5. Queen Rearing is Simple
1. Create a queenless colony
(as simple as removing the queen)
2. Colony should have
--a large population of young, nurse bees
--ample stores of pollen and nectar
6.
7. Queen Rearing is Simple
Nurse bees then
1. feed worker larvae copious
amounts of royal jelly and
2. reconstruct the cell to hang
vertically
Worker matures to a higher level (queen)
8.
9.
10. Why Raise Your Own?
Availability
Quality
Cost
Introduction issues with mail-order
(caged and banked) mated queens
11.
12.
13. Best Time To Raise Queens
Swarm season
Generous nectar flow
Abundant pollen
Strong colony (cell builder) of
healthy nurse bees
14. Timeline for queens
3-1/2 days egg
5-1/2 days larva
7 days pupa
Day 16 queen hatches
5-7 days harden, mate
3-5 days mature, lay eggs
24 – 28 days to production
15. 6 Methods
1. The Doolittle Method
2. The Procrastinator’s Method
3. The “I Just” Method
4. The “I’ll Let” Method
5. The NICOT Queen Rearing Kit
6. The Five-Minute Queen Method
16. 1. The Doolittle Method
Graft (remove) day-old larvae (day 4) to
a cell cup
Place cell cups (grafts) in a queenless
cell starter for 48 hours
Move cell cups to a queen-right
cell finisher for 4 to 9 days
Place capped cells in mating nucs
(Day 10 - 15)
18. Advantages
Can be started anytime
Cuts 4 days off the process
Large quantities of queens can
be raised
19. Disadvantages
Can you identify day-old larvae?
Can you graft without damaging
the larvae?
Need --good eye sight
--a steady hand
--excellent lighting
20.
21. 2. Procrastinator’s Method
Ignore colonies and trigger the impulse to
swarm (but when?)
Hope to catch swarm as it leaves (when
cells are capped)
Hope queen cells are evenly distributed
among the frames.
Divide frames with swarm cells into nucs.
22. 3. The “I just” method
“I just” pulled two frames of brood and
put them in a nuc. Nuc is queenless.
But we expect a weak, under-resourced
nuc make fantastic queen cells.
Not completely impossible to get a
good queen.
23. 4. “I’ll let” method
“I’ll let my bees decide when they need
a new queen.”
Run down colonies burdened with low
morale hope to make a queen.
Lost production waiting
24. 5. NICOT queen rearing kit
Kit costs around $80
Cell grid – where the queen is confined
to lay eggs
Cell cups – where eggs laid
Cell cup holders, cell cup fixtures –
fasten cell cups to top bars
25.
26.
27.
28. NICOT Process
Place the empty cell grid (no
queen) between two brood
frames to “warm up.”
Leave in for 24 to 48 hours.
29. NICOT Process
Put the front on the cell grid
Find the queen, and place her in
the cell grid
Wait 4 days to see if you see eggs.
Queen may not lay on the first day.
32. NICOT Process
Move (“graft”) cell cups with
larvae to a frame (cell cup
holders/fixtures)
Install frame into cell starter
and builder
33.
34.
35. NICOT Disadvantages
Takes longer
2 days to warm up
2 days for fickle queen
Four cell starters per batch, all one
day behind the other
Restraining queen
36. NICOT Disadvantages
110 cells cups, and queen won’t lay
in all of them
Must graft larvae, not eggs
60-70 larvae hatch
40-50 queen cells capped
30-40 queens mated
37. 6. Five-Minute Method
Build up a colony to a minimum of
8 frames of brood
Expand brood nest to prevent
swarming
Make a “reverse split” (nuc) with
the queen, two frames of brood and
bees
38.
39. What just happened?
A fully-resourced, queenless
colony begins to make queen
cells from age-appropriate
larvae.
Do you trust the bees to choose
the larvae?
40. Return 7 days later
Expect to find capped queen
cells…now what?
Option 1
Squish all but two queen cells
and super for honey production
41. Return 7 days later
Option 2
Divide the frames with queen
cells between nuc boxes,
allocating frames with cells
between them.
Squish all but two cells per nuc
42.
43.
44. Return 21 days later
Confirm queen mated by
observing pearly white brood
45. How’s this work?
Bees do all the heavy lifting
Requires a minimal amount of
time from the beekeeper
Allows for weather disruptions
Limit to 4 to 5 nucs per existing
hive.
46. Five-Minute Method
Remove queen, reverse split
Return 7 days later, squish all
but two cells
Return 21 days later to confirm
mated, laying queen
Virtually goof-proof