Beekeeping: Stop Buying Bees Series Pt. 4

[@BigLBeefBeesBirdsnBahs]

Very informative...watched tons of queen grafting vids and was very unconfident until I watched your series. Felt it was way to precise of an operation. Liked and followed!!!

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks for watching and subscribing! Glad it helped you. We are back at it now and raising some queens. Be sure to check back for new videos

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Let us know what you think! We are excited about the grafts and soon to be splits. Hope y’all enjoy the series.

[@joelgillespie1412]

Can you show what happens as you incubate and how the queens hatch, when you pull the queens out of incubator, and induction. I have looked for that and you do a great job of explaining.

[@twspma3549]

Thank you. I appreciate you and your efforts. Your simple way of explaining the facts is so appreciated. You can make a novice feel smart after just 1 video. Again, thank you.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you are tuning in. More to come this week.

[@stevenaamos]

Great tip about not removing the Double Screen Board when its too cool at night. Looks like you have visited the Blue Ridge Honey Company too! Just picked up 4 of their DS boards.

[@heavymechanic2]

Last year I had a single med box busting out with brood, I pulled the queen and all open brood to a NUC and grafted her eggs two hours later, put a few cups back into the med hive and it worked perfectly. I went from six hives to twenty-one last spring by grafting my own stock. With the extreme cold this past winter, I lost two hives and have two not doing well as they lost a lot of bees and the queen is questionable.. What you are teaching was hard to understand from reading books, but I did have success with a fifty-dollar incubator from Tractor Supply.. One thing I can say, don't use the cheap knock off cell cups, buy JZBZ or the bees won't draw them out.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

I totally agree! We tried this made by sunflower bee co off Amazon and I didn’t like them. Jzbz is the way to go. Thanks for tuning in

[@larimorefarms]

I appreciate you taking the time to explain and show this process. As a new keeper it’s giving me a better feel for the art. I know nobody does it the same but the we all have the same goal to succeed. May you be blessed and prosper.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thank you 🙏! We hope the series is helpful.

[@GEEZBEEZ]

Cells look good. Double screen boards are great especially early. Enjoying the series. Thanks.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thank you

[@johntompkins147]

That is remarkable to me, this gets me excited about the magnificence of this creation, and guys if your following along be sure and set your notifications for Craigs Live Streams where he answers your questions about all he is doing here. Thank You very much!!

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks John! Hope to see you soon.

[@noahG82]

Im all caught up now. Lots of bees on those cells!! That was awesome to see. I cant wait to try it this summer. If I can get summer queens in my colonies this year that would be awesome !!!

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks for watching and joining in tonight. You will do well! Let us know if we can help.

[@careygeorge1160]

I really appreciate your excellent video series. As a third year hobbyist beekeeper this is what I have been looking for. I am just wondering about your location and time of the year that you are doing this queen rearing as shown here. I am located in Northeast Tennessee and am wondering when I should be starting the process. Thanks!

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks for watching! We are in the piedmont of NC. We have started raising our first found of queens for 2024. But as soon as you have drones.

[@Peter_Gunn]

Just want to let you know I think you are doing really great on this series 👏 Can't wait to see how many colonies you end up with.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thank you! We are excited

[@richardshipman7076]

The divider you have between the queen right and the one with graft cells, is screen only small enough to keep queen to top and workers can go between or did I miss something? Where did you get the grafting tool you use. Thanks for all the information.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

The screen is stapled to a 5/8” board with two 4” holes cut out. There are is screen wire on both sides. The object of the double screen is to prevent bees from touching antennae and mandibles. Thus preventing the transfer of queen mandibular pheromones. That is what make it work and the other box queenless even though they share the same smell. We get our grafting tools from Miller bee supply, but Amazon also has them. They are known as Chinese grafting tools.

[@richardshipman7076]

@@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924 thank you, I did miss the reasoning of the double screen.

[@BenCurtis-cm3vc]

Curious why you didn’t use the inside gallon feeder that you mentioned?

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Just because it’s was still cool out and they may not move over to it. So I place a jar over the cluster. Thanks for watching

[@kimharvey6716]

A great series for sure. Being in central British Columbia we are a month and a half behind you in weather, but will follow through with splits as you are showing us. We don't have an incubator, so if you could just explain how to complete the process without one... Thanks!

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks for watching from across the pond! You can just leave them in the hive to be finished. Especially if you are not needing a lot.

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

​@@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924 Thought British Columbia is way North of NC rather than over the Pond (!) That's where I am, over yonder way way East. 😀

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

@@ME_MeAndMyBees I missed the whole Columbia part lol. Old 👀

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

@@ME_MeAndMyBees you are across the river lol

[@ronbrendag7131]

Are you feeding because of lack of inadequate nectar flow, or would you always feed when making cells?

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

This is a debatable topic to some. If there is a strong nectar flow, you could get by without feeding. We have a little flow on right now, but in my experience the bees do a better job with cells when primed. By that I mean I start feeding them pollen supplement and thin syrup a day or so before the grafts and continue until they are capped. It works best for us to feed.

[@tomkingsley4398]

Thanks for the video. You are doing a great job teaching as you show all the processes. It's snowing here in upstate NY. We are a month away from working bees. What area are you located in. Nice Job!

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Thanks for the kind words! We are located in NC just outside of Charlotte

[@jeffreyhoskins8955]

Thanks for everything

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

Very welcome! Thanks for watching

[@chubag]

Thanks for the series. Really helpful thus far. As you are doing all these splits this season, do you anticipate getting any honey this year from this yard?

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

We run approximately 100 colonies in total. This yard is just to teach how to raise queens and split bees. We hope to get a great honey crop from our other bees, but most of these will be split so much that we will have to keep feeding them. Pt. 5 releases tonight at 6pm eastern

[@chubag]

@@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924 Thank you.

[@GLuft3]

Are you getting drones already-to mate with those new queens in a couple weeks?

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

We have drones walking on the frames, fingers are crossed they will be ready.

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

Tip : They say from "a Drone Egg to Mature Mating age" is exactly "x44 Days" later ! Drones hatch on x24th Day, are fully Mature by x3 Weeks age. No older as sperm drops off quality wise (!) So x44 Days from Egg laid in a Drone Cell is perfect "Date" Date/Mate match/dispatch/hatch wise ! 👌 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2023 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Check out Dr. Susan Cobey (US) Lecturer on Queen Rearing... Gave a Zoom Talk our Beek Club here in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 . Useful x44 Day Info from her ! Nice. 😎

[@BrownAndDaughters]

I'm sorry if you mentioned it, but how long did you wait after you put the grafts in until you checked them?

[@timbervalleyhomestead]

I didn’t realize you put your cells into an incubator. Any particular reason? I’m actually thinking about putting some capped queen cells in some small 2frame nucs and have them emerge in them. Not sure yet.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

We do it simply because we can control the weather variables and prevent any cell tear downs by the bees. It also frees up the colony for additional grafts. Thanks for watching

[@ME_MeAndMyBees]

Timber V... You can also let the Cell Finisher Colony cap the Queen Cells, but by day x13 place a Roller Cage over each QC before they hatch on Day say (x15th if Hrs older than sibling Larvae.) Most Queens hatch on x16th Day... but a x15th 3/4 old could hatch first and Murder all later Queens (Grafted Larvae.) By Caging / moving each QC to a Nuc or Mini Mating Box, even Cell Protectors if by self, means no other Queens noble your others 2nd, 3rd, 4th in line. Get it ! 👍 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2023 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 You can also Bank* these pending hatching Queens for a few days, say x3 Days, if you need more time to Split Brood Frames to New Nucs as you need. (Or it Weather is bad etc.) Tip: If say x4 Queens hatch out of say x 8 Cells (? Made) You have x4 Live (Caged/Safe) Queens.... Go make up x4 Nucs. Wait 24hrs. Add a Caged Queen to each : let that Colony eat thru Bee Fondant, to release the accepted Queen. She goes off, Mates, you have a new Colony. If you make up "x8 Nucs" what if Cell 5,6,7,8 didn't make it (?) You have masses of unneeded Bee Boxes. Do above. Easy ! Works ! 😎 * Or Sell more / spare (Caged) Virgin Queen to eg Bee Club, or another Beek wanting own Drone line to Mate that VQ.

[@timbervalleyhomestead]

@@ME_MeAndMyBees that’s a lot of useful information. Thanks!!

[@time2fly2124]

do you know how many cells you can get in that incubator? im looking to start raising queens for sale and selling nucs this year, $100 seems like a good starter.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

I normally do 50 at a time, my guess would be 100

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Wish we could graft already 🥶

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

It’s still a little early for us also. But we are pushing for splits, splits, splits

[@gregh4065]

I have found that if you give the one that has been dinky for a long time a 48 hour cell and let them finish it that they will accept it better than giving them a completely capped 10 day old cell.

[@thesidelinebeekeeper-craig6924]

That’s a great idea