf out in t he spring.

Northern Ohio may be several weeks behind Southern Ohio in tdevelopment of nectar and pollen sources. All of these thingsaffect the ab

he

ility o f beekeepers to raise queens within the state.To check weather conditions in Ohio I would suggest the following web site:http://www.weatherpages.com/ohio/climate.html .

Ohio temperature extremes have great effects on beekeeping as well. For example, you will all bewell aware of the problems we had had in April of 2007. The following chart will list some ofthese extremes lis ted by months

Ohio: Temperature Extremes

Month Max.F

deg.

Year Place Min. F

deg.

Year Place

Jan. 79 1980 Chesapeake -37 1994 LoganFeb. 81 1930 Middleport -39 1899 MilliganMarch 96 1907 Por tsmouth -21 1984 Fredericktown

Apri l 97 1925 Por tsmouth -4 1982 DorsetMay 102 1914 Bril liant 17 1968 ToledoJune 108 1934 Germantown 27 1972 DanvilleJuly 113 1934 Gallipol is 34 1988 Cardwell

Aug. 111 1947 Napoleon 27 1982 CanfieldSept. 107 1953 Philo 23 1928 PeeblesOct. 99 1884 Ironton 8 1895 CoaltonNov. 89 1938 Gallipol is -17 1958 MansfieldDec. 80 1982 Chillicothe -32 1884 Wauseon

Data provided by www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930238.html

Since we can not raise queens unt il we have drones, the weather in Apr il is c riticalto drone production. Cold weather will result in drones forced from the hive and reduceddrone production . Reduced drone production by a hive will occur when weatherconditi on such as drought s and reduced nectar collection occur. It is much harder toraise queens when the bees are robbing due to r educed nectar resources.
http://www.weatherpages.com/ohio/climate.htmlhttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930238.htmlhttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930238.htmlhttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930238.htmlhttp://www.weatherpages.com/ohio/climate.html


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Due to Ohios weather conditi ons (average), queen rearing will us ually begin to take placenaturally (swarming) during April and May. Thus, if we are to consider raising queens, weneed to be well aware what the weather condi tions are for our own locale and we need toplan accordingly.

As a general guide, raising queens is easier when the natural condi tions are good forswarming and becomes more difficu lt when swarming conditions do not exist. In Ohio, it

is poss ible to start grafting in the southern part of the state as early as mid April and havemated queens to sell in early May. For the Northern part of Ohio, these dates can be setback approximately two weeks. In the South (Southern Georgia) grafting usually beginsaround the middle of February. Queens become available in March. We can not do that inOhio Why? Our bees are still in the winter cluster. I might point out that we couldhave bees raising queens but what is the use if there are no drones for them to mate withwhen they get ready to mate. Virgin queens can not be banked and saved for a later timeto mate because as research has shown, an unmated queen will become a drone layerafter a period of approximately 20 days if not mated.

Chapter 2, The development of a virgin queen:

Chapter Two

Queen Biology

Regardless of the method used to raise queens, the process is controlled by facts and principals ofhoney bee biological development.

Highly recommended reading: Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding by Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. andRobert E. Page Jr. Listed price $30.00.

Basic facts:

The queen honey bee is an egg layer. Queens, workers, and drones all come from the eggslaid by the queen. A mated queen fertilizes eggs which result in production of eggs whichproduce worker bees or other queens. Unfertilized eggs produce drones.

A queen or worker bees development depends upon the kind of food fed to the larvae by theworker nurse bees. This food is called royal jelly which is secreted by the glands in the headof the worker bees and royal jelly is continuously fed to larvae destined to be queens.

Table for development times of egg to adult

Stage Drone Worker QueenEgg 3 3 3Larva 6.5 6 5.5

Pupa 14.5 12 7.5Total 24 21 16Data from Rearing Queen Honey Bees by Roger A. Morse

Queens are raised by the bees under one of the following conditions.1) Swarming impulse (Crowded conditions)2) Emergency replacement of the queen3) Supersedure replacement of a failing queen.


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Virgin queens will mate up to 20 drones usually 12 to 18. Mated queens begin egg laying two or three days after the last mating flight. The queen retains the navigational ability of worker honey bees and she mates with drones

while flying in the open and never in the hive. From Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding by Laidlaw and Page. Page 31.

A drone has no father and is genetically like his mother. The quality of the drone is quitevaluable in setting up mating yards because the drone will provide of the genetic materialfor future queens.

Drones take 40 days from the time the egg is laid until they reach sexual maturity.24 days to emerge and another 12-16 days to mature.

Queen cells must be handled with care. Development can be affected by cold or heat. Queen cells can be candled. That is one can hold a queen cell up to a light source and see

the pupa within the cell. Movement of the pupa can be observed. Vic Thompson, formerassistant to Walter Rothenbuhler at Ohio State University taught me a handy technique oftaking a sharp knife and making an incisions into the side of the queen cell and spreadingthe wax cell open just slightly for an examination of the larva inside. The cell is then closedas before and the bees will repair the damage and the larva inside will continue to developinto a queen.

Mature Drones must be present in good numbers if one is to raise good queens. Laidlawand Page suggest at least 20 drones for each queen to be mated. The person raising queensshould encourage drone populations in their hives.

The development of a virgin queen

Every queen begins life as a fertilized egg. The egg will hatch in three days andbecome a very small larva. At this stage, the honey bees will begin to feed thelarva. Depending upon the amount of food given to the larva , it will become aworker or a queen. If we place young larva in a hive without a queen, the beeswill try to raise a queen from the larva if no other larva is present. They willfeed the new larva royal jelly and to produce good queens the nurse bees need anabundance of pollen and nectar or (sugar syrup).

cell.

Our goal is to raise outstanding queens. A queenbegins life as an egg.

The egg is almost impossible to removefrom a worker cell at this stage. Whenthe egg reaches three days in age, it willbegin to lean over and hatch into a

small larva at the bottom of its

The young larvae grow very quickly. The larvae shown here

represent larva ranging from 12 hours to two days in age. If youare using a grafting method, many of these larva are already toolarge to use for grafting new queens. By the eight or ninth daythe worker cells are capped and sealed. The larva by that timefills the entire cell.


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This is a picture of honey comb with larva in variousstages. Some of the cells are being capped. Notice thewhite cells which have not yet been capped.

cell cup as shown below.

Y INDUSTRIES

If we are grafting young larva, we are transferringthe larva from its worker cell into a queen

After the transfer the honey bees wi ll begin to feed theyoung larva with royal jelly and we can see if a larvahas been accepted within just a few hours . The nursebees will reject any injured larva placed in a cell cupand remove it.

Various g rafting tools can be used and many graftingexperts use home made tools .

This is a technique which takes some time to developthe touch required to get the small larva out of it sworker cell.

Malka photo

This is a technique which takes some time to develop the touch required to get the small larva outof its worker cell and moved to the queen cup where the nurse bees will begin the process offeeding the young larva which will develop into a mature queen...(another run on sentence...Ihave no suggestion, sorry)

The larva should be floating on a bed of royal jelly as shown below.

These are well fed four day old larva in graftedqueen cells. Note that plastic cell cups are beingused in this photo. This is what your graftingefforts should look like after the third day fromgrafting. Photo provided by the Victorian Government ,DEPARTMENT OF PRIMAR

The development of the larva into a pupa is shown in the following table. The picturesare from Queen Rearing by Harry Laid law, Jr. and J.E. Eckert published in 1962.

These cells are shown two days following grafting. It isalways interesting to see your grafting results and it is safeto remove your grafting frame from the cell builder to see ifthe grafting effort was successful. In fact, you can seeresults of nu rse bees feeding grafted larva within h ours ofthe graft.


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This picture shows the progress after three days from thegrafting date. The cells have been enlarged and not yetsealed.

This picture show the progress of the queen cells fourdays after the graft. They are just about to be sealed.

This picture shows the progress after six days from thegraft. The cells are capped over and the larva is in the pre-pupa stage.

In the capped cell a number of changes are taking p laceand that development is shown here. The first cell on theleft shows the spinning stage, the middle picture showsthe pupal stage, and the right picture shows the completelydeveloped queen prior to emergence.

In the latter stages, the pupas eyes begin to darken and the last s tage is the developmentof the wings. If for some reason during the last few days of queen development the cell ischilled, the new emerged queen may have undeveloped wings and be unable to fly out ofthe nuc to be mated. This could happen if there is not enough bees in the nuc to keep thequeen cell at the required 90 + degrees temperature required for her final development.

e

Queen cells can be candled to see ifmovement is detected and the development inthe cell is complete prior to p lacing the queencells in the nucs.These pictures are used with t he permissionof Martin Braunstein who has developed oneof the largest queen rearing companies in thwor ld. (Malka Queens of Argent ina)

Malka Photo

If all has gone well, a new virgin queen will emerge from her cell as

shown on the left. This occurs at or near the end of the 16th

dayafter the egg has been laid. These young virgin queens are veryactive and run from ligh t. Young virgin queens seek out any otherqueens that may be present and try to destroy them. Within threeto five days, a virgin queen takes her first mating fligh t.

Malka Photo


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Queen cells should be placed in nucs prio r to the virgin queens emergence. Honeybees accept queen cells much better than virgin q ueens.

All young virg in queens must leave the hive to mate. If the queen does not mate, shewill end up being a drone laying queen. Thus, a good drone population is necessaryto raise good queens. Before queen rearing can begin, a check of hives to determinethe existence of an adequate drone population is necessary.

Hives shou ld have some frames withdrone cells already capped and somedrones present. Capped drone cellsindicate a good healthy hive and thedrone hives shou ld be selected withthe same care that is used to selectqueen mother hives.

You can encourage drone productionby using one or two drone comb inyour brood chambers or simply placea frame which has some mouse

damage in your drone hive and thebees will build drone comb to fill inopen sp

theace.

Malka photo

A final topic in queen biology needs to be discussed: Themating of the queen.

Nature has ensured the survival of the fittest in the honey bee. A virgin queen willleave her hive and mate with a number of drones in t he open air and may fly aconsiderable distance from her hive (p. 32 Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding Laidlawand Page). Successful drones die in the act of mating.

In-breeding is bad for the honey bee unless used with acontroll ed breeding prog ram; multiple matingencourages more diversity within the hive and the likelysuccess of the colony. The worker bees produced inmultiple mating are half sisters (each with the geneticmake-up o f their mother and different fathers).

Most queen breeders can not place their mating yards in iso lated areas. Thus, queenscan and do mate with drones from non selected drone mother hives. This is the majorproblem with open mated queens. Artificial Insemination is used by queen breedersto ensure that only the best mother queens provide the grafting larva needed toimprove queen quality. OSBA does have individual members who have acquired thatskill and will be sharing outstanding stock for queen mothers in the Queen Project.


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Chapter Three

Two Non-grafting Methods for Raising Queens

Introduction : There are many methods used to raise queens. A person raisingqueens has a number of options depending upon the number of queens to be raised.Experienced queen rearing operations all have variations in the way they raise queens.This is due to the indiv iduals who have developed a preference for a method whichhas become good for their own application. A beginning queen raiser should be opento various methods. At the end of a period of trial and error, the beekeeper producingqueens will develop a style which fits his or her needs.

The Miller Method

This is a non grafting method widely used

Step one: Identify the queen mother hive you are going to use.

Step two: Prepare a frame-- Place a frame of new foun dationinto the hive that has your q ueen source (This is your motherqueen). This frame is just a regular frame nothing fancy. Thecomb is cut into " V's". The only thing I would suggest is to placethe frame between two frames of brood. Usually foundation isused and it takes a few days for t he bees to draw out the foundation and fo r the queento begin laying in the comb. Once the queen has laid eggs in the new cells, you willneed to prepare a cell building hive.

queen mother.

cyy.

en wanted."

Step three: The cell building hive is prepared just like all othermethods used. I prefer a queen less colony well supplied with sugarsyrup, a large population of bees including young bees, and frameswith some sealed brood and poll en. If the frames include young larvaand eggs, you will need to remove all attempts by the bees to raiseemergency queen cells. They will do this at the expense of raisingqueens from the larva and eggs you provide to them from yourselected

Step four : Remove the selected frame from the mother hive,shake all the bees from the frame (you could also brush them off),and cut saw tooth fashion into the comb to produce five or six vshaped pieces of comb with the young larva or eggs in them. Thebees will build queen cells along the edge of the comb rather thanusing cells on the face of the comb such as the common emergen

cell. In Miller's words, " For a little distance at the edge, the comb con tains eggs onlThis part is tri mmed away, leaving the youngest of the brood at the edge of the comb.One reason for t his is that, other things being equal, the bees show a decidedpreference for buildin g on the edge of a comb. Another reason is that I decidedlyprefer to have cells on the edge, thus making th em easier to cut out wh
http://../Application%20Data/Microsoft/My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/IMG_0187.jpghttp://../Application%20Data/Microsoft/My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/IMG_0183.jpghttp://../Application%20Data/Microsoft/My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/IMG_0191.jpg


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Step five:

You will sti ll need to create a number of nucs for the queens to be raised when theyoung queens are within several days of emerging from their cells.

Step six:

The completed cells can then be cut from the comb and transferred into your nucs.The queens raised by th is method w ill be as good as queens raised using the Doolittlemethod.Usually three or four queen cells wil l be built by the queens at the

junction of the V cuts . These are then cu t out and placed into thenucs. These cells are large much like the swarm cells. The sizeand number of cells produced depend upon the number of bees inthe cell builder and the amount of feed given to the bees. Of all ngrafting methods, this one is inexpensive because you have all the

equipment needed and it almost always works.

on

The Jenter System

The Jenter System frame consist of a box like construction with openings for 110plastic cells, a compartment the queen is placed in and two lids (front and back). Thefront lid is removed to expose the queen compartment and the cells where she isexpected to place her eggs. The back lid exposes the back side of the cell cups whichshould hold the young developing larva. In addition one needs cup holders which arefastened to frame bars, cell prot ectors, and of cour se the plastic cells to fit the cage forthe queen to lay in. The Mann Lake Catalog says, This system of queen raising is

completely graft-less! With this kit, the queen lays her eggs in the cell cup, eliminatingthe painstaking step of grafting! This system allows you to raise up to 110 queens atone time. All components are reusable except brown cell cups. Reusing cell cupsgreatly diminishes the acceptance rate. I have had personal experience with thissystem and consider it expensive and not all that reliable. However, others seem tothink i t is one of the best systems they have ever used. I feel an obligation to at leastshare the system with you.

Front side Cell cup holders Cell cups Back side inframe

In principal this is a good way to get queens without much l abor in grafting. However,queens resist laying in the cells and the eggs laid are separated by hours between theearliest egg laid and the last egg laid. Acceptance by cell builders is good if the eggshatch into larva before being p laced in the cell builder. At $69.95 for the kit, oneraising a number of queens will find it inexpensive but for the individual who needsonly a few queens, I would recommend the Miller Non grafting method.


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In use the cage is placed within the hive I used a frame with Plastic foundation w ithan area cut out for the cage to fit. The honeybees can enter the fron t compartment of thecage which has openings much like a queenexcluder to attend to the queen as well as fedyoung larva. The cell cups are removed from theback side of t he cage and transferred to cell bwith the special cup holders. The hair roller

cages and candy cup and closure caps arereally necessary if the beekeeper is transferrinthe mature queen cells into nuc s before thequeens emerge. However, with the wide r of difference in when eggs were laid by the

queen, one might find that an emerging qu een will cut down other cells before thebeekeeper gets around to removing the queen cells and this could cause somedisappointment when you are expec

ars

notg

ange

ting a number of queens and end up with only one.

Step one:

The mother queen is placed in the cage where she will need to be observed for egglaying activity. Once egg laying by the queen begins, allow the eggs to hatch intoyoung larva before transferring the cell cup to a cell bar. A cell building hive needs tobe made up just like in all other methods of queen rearing one or two days before thetransfer of cell cups takes place.

Step two:

Cell cups are removed from the back side of the Jenter cage and fastened to a cell barusing the specially designed queen cup ho lder. These holders are prepared well inadvance of this step. The frame holding the cell cups is then placed in the cell builderhive.

Step three:

As in the Dooli tt le system, you wil l need to fol low the calendar for transferr ing thequeen cells produced to the nucs you have prepared. The only difference is that thequeen cells produced in the cell builder will most likely vary more in age than theDoolittle grafting method and a close examination of mature cell cells is required. TheJenter system allows the use of a hair roller cage to be placed over queen cells toprevent an early emerging queen from cutti ng down younger cells. This is the majorproblem in using the Jenter System.

Comments:

You may be disappointed when you firs t use the Jenter System. Queens aresomewhat reluctant to lay in the plastic cell cups and may take several days beforedoing so. Nurse bees can pass thru the queen excluder front of the cage to feed andcare for young larvae. This is not a system you can put the queen into the cage andfour days later move cells directly into your cell building h ive. You need to observethe eggs and young larva in the cells. This is often difficult because the device andcell cups are light in color making it hard to see eggs and young larva. However, it iseasy to use and is graft-less. If you get 20 to 30 cells from thi s cage, it is worth theexpense to buy. It can be reused except for the brown cell cups.


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Chapter Four

The Dooli ttle Grafting Method

The Doolittle Method of Queen Rearing is the standard method used by most modernprofessional queen producers in t he United States. There are several reasons for this :

1) It is very dependable once the techniques of grafting is learned, 2) scheduling andmanagement of queen product ion can be easily p lanned, and 3) the queens producedare of high quality if the cell builder is well supplied with necessary food.

The first step in grafting a young larva (12 to 24 hours old ) is to be able to identify theproper age of the larva. When an egg hatches it lies over on itsside and is very small. The nurse bees will begin to feed itimmediately. It will increase in size very quick ly over the next twodays. So what you are looking for is a young larva much like thatpictured to t he left. Note that the larva has not yet reached acomplete C shape. As the larva grows it will begin to fill the cell

any larva that completely fi lls the cell is too late in developmentto raise good queens. One can practice grafting the larger larvaand then adjust you r skill to the smaller larva. Good eye sight is amust in transferring the larva from its birth cell to an artificial

queen cell cup. Most experts agree that the youngest larva will pro duce the betterqueens.

Equipment needed:Cell Cups

For each larva to be transferred you will need a queen cellcup.

Cell cups can b e purchased or made by the beekeeper.Beeswax cell cups are still being sold by several equipmentsuppliers . The Walter T. Kelley Company sells 200compressed wax cells for $3.50. These are usually set intoa wood cell cup wh ich allows the safe handling of the

queen cell. The wax cell cups shown in the photo are produced by Rossmans Apiaries and are sold for $9.50 per pound. These cel ls are unique and manufactuonly by Rossmans. They have a wide base making for easy attachment to cell barsand easy handling o f que

red

en cells.

.

Becoming very popular and just as good as the naturalbeeswax queen cell cups are various designs made of plastic. Mann Lake sells a number of designs such as thebase mount queen cell cup show n on the left. These cell

cups will f it into a slot in the top bar or grooved bot tom bar

It is also possib le to make your own cell cups. One needs pure beeswax which isheated to the melting point in a container that a specially designed dipping s tick isinserted. The dipping stick can be made from a 3/8 inch dowel and the tip is then filedand sanded to form the bottom of a cell and slightly tapered toward the base. Thetaper is made starting about inch from the end of the dowel.


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The rounded base should be approximately 5/16 inches in diameter. It helps to soakthe dipping stick in soapy water before beginning the cell making process. This allowsfor the newly created cell cup to slip o ff the dowel without damage to the cell cup.Only the best cl ean beeswax should be used.

Grafting Tools

You will need a grafting needle osome type. One of the populastyles is called the ChineseGrafting tool. It is inexpensive($3.25 in the Mann La

fr

ke Catalog).

Another in popular use is the metalGerman Grafting too l ($11.95 also inthe Mann Lake Catalog).

Also shown are several other graft ingtools you w ill find in the Mann LakeCatalog.

I often use a grafting tool that I mademyself from a paper clip. The key tothe use of the needle is the tip whichmust slide under the young larvawithout causing injury to the larva.

The larva floats on a small bed of royal jelly and the tip of the grafting tool mus t besmall enough to s lide or slip under the larva for it to be picked up and tr ansferred tothe cell cup. Many individuals become quite discouraged when their grafting effortsseem to fail. The chief reason for this is damage to the larva during the transferprocess and it does take some time to acquire the feel and touch to do it properly. Thereason the Chinese tool has become popular is that the tip is flexible and slides underthe larva easily and transfers the larva to the cell cup with a nifty spring loading s lidingtip which moves the larva off the tip when the spring is released. A good web site to

visit to see pictures of the grafting processwww.kutikshoney.com/grafting/queens.htm .

A frame to hold the cel l cups:

This is a frame to hold cell cup bars. This is fromthe Brushy Mountain Catalog. One can be easilybuilt from a standard frame and be equallyeffective.

The cell frame is placed into t he cell building hive andholds the queen cell cups until the queen cells arecompleted by the worker bees. The frame is thenremoved from the cell bu ilder hive when the queen cellsare ready. The cells are then cut from the cell bars andindividual queen cells are then ready to place in nucboxes. A strong cell building h ive can feed and create


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well over 100s of queen cells as long as it is provided with queen-less young bees andfood. It does have a limit on how long it may be used as a cell builder hive. As workerbees age, they do not actively bu ild queen cells. The bees in a queen-less cell buildinghive can be used to make up the mating nucs required for queen cells to emerge andthe mating process to take place. If you plan on raising a large number of queenscheck Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding .

The Cell bui lder hive: (Sometimes called a starter hive)

The hives shown to the left are cell building hiveslocated in a commercial beekeeping operation (MillrayBee Co.) located in Alabama. Commercial operationssometimes raise thousands of queens in a single day.These hives are being feed with a glass quart jar fit in toa hole in the top cover. They are also queen-right whicmeans that each hive in t he picture shown has a layingqueen. The top super on each of these hives is wherethe new queen cells are made up by the bees in the hive.The top super is separated from the rest of t he hive with

a sliding panel that is removed after the cells are started by the nu rse bees. Thesehives are constantly being fed with sugar syrup.

h

yrup.

survive

ssible. Itand her

hermones from affecting the bees which will start the queen cells.

ating Nucs:

l sily

s require much clo ser attention than

nuc

ond from the hiveaving it empty except for a few bees.

The equipment needed is much l ike a standardhive --- hive body, bottom board, inner cover, topcover and a feeder for sugar s

A cell building hive wil l require a lot of youngbees, food, and be in a condition to raise thegrafted queen cell cups with young larva intoqueens. Remember that each queen cellproduced by the cell building hive must have aseparate small hive of its own in order toand mate.

OSBA is r ecommending queen-less cell bu ildinghives because they are easier to w ork with. Youmay find that you world prefer a queen-right hiveto raise queen cells in and it i s entirely po

does require more planning as it is necessary to separate the queenp M Each queen to be raised will requir e a separate hive or hive w ith separated

d in many dif ferent sizes and can be construct ed eaby the beekeeper. We recommend standard sizedframes but this can be adjusted for the person who

wants to raise queens commercially. As indicatedearlier, smaller unit

compartments. Nucs are so

larger sized nucs.This is a small mini nuc w ithfour half shallow frames. Anew queen can easily fill allthe available cells in thiswith in several days. The

result is that she and her bees will abscle


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A standard deep frame nuc of 4 or 5 frame size is prefer red for the hobby queenreeder.

size frames are available from bee supply

s can be

anmbining several

strong nucs or help weak hives.

rocedure:

g

ur efforts will result in a number ofisses (queen larva not accepted by the bees).

tep one:

two

to

It

he

b

Several reasons for this are: Standard

dealers. All equipment wi ll be interchangeab le. Frame

used in nucs as well as regular hive bod ies. Stocking the nuc with deep frames from the brood

chamber of established hives is easy. These frameswill contain some brood to hold the bees in the nuc.

When the season is over, frames from the nucs cbe used to build regular hives by co

P The first step in using the Doolittle Grafting method is t o make sure you have all of theequipment required: cell cups, cell bars & frame, grafting needle (tool), a warm well litplace to do the grafting, a wet towel (warm), and a prepared cell building hive. A warmwet towel is used to pro tect the grafted cells unt il they are placed in the cell buildinhive and it will improve acceptance. If the transferred larva are allowed to dry outwhich can quickly happen, or become chilled, yom S

Start the cell builder h ive at least one or days prior to grafting. Your cell buildershould be ready to accept new larva givenit. The cell builder hive is a strong queen-

less hive with a number of nu rse bees.should be fed continuously with sugarsyrup/corn syrup and the feeder needs to bekept full even after the cells are placed in thive. This hive must be checked for anyemergency queen cells the bees might h avestarted and they mus t be removed.The grafted larva frame needs to be placedthe center of the brood chamber between

frames that contain adequate pollen stores, honey, and capped brood. In this hive aframe needs to be removed to make ro

in

om for the grafting frame. The hive can be aingle or double brood chamber hive.

The procedure has been provided by Brian Neuman of Newton Falls, Ohio.

ere is one way to do it :

n and 2 frames of broo d and bees (to start a

frame of sealed brood from another

s

"How to create a cellbuilder"

H 1) 2 days before grafting pi ck one of your strongest colonies.2) Remove the Quee new hive or nuc)3) Replace the frames with 1 hive, and 1 frame feeder.


17/26

4) 2 days later check the hive for queen cells and remove them.

of poll en on one side and one frame of brood on theother.

tep Two:

that

ive is near 92 degrees F.he quicker th e larva are transferred the better the results.

to the frame that contains t he larva and the cell cup bar (the destinationf the larva).

k

grafting effort w as ass or not.

at

rthe

asy transfer of theva. Malka Photo

: Select the frame from which larva will be used for therafting!

ood honey production and any other desirable characteristic you feel isportant.

5) Remove 1 frame no bees (preferably empty brood comb)6) Arrange frames so that the grafting f rame is in the center with 1 frame

S Select the location where you will be doing the grafting. This can be in a warm lit areaeither indoors or outdoors. During cool weather it is important to work in an areais very comfortable to you. If you are cold or chilled, it is too cold to graft in thatlocation. Many commercial queen breeders have a special grafting roo m or shed.Others use the cab of their truck. It can be done outdoors if t he weather is 75 degreesor more. Remember the temperature of the larva inside a hT You should have a table or solid work surface large enough to hold a frame of younglarva and the grafting bar. Back lighting is impor tant for you to see into the bottom of

the worker cells that contain the larva. You must feel comfortable with the table heightand the reacho

Grafting is a precise exercise indexterity and firmness. It takessome period of practice to picup speed and skill. Graftingresults are not apparent whenthe larva is just transferred butwithin hours, one can determineif thesucce

As il lustrated to the left , theperson doing the grafting isclose to the frame holding thelarva. The light is positionedover the right shoulder so ththe larvae at the bottom o f thecells is visible. The grafting baand cell cups are placed overframe for elar

Step threeg Select only from the best mother queen available. The characteristics of a goodmother queen would inc lude: gentle temperament, winter survival, good hyg ienicbehavior, gim


18/26

Step Four: Moving the larva to the cell cups.

grafting tool and placed ina queen cell cup.

lustration provided by the Victorian Government , DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES

e completed grafted larva to the cell builder hive.ark your calendar!

red larvae, the frame holding thears must b

ofueens emerge before the others you will be left with just one

queen.

tep Six: A queen schedule

g

ees

fs before she emerges. Sometimes the bees in the hive will

elay her emergence.

The frame with the selected larva is

taken to the grafting t able for thetransfer process. The youngestlarva are removed from the workercell with a

Il

Step Five: Moving thM

Once the cell cups are completed with newly t ransfer b e placed in the cell builder immediately.

This is a frame being transferred to the cell builder hive. Once the frameis placed into the hive, nurse bees will gather on the frame and begin tofeed the young larva. This date must be recorded because regardless ofthe weather, your s chedule, or unexpected events, your new queens w illbegin to emerge within 11 and at most 12 days from this day. If just onethe new q

S The development time for a queen from egg to emerged adult is 16 days plus or minusa few hours. There is nothing we can do about changing this time line. Once a queencell is started, queens will be emerging on what I call the Queens Schedule. In a hiveabout to sw arm, the queen leaves with the swarm before the young virgin queensemerge. Often some queen cells will be delayed in their start by the bees. Thus thefirst virg in queens that emerge will try to destroy the oldest queen cells and accordinto research not tear down the youngest queen cells. It is often that a hive will issuesecondary swarms with v irgin queens sometimes several virgin queens in theswarm. The prime swarm will contain the original mother queen. When we use theDoolittle grafting method, or any of the non g rafting methods di scussed, we arestarting with larva already four days old. In the order of things, this means that new

queens will be emerging in 12 days from the time of the graft o r even earlier if the bfeed larva five days old (3 days as an egg/ 2 days as a larva). The emergence of ayoung queen from her cell does not take long. Once she begins to cut her way out othe cell, it is only minuted


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The schedule below is the biological schedule for the development of aqueen.

Queen Biologicalschedule:

Egg stage The Larvae The Pupa

Adult queencutting herway out ofthe cell.

Adult VirginQueenemerges

approx.72 hours(days 1 -3)

approx. 192hours(days 4-12)

approx. 120hours(days 12 -16)

approximately384hours(day 16)

approximately384hours(day 16)

Using any of the methods we have discussed, the person raising queens must be well awareof the biological time clock for queen development. Most of us will not remember the exactdate we started a graft and if we do more than several grafts, it is very difficult toremember exact dates. Several methods can be used to help remember.

One .. Keep a notebook with all pertinent information such as the identificationof the mother queen that provided the larva and the date of grafting.

An example of an entry could be like the sample below:

DateGrafted

No. ofcells

BreederQueen

Cell barnumber

No. ofcellsaccepted

DateOut

Remarks Numberofqueensmated

Each grafting frame in a cell building hive should have some identification on it. A codecould be used for the Breeder Queen and date of the graft.

Two .. A card could be placed on the inner cover and protected by the top cover. Thecard could carry information for just that particular grafting effort. It is not uncommon tosee books suggesting various styles of record keeping on cards.
http://../My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/01aaeggofhoneybee.bmphttp://../My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/01aaeggofhoneybee.bmphttp://../My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/newqueen.bmphttp://../My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/a102.bmphttp://../My%20Webs/Beeclass/DTS/01aaeggofhoneybee.bmp


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A schedule used to determine when nucs must be ready for queen cellsbefore they emerge.

This example uses the first day of a month to show the expected emerge date and theexpected day the new mated queen will begin laying eggs. The date for the new queen tobegin laying eggs will depend upon weather factors such as rain and her ability to mateshortly after emergence.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wed. Thur. Fri. Saturday 1

Graft date 2 3 4 5 6 7

89

10Nucs to bemade up

11 cellsmust bemoved tonuc.

12Queensbegin toemerge.

13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20

21Queenbegins tolay eggs

The beekeeper can determine the number of nucs required by opening the cellbuilding hive. The queen cell frame can be removed for a short period of time to countthe number of queen cells built b y the bees. Often the bees will completely cover thequeen cells and the beekeeper will need to carefully brush some of the bees away fromthe cells in order to count them. Do not shake the frame to get the bees off. Anysudden jar or movement cou ld damage the fragile queens in the various stages ofdevelopment.

Step Seven: Getting Nucs or Nuclei Ready

Young queens do not tolerate other young queens. If you put two queen cells into anuc, you will have just one of them survive. Thus you will need equipment for thequeens you want to raise. Small hives are call nuclei hives. Some hives will havecompartmentalized nuc lei from w hich several queens can live and mate.

Nucs as I will call them can easily be made or purchased as discu ssed above.Generally on the 10 th day from grafting, queen cells are harvested. They are removedfrom the cell builder hive (some queen producers use a finishing hive which we havenot discussed), and moved into the nucs. Nucs must be stocked with worker bees.These bees will keep the queen cell warm for the period it i s in t he hive, and provide awork force to feed and take care of the young queen and the eggs she will lay. Somemini nuc s get by with just a cup of bees but to be successful, a five frame nuc withstandard deep frames should have at least two frames of bees and brood. The queencell would be attached to the face of the comb between the two frames of bees andbrood . The usual practice is to press the base of the queen cell gently into the face ofthe comb. This is quite easy with cell cups made of plastic as little damage to thequeen cell can take place. Wax queen cell cups are prone to damage if pressed tohard and thus, just enough pressure is needed to make it stay attached. The bees willattach and build wax between the cell and the comb; thus making the cell very secureby the time the queen emerges from the cell.

A good web s ite to visi t to read and see photos of queen bee mating.http://plantphys.info/Plants_Human/bees/bees.html
http://plantphys.info/Plants_Human/bees/bees.htmlhttp://plantphys.info/Plants_Human/bees/bees.html


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Chapter Five

Selling or giving queens away in Ohio

If you are planning on selling queens in Ohio, we must make you aware of the Ohio Apiary Law regarding the selling of queens .

Ohio Apiary Law is contained in Chapter 909 of the Ohio Revised Code.Section 909.08 reads: Each person within the state engaged in the rearing of q ueenbees for sale or gift, before the first day of Ap ril of each year , shall file with the directorof agricu lture a request for the inspection of hi s apiaries where queen bees are reared.The director shall require all q ueen rearing apiaries to be inspected at least once eachyear. If the inspection results in the diagnosis of any serious bee disease or indicatesthe presence of Africanized honey bees, the owner thereof shall not s hip, sell, or giveaway any queen bees unt il he has c ontroll ed or eradicated the disease or bees to thesatisfaction of the director.

When such d iseases or bees have been contro lled or eradicated to t he queen rearingapiary, or if no s erious bee disease is diagnos ed or Africanized honey bees are found,the director sh all issue a certificate, signed by the state apiarist, a copy of which shallbe attached to each package or ship ment of queen bees mailed or shipped. Thecertificate shall be valid for, but n ot to exceed, one year. The use of tags or oth erdevices bearing an invalid or altered certificate and the misuse of any v alid certificateis prohibited.

You will need to apply for a queen certificate if you intend to g ive queens away or sellthem. At present there is no fee to apply for the Queen Rearing Certificate. You musthave your bee yard registered with the Department of Agriculture and pay your beeyard registration fee.

To apply, contact:

Ohio Department of AgricultureDivision of Plant Industry - Apiary

8995 East Main StreetReynoldsburg, OH 43068-3399

Phone: 614-728-6373


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Chapter Six

Selling Queens

There is a ready market for Ohio raised queens. Beekeepers by and largecommunicate with each other and when they find a reliable source for queens tend toshare the good news with others. The oppos ite is also true -- bad news spreads faster.

Raising queens is time consuming and the effort requires careful attention to details.OSBA is trying to develop a stock improvement plan for Ohio and the queen stockdeveloped will be shared with beekeepers in the state. Thus, the price charged forqueens should be adequate to reimburse the queen producer for time, effort andinvestment.

Queen cages:

Queens transport ed to a customer must be placed in a container that will provideprotection dur ing the introduct ion process and provide food for the period the queenwill occupy the cage. At present three general types are in use:

This is the JZ BZ plastic queen cage in popular use today. It has a selfcontained tube which is filled with queen cage candy. We will discuss queencage candy later in this topic. The tube is filled prior to placing the queen inthe cage. Each cage has a latch which opens into the larger body of thecage and the queen and attendants are place thru thi s into t he cage. Whenused with candy caps, the cage can be used in bee packages. It can also beused with special battery boxes.

gox

yard.

The cap that fits over the candy tube. The strip is placed next tothe syrup can in the screened bee package. Some screened bee

packages also have a special saw slit for the strip to fit into.

This is the battery box in wh ich queens in t he JZ BZ cagecan be shipped. It wil l hold 20 JZ BZ queen cages. Acap is not required with this battery box. Queens in theJZ BZ cage are caged withou t attendant bees. Queencage candy is p laced in small compartments on bo thsides of the bottom of th is box for the worker bee

attendants to f eed on. These bees provide the warmthand attention the queen bees will require. The front andback side of the box provide good surfaces for shippin

labels and postage. The bottom and top have air vents for good ventilation. This bis also handy for transporting caged queens into th e bee

This is the long established three holeBenton Cage. It requires much more labor toprepare these before they can be used. It is


23/26

sold by The Walter T. Kelley Co. and Dadants. The cages are bought in a lot of 100They include the woo den cage, wire screen wire to be stapled over the ho les and apaper square protective cover for the cell that holds the queen cage candy. It reqattendant bees to be placed in the cage with the queen. It uses a larger amount ofqueen cage candy than the other cages used in the U.S. It is a time consuming task toget these ready for use. Bees travel extremely well in this cage. A number of thesecages can be shipped when small strips are stapled to hold them together. Thepractice in the South where this cage is popular is to sh ip 26 queens when 25 are

ordered. In fact, most queen breeders include from two to four extra queens on ordersof 100 or more queens.

.

uires

ll.

This is the California queen cage. It has onecompartment with a plastic tube filled with queencage candy wh ich allows the queen to be introducedto a new hive. This cage also requires some work tostaple on the wire screen and insert the plastic tubesinto the wooden container. It does not take up asmuch room as the Three Hole Benton Cage and canbe shipped in a battery box. Usually no attendantbees are put into the cage with the queen. It is sold

by C. F. Koehnen and Sons.

Battery boxes for the California cage vary in size andare available from Mann Lake Ltd .

They are called Riteway Queen Shippers. They canbe used with th e wooden California cage with thecardboard inserts shown in the picture to the left orwith the JZ BZ cages. Bee cage candy is placedbelow the queen cages on wax paper to feed theattendant bees.

Shipping bars for the JZ-BZ queen cages are availablefor these boxes as we

Other queen supplies wil l add to your sales

Marking pens for marking queens

Often the cost of marking a queen is $1.00 or more. The colorcode for marking queens is:Years ending in0 or 5 = Blue1 or 6 = White2 or 7 = Yellow3 or 8 = Red4 or 9 = Green


24/26

Marks on queens should be placed on the top of the thorax. Avoid getting any paint

The queen is usually held between the thumb and forefinger;

lipping Queens wing

wings of a queen thinking this w ill stop

clipped to decrease th level,

e

ueen Banks

lacing queens in a queen bank is a common practice later in t he queen season.d is

en-less or queen-right) in which mated

n

s

hat is good about a queen bank? It allows the beekeeper to utilize nucs when

hat is bad about a queen bank? Queens placed in a queen bank are not laying eggsand generally lose weight as a result of no t being a productive egg layer. This causes

on the queens neck. A person who has never done this before mightpractice by marking drones. A slight firm touch of paint from themarking pen is required.

however, several devices are sold for holding a queen whilemarking her.

C

Some people clip theswarming. However, it really doesnt stop swarming. The oldqueen will leave the hive and fall to the ground and often beunable to return to the hive. A young queen will eventually leada swarm out of the hive. Some individuals also cut either the

right o r left wing to indicate the age of a queen much li ke colormarks the age of a queen. All valuable queens shou ld bee chance they will be lost. If a hive is raised above ground

the clipped queen will often be found under the hive with the swarm where she can berecovered. Never take off more than one half of a wing. Queen breeders usuallycharge more for clipping a queens wings than for marking with a spot of color . Threason for this is that it is easier to damage a queen during the operation. Check withcurrent queen breeders to s ee what they are charging.

Q PQueen producers can not produce enough queens in the early spring when deman

high but later the demand drops off and harvested queens must be put somewhere sonucs can be utilized to their ful l potential. A queen bank is a colony of bees (ei ther quequeens are placed for a period of time usually until they are sold. In the queen-lessqueen bank the queens can be stored almost anywhere in the hive. The queen cagesare placed in special frames designed to hold t he style of cage the breeder is u sing.The bees in the hive will feed the queens and keep them alive. A queen-right hiveused as a queen bank requires some separation between the brood chamber whichholds the queen and the area of the hive where the mated queens are kept. A queenexcluder is usually pl aced over the brood chamber followed by a honey sup er and thenthe super that will hold the queen frames. With a queen-right colony this works welluntil co ld weather sets in when the bees will return to the brood chamber and abandothe banked queens. This happens often when beekeepers buy a hundred queens orso and place them directly above the queen excluder until t hey can get them into hivefor splits o r requeening. A large number of those queens die because during coldnights etc. the worker bees will leave them unattended.

Wqueen demand for queens is low or to hold a large inventory of queens after theseason has ended.

W


25/26

much stress on the queens. It is unnatural for a queen to exist in this conditionduring the summer months . It may be one of the reasons for a great deal ofsupercedure in modern queens. The best queens sold are large and placed undestress for a very short period of time the time from being taken from the nucthey are introduced to a hive as the queen mother.

Queen Cage Candy

runtil

formula for making queen cage candy! Honey is not used in the The reason for this is

at honey can contain dormant spores of American foulbrood. Candy made with

e bees to eat. Rock hard candy isifficult for the bees to consume and bees in the hive may be unable to release the

by

an not buy powdered sugar without co rn starch. The corn starch is used to

revent the sugar from lumping up. Most packages of powder suger will indi cate 5%

nd bag of powdered sugar into a mixingowl. I use a tupperware container with a tight fitting lid. They can be found very

sd

it

thhoney can be a cause of spreading the disease.

Queen cage candy must be soft and pl iable for thdqueen from the cage. Queen cage candy is made much like bread dough. Theingredients are powder sugar and numoline. Numoline is inverted sugar syrup usedbakeries. It is usually available in five gallon buckets, however, the Walter T. Kelleycompany sells it in a 10 pound jar. Check for Cat. No. 258. A ten pound jar will g o a longway.

You c

pcorn starch. This does not hurt the bees.

The procedure is quite easy. Pour a two poubcheap at Goodwill or Salvation Army surplus stores. Once the powdered sugar hasbeen poured into the bowl, make a slight depression in the sugar and slowly add asmall amount of numoline. If this is your first time making the cage candy, go slowadding the numoline. If you put on a pair of medical gloves you will keep your handfree from the sticky mess you are about to kneed into a soft firm ball. The ball shoulkeep its shape when placed on wax paper. If it sticks to the wax paper or your gloves,you have added too much numol ine. If you use it too sticky and soft, the bees in thecage will be smeared and most likely die. You will need to add more powder sugar to

make it sutiable for use. It is better if prepared just a bit d ry rather than a bit sticky. Another point that needs to be made about queen cage candy is that heat wi ll causeto melt. If queens in a cage are exposed to warm temperatures, the candy begins to

eal of money in equipment, find someone who is raisingueens and work with or for them. Get an idea of what is involved. $20.00 dollar

are really s erious about queen rearing.

www.malkaqueens.com

run. The result is usually a dead queen. It is easy to determine this has happened ifyou examine a queen cage and the candy no longer is fill ing the tube or ho le in thecage but rather has sloffed in to the queen chamber of the cage.

Going into business

Before investing a g reat dqqueens make it seem as if someone is getting rich. I dont know of any rich

beekeepers queen producers inc luded.What can be done if you

This is Martin Braunstein w ho owns Malka Queens in Argentina.Visit his site at: . In Feb. of 1990, he andhis w ife Sonia traveled to the U.S. where they worked for t hreelarge American queen breeding firms. By the mid 1990s theyreturned to Argent ina to start Malka Queens. Malka Queensproduce some of the best queens in the world Italian (From


26/26

original stock he got in Italy Carniolan and Buckfast. Unfortunately, we can not getthem in the U.S. Martin is a serious bee book collector and makes frequent trips tmajor bee meetings both in the U.S. and around the wor ld.

o

Conclusion

The Ohio State Beekeepers Associati Ohio Beekeepers to raise queens fortheir own use as well as investigate the possibility to raising some for sale. Hopefully Ohio

qu ns

The material contained in t tional purposes. Somecopyright photos have been used with permission use is restricted with the agreement

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, Inc.C.F. .

The W pany

on encourages all

eens will be available from mid May thru September and you will be able to find a local queeupplier to provide Ohios queen needs. OSBA will be working into the future to establish a

Stock Improvement Program and with the Regional Coordinators, develop a network to providethe best stock to Ohio beekeepers possible.

his handbook is intended to be used for educa and their

that they will not be copied or used outside this document. We have used freely photos fromvarious Queen Supply Catalogs to illustrate queen equipment available for your use. Weencourage you to seek out the equipment and supplies they sell for your use.

Better Bee , Inc.

Koehnen & Sons, IncDadant & Sons, Inc.

Mann Lake Ltd.,Rossman Apiariesalter T. Kelley Com

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