Grafting Success- Day 10
The photograph below might be hard to make out- seems like a lot of mayhem- but it's actually showing some success with grafting- and I'm excited- this seems like a big part of what I was missing in beekeeping, and a constant frustration (and costly expenditure) in keeping queens going. They are not always available from our local supplier, cost quite a bit (about 40 bucks), always entail driving somewhere to get them (worse in the NW every day), and on top of all of that, are from California. Where almost everyone's bees and queens are from, and although they start out with a lot of promise and fecundity, pretty much, like all Californians I've known, don't like the weather here. Last year, which was the holocaust for my bees, the first ones to die were the Californians. That's a fact. And: they all died.
It's a fact, but I don't know what it means. But it sure set me to wishing I could somehow, someday, raise a queen or two. So- on the bright side of death and destruction, I'm learning a lot. I don't always keep it in order, or remember, but I think I am inching- and no more than inches- to being a little better at this.
The photo shows a custom made Western frame where I took two grooved lower bars, and inserted them into dados in doubled up end bars- the little piece of metal in the photo keeps them in place. The spacing from bar to bar is just shy of 2"- which I think is what's recommended.
What's hard to see is that there are about 20 cups,or 24, and the bees have made 14 of them into queen cells. The photograph below this one shows it better.
Close up- below- queen cells made on the ends of JZ-BZ cups. The queens are capped- and this is day 10- so I don't really understand why the bees cling to the cells- maybe to keep them warm? I don't know. At the right are two rejected cups- likely my poor technique in setting the larva.
Backing away, here the queen rearing hive. A modest powerhouse (though it looks docile here). The cloak board is pulled out half way, or less, to unify the hive, and three supers are off and on the ground. They have eaten through the pollen I gave them, and the syrup is long gone as well.
So- its day 10, which happens to be Monday, a work day for me- so I get up earlier than I usually do, and start making up nucs from what I already have, and what my friend Brian was getting rid of (tops and bottoms). I wanted to make 10- not a lot- and at that point I hadn't checked to see how many I had (14), but set about scraping, cleaning, painting, 10 supers, covers, tops, bottoms, and extra frames. I screwed these all together (supers are screwed to the bottom boards, then I screwed on the inner covers), as I had a long day ahead of stealing bees from my hives to fill these, and did not want anything sliding off.
The full size Western seems to work pretty good for me- it allows me to nicely fit a Western frame feeder from Mann Lake, allows me to return the equipment back into my regular operation as needed (no half sized Nucs to stack), and allows me to add frames as needed in the larger space. I considered splitting them (have done this before with a division board), but there's really no room when you do that, and I also considered making half size nucs, but did not see the point. My thought here is that for requeening, I might be able to just plop the whole super on top of the hive to be requeened (with newspaper), and after removing the old queen. I haven't thought it all out yet-but I think that should work well.
Day 11- tomorrow- means pulling out the queens cells from the frames and setting them into the new nucs. I worked to dark tonight stealing bees, and putting then into nucs, and trying to make sure I didn't move the queen. I pulled 5 nucs from one apiary (my house) and drove them to another, set them up, ,then stole bees from the hives there and put them into nucs, and drove them back to my house. I'll lay them out tomorrow morning, let the bees get used to their new digs, then, after work, place the queen cells. A big day!
Below is a morning shot of the mess I make when trying to get this all to happen.
It's a fact, but I don't know what it means. But it sure set me to wishing I could somehow, someday, raise a queen or two. So- on the bright side of death and destruction, I'm learning a lot. I don't always keep it in order, or remember, but I think I am inching- and no more than inches- to being a little better at this.
The photo shows a custom made Western frame where I took two grooved lower bars, and inserted them into dados in doubled up end bars- the little piece of metal in the photo keeps them in place. The spacing from bar to bar is just shy of 2"- which I think is what's recommended.
What's hard to see is that there are about 20 cups,or 24, and the bees have made 14 of them into queen cells. The photograph below this one shows it better.
Close up- below- queen cells made on the ends of JZ-BZ cups. The queens are capped- and this is day 10- so I don't really understand why the bees cling to the cells- maybe to keep them warm? I don't know. At the right are two rejected cups- likely my poor technique in setting the larva.
Backing away, here the queen rearing hive. A modest powerhouse (though it looks docile here). The cloak board is pulled out half way, or less, to unify the hive, and three supers are off and on the ground. They have eaten through the pollen I gave them, and the syrup is long gone as well.
So- its day 10, which happens to be Monday, a work day for me- so I get up earlier than I usually do, and start making up nucs from what I already have, and what my friend Brian was getting rid of (tops and bottoms). I wanted to make 10- not a lot- and at that point I hadn't checked to see how many I had (14), but set about scraping, cleaning, painting, 10 supers, covers, tops, bottoms, and extra frames. I screwed these all together (supers are screwed to the bottom boards, then I screwed on the inner covers), as I had a long day ahead of stealing bees from my hives to fill these, and did not want anything sliding off.
The full size Western seems to work pretty good for me- it allows me to nicely fit a Western frame feeder from Mann Lake, allows me to return the equipment back into my regular operation as needed (no half sized Nucs to stack), and allows me to add frames as needed in the larger space. I considered splitting them (have done this before with a division board), but there's really no room when you do that, and I also considered making half size nucs, but did not see the point. My thought here is that for requeening, I might be able to just plop the whole super on top of the hive to be requeened (with newspaper), and after removing the old queen. I haven't thought it all out yet-but I think that should work well.
Day 11- tomorrow- means pulling out the queens cells from the frames and setting them into the new nucs. I worked to dark tonight stealing bees, and putting then into nucs, and trying to make sure I didn't move the queen. I pulled 5 nucs from one apiary (my house) and drove them to another, set them up, ,then stole bees from the hives there and put them into nucs, and drove them back to my house. I'll lay them out tomorrow morning, let the bees get used to their new digs, then, after work, place the queen cells. A big day!
Below is a morning shot of the mess I make when trying to get this all to happen.
Comments
Post a Comment