Homemade Queen Cell Incubator & How To Clean and Re-Wax Foundation

Queen rearing made easy! Using an incubator is a great way for beekeepers finish queen cells. Learn how I made a incubator for queen cells to emerge in out of a deep hive body. Then watch as I install a round of queen cells. See last weeks video here: • My Week Of Beekeeping ...
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[@ronniemoore961]

I like the way you repurpose things. I really like your incubator.

[@larva7066]

Glad to see you where able to put the controller to use and take advantage of the extra output functions. Was just collecting dust in my collection of parts. Good job!

[@JCsBees]

I greatly appreciate you sending it to me. It's working very well.

[@richardkuhn8115]

Congratulations on your Newborn Bully! Hoping to see more videos on this year's grafting. Thanks for sharing.

[@JCsBees]

Thanks! As you seen I am very excited about the new calf. As for the grafting I will be sharing more on it but probably not step by step, if you want to learn grafting checkout "JC's Queen Rearing Series". It's a playlist of videos all based around steps to graft and raise queens. Best of luck!!

[@familyhearingandbalancecen9777]

I’m impressed with your talents Jasón! You have some smarts with electrical and building these items! I like the farm updates!

[@JCsBees]

@Family Hearing and Balance Center Thanks! I guess I owe all that to my parents. When I was a kid and I would get a new toy, I would take it apart and out it back together. I liked seeing how things worked. Still that way though. lol Glad you enjoy the farm updates. I'd like to have more time to do a farm video but thing are hectic right now with calving season, queen rearing, brush hogging pastures, etc. so the farm channel is gonna have to wait it out.

[@ronaldcrunkilton7138]

Nice work and ingenuity on putting all that together. For those not so mechanically talented, cheap styrofoam chick incubators about $50 work well. The one I have has heater, fan, window and adjustable exacting thermostat and works for eggs as well.

[@michaelreno8494]

I would love to meet you because I grow mushrooms , raise chickens and rear queens , farm and run an Apiary here in Kentucky . I follow a few Master bee keepers but I find your videos and knowledge spot on . Thanks .

[@JCsBees]

Do you ever go on road trips? I have mushroom plugs in my frig I keep meaning to start, maybe next year. lol As you probably know I also raise chickens, manage a grass fed cow herd and raise bees. I love working our land. Glad you like my videos, my appreciated?

[@michaelreno8494]

I used to make it threw that area as I studied a Martial Art called Bando that is big in Ohio . Farm life is good .

[@georgegoertzen4723]

thanks for sharing your technical expertise. there is one thing that i would change and that is moving the light switch to the outside so you can turn it on without opening the incubator.

[@JCsBees]

Thanks! The green switch on my control box controls the light, the switch inside is just a dimmer switch. I have it set to the setting I like so I don't have to open the incubator.

[@BeylasBees]

Ohio beekeeper here too 😁 good incubator. I’ve been considering using my observation hive (since it’s in my living room) for my queen cells

[@JCsBees]

Hello, Amber! Nice to see another Ohio beekeepers. I may have mentioned it in the video but I was considering making my observation hive into a incubator also then changed my mind and made this one. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't use the OB hive.

[@zar2211]

Thank you for putting updates at the end

[@437AlBig]

Thanks Jason. Nice informative video. I just split three of my hives this weekend. I've still got some more to go. I sure hope to try my hand at grafting this year. We'll see.

[@JCsBees]

Good luck!

[@richardkuhn4358]

General rule "PUSH HEAT / PULL COLD" . great vid, very ingenious, watch your channel a lot 😊

[@JCsBees]

Thanks! Now let me ask you do you have 2 channels or is there another Richard Kuhn?

[@j6honeybees539]

I learned somethings and got some ideas from your video, thanks for sharing.

[@suzisaintjames]

Several times you spoke about the heat escaping when the door was opened (top down). What if you moved the door's hinge to the top bar, so it opened bottom up? This new configuration would prevent the door from being accidentally left open. 💖🌞🌵😷

[@JCsBees]

Great idea! Thanks you!!

[@eddevault4604]

We really enjoy your dedication ...thanks for providing your knowledge....can you explain the process-timeline from the queens emerging...to removing from the incubator....to feeding...to placement of those into hives....seems the virgin queens are very weak and how to feed them correctly is a guessing game....

[@konradrueb1567]

Great video thanks for sharing Jason!!🐝safe and keep your smoker lit!!! Konrad

[@JCsBees]

Thanks.. I like that little saying "Keep your smoker lit". I may have to borrow that in future videos. 🙂 You keep safe as well and thanks for watching!

[@konradrueb1567]

@@JCsBees your more then welcome please do!!!!

[@donaldsmith3048]

I like your ideas. I just thought that if you used some LED stripes. You can get this from Amazon. It comes in a role about 16 feet around 300 LEDs. It can be cut every 3rd LED (it is marked) . It will be just a little work to cut strips to be put around to have more even light, not all the light coming from one small strip. You can cut this where you can put LED no both sides, the top and bottom. They work on 12 volts DC, easy to get power supply. You are using 12 volts fan but not sure what you are using is AC or DC. If you don't have DC there are power supply made for the lights. The LED tap role has peel and stick backing, and the about 16 feet role should be mush more than you need for this. Light strips on the sides top and bottom so light is coming from all around not just one place. They have different colors, some that change colors, and just about anything you can think of, but was thinking of low cost white. Not trying to give your bees a Disco. But if like the way the lights work out maybe you can do things for yourself. I use for emergency lighting. Power goes out, relay drops out and turns on lights powered from battery. If you want more ideas let me know. I was thinking about a big aluminum hear sink used to keep transistor cool. They are made to move heat away from transistor, they are different sizes but can also hold heat.

[@arnoldbeauchamp8390]

Hey Jason , on cleaning plastic frames I use a power washer ,lay frames on ground and have at it .They look like new.

[@JCsBees]

Thanks for the tip!

[@DoubleTopHoneyCo]

just, wow. good job!

[@JCsBees]

Thank you so much 😀

[@shawn8163]

Cool incubator

[@5hivesohio]

Wouldn't be Sunday morning without my coffee and JC's Bees Video!

[@JCsBees]

I appreciate that, Eric!

[@backyardbeeandgarden3875]

Hi JC, I want to try this this year. I just treated my new package bees with oxalic acid vaporizer. Hope to control mites well this year.

[@josephwoodall832]

Outstanding wish I could do it.

[@Digger927]

Neat incubator Jason, nice job! Spent a lot of time there playing with your drawers though, lol. I'm just using my GQF incubator from the old days raising game birds. It's pretty slick but a little big for no more queens than I have in there. I have a couple hundred in there now in one of the three trays. LOL, JK...I don't have any in there yet. Between the incubator and hatcher unit though I bet I could get a few hundred queens in there if I needed to. I should have some queen cells ready to put in the incubator this coming week, first round so far. I've caught two swarms this weekend. The one today completely filled a ten frame deep hive, I'm gonna drop a super on it tomorrow since all the frames are already drawn. Good flow going on here now, the honey locusts are all in bloom and white ladino clover is popping. My bee hives are all busting at the seams.

[@JCsBees]

Thanks. I think this incubator will hold all the queens I raise for now. As I grow then my incubator may grow too. I see some people selling virgin queens for $15 each plus shipping. Seems like a super easy market to get in on. Of course, mated queen pay better but there is long time investment. So you grafted? Or did you use a different method to rear your queens? Nice to hear you gained a couple swarms. Are you on a swarm removal list or just got lucky?

[@Digger927]

@@JCsBeesYeah I've seen a hand full of guys selling unmated queens, seems like a waste of money to me. The value and the risk comes from them going out, mating and making it back safe. Imho, unmated queens shouldn't bring more than $5-$10. as easy as they are to make. I stopped grafting years ago, I hate fiddling with it. No more queens than I usually need, I just changed to walk away splits. When I did need to make quantities, I'd take a frame full of brood and eggs and punch holes below a bunch of the egg cells and put them into a cell builder colony. It's pretty sloppy but pretty easy to get them to draw out several nice cells that are harvestable. A couple of years ago I got into this nicot system and I really like it, it's slick, simple and quick. I hate handling the larvae, too easily damaged, chilled and too fiddly for my patience level. Queens are easy to find in the resource nucs to cage. I usually catch a few swarms coming through the farms and the locals know to call me if they find one hanging. I used to do cutouts around the area for free back in the 90's when I started with bees. I was the only bee keeper around the area so I made a lot of contacts and got pretty well known in the six years I did that. I have enough old bee equipment sitting around the farms and planted forage that a few swarms always get pulled in here close to home.

[@ONCE12309]

hello

[@JCsBees]

Howdy!

[@rogierdikkes]

Great, thanks! I was looking for commercial solutions, however they are 1000 euro for 30 cells. This year I want to go into queen rearing this year, since I ordered a buckfast queen and want these genes in all my hives.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

If you breed from a Buckfast queen, be careful where your drones come from. You can easily create bad tempered bees by using random drones with the daughters of a Buckfast queen.

[@mattpeneguy7812]

A Hobivator Styrofoam chicken egg incubator works fine. Queen cells are much more forgiving than chicken eggs with both temperature and humidity. The humidity through denial and error is perfect with a container of water with about 2" in diameter (if you have a different sized incubator the size will be different). One big bonus of the Hobivator is that cell bars slide tightly in. It's almost like they designed it for raising queens. If you want to build something like shown in the video, we have incubatorwarehouse.com here. I'm sure there's something similar to that site where you are. It shouldn't cost more than $50 USD to get the fan/heater and temperature controller.

[@JCsBees]

Very right you are there, Matt. Cells are a lot more forgiving than eggs. I don't even worry about humidity and it's never been an issue. It does seems to stay up on it's own though.

[@pankajmakwana2300]

Video is great, no offence that component is not a relay but a step down transformer changing higher to lower voltage. Keeping voltage low is better for safety and other risks. What temperature has to be maintained and has humidity got to be controlled as heaters will give dry heat. Thanks.

[@davidchilders495]

Been watching your queen rearing series for sometime now. Attempted my 1st grafting (here in SE Missouri) and had 7-successful capped queen cells. Very excited about that. Placed them in queen roller cages and then inside my Little Giant incubator. Temp has remained steady at 92.9 to 94.9. Moisture stayed aro 40-50%. Decided to check on them 2-days before hatch date and found all 7-queens dead inside cells. They had reached about 1/2" long in the pupal stage but all died. Was wondering if you had any explanation as to what I may have done or what may have happened for such a negative result? I've already re-loaded my cloake hive and have 15-successful capped queen cells but I'm hesitant to place them inside the incubator until I hear from you. Still remain a happy subscriber to you channel. Thanks ahead of time for any thoughts you may have.

[@JCsBees]

@David Childers Glad to hear your playing with rearing queens. Your temps and humidity are right where I would have them, good job. Now how do you know they were dead and not still developing? Here's the deal, if you graft slight younger larva than the desired 4 day old the hatching date for the cells will be later than the projected date using a queen rearing calendar. If you graft older larva than desired they will hatch sooner than the projected date. I just wonder if maybe you grafted younger than desired and they were not completely developed. It takes lots of practice to get everything right, don't give up. I am curious did the pupa have purple eyes?

[@davidchilders495]

@@JCsBees They did not have purple eyes. All were definitely dead & suspiciously all the same. You could see them falling inside the cells when tipped up or down. When I cut one of them open, they were aro 1/2" long and creamy white in color. Thanks for responding. I value your opinions & thoughts.

[@darkeblue]

Have you tried powerwashing the plastic frames? Just using one of those cheap high power nozzles that you attach to the hose to see if it does a better job than that drill.

[@JCsBees]

I have not tried power washing but it may work. Especially if you used an actual power washer. The drill did a great job though.

[@craigsheehan2805]

I power wash my plastic foundation and it cleans them off really well and in a jiffy.

[@planbeeapiaries]

Careful with the plastic frames in the sun, I have a couple that warped pretty bad after sitting out in the sun.

[@JCsBees]

Very true but your sun (heat) is different than mine this time of year. Mid summer it would be a sure concern.

[@daviddowen3887]

Had a question JC. Do you see any difference in queens, grafted at the same time, that hatch first or last? Or how do you evaluate your queens once they hatch?

[@gregtabithacundiff9357]

P.R.O.-fessional! LOL Nice build!

[@JCsBees]

I've said it that way for years. I used to do construction and this was one of our favorite sayings. lol

[@ad4gc]

@@JCsBees I like it, it caught me off-guard and got to laughing, I had to back the video up to catch up after it.

[@charlesthomas5737]

Jason, I made my incubator out of the top freezer area of a refrigerator, my question is when your cells are capped are your JZBZ cups filled full with jelly at that time when you put them in the incubator? I can see the cups are full while they are drawing the cells down, but notice some cells are not filled as full as i would like them to be when i put then in the incubator. I do put a pollen patty on the cell builder and I came up with a better way of feeding pollen sub . take one cup of 2 to 1 sugar water add pollen powder to it and mix with a hand mixer with one beater add the pollen power until the mix is like thick pancake batter drizzle the mix on top of the frames the bees love it , they look like they are sucking down a pollen milk shake.

[@JCsBees]

@Charles Thomas No, the cells are not fully filled with royal jelly, only about 1/3 (sometimes less). That really varies on the flow at the time, if the bees are lacking in resources you will have less jelly per cell thus getting a lesser quality queen. I'll have to try the bee milkshake and see how the ladies like it. lol

[@route-249]

Hey Jason, do you sell nucs, packages, or queens? I also live in Ohio and am always interested in getting bees that winter here so that I know they have genetics that do well here. Oh and keep up the good work. I always watch your videos...

[@JCsBees]

Yes, I do but nucs are sold out for this season, queen sales will start in July. Here's a link jcsbeeblog.blogspot.com/p/my-bee-store.html

[@347raptor]

Jason you are the best. What about the incubator that you bought for the checks does that still work the current one you were building is too complicated for me

[@macwhite1234]

Jason what wattage did you use on that heater element ?

[@saeed4ish]

Hi friend I would like to see the 4 way box you makes for 4 queen hatching I would like to see this clip but can’t find it can you send the links or name of the clips for me thanks

[@JCsBees]

Hello, I have 2 videos that may interest you. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXzCi2yHhtCBZrM kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4uwlIygbM-ho8U

[@gregwaskom552]

Didnt the wire wheel damage the edges of the comb imprints. Wond if the bees will still work them as well

[@JCsBees]

The wire wheel did zero damage to the foundation.

[@mayan9458]

Genius.

[@johansen1010]

Its called a transformer . Not a relay. A cheap and easy to adapt thermostat is an a/c wall thermostat

[@ONCE12309]

هل ممكن استعمال فقاصة بيض الدجاج ....؟

[@saeed4ish]

Hi Jason I use the nicot queen rearing I put 50 cell with eggs in all 50 but it didn’t work when I check after 9 days I don’t see any eggs in them cell can you let me know where them eggs go

[@SpiritualButNotReligious]

Pretty cool incubator, I will be using a cheap eBay egg incubator. I was looking at your old videos do you still use the cell punch method sometimes? & what is your opinion of that method now that you have more experience under the cap?

[@JCsBees]

Thanks. I don't use the cell punch anymore, it's just easier for me to graft. I think the cell punch method is a great method for those who can not graft. It's pretty simple to do also. I do still sell cell punch kits if anyone is interested. They can be found here about half way down the page jcsbeeblog.blogspot.com/p/my-bee-store.html

[@eddevault4604]

Jason....remember who your viewers are...lol....two words....”Little Giant”...Tractor Supply....

[@JCsBees]

@ed devault Yes, the incubator I am switch from was the Little Giant. It worked well too but I needed something bigger and that did not open from the top.

[@eddevault4604]

I figured as much....and I think you like a challenge....Good Luck young man....

[@badassbees3680]

Sweet Build,how are you getting moisture in there? Ive tried bowl of water not that great, now I add sponge also and it's better,but gotta make sure it doesn't dry out

[@mattpeneguy7812]

A sponge will work great for increasing the humidity for a short period of time, but it'll dry out very rapidly. Humidity is related to surface area of the water container vs. volume of your incubator at whatever temperature. You have to experiment to dial it in, but once you do you are done. (It definitely doesn't help if the incubator is leaking air, if that's a factor in your case. So, make sure your incubator is sealed up reasonably well.) You may need a larger bowl, or more bowls. For my incubator I need a 2" diameter container.

[@JCsBees]

I don't worry about humidity and it stays up on it's own. It seems to stay above 40% about all the time.

[@nicholasjay3932]

What is the solid state relay fo

[@hockinghillshoneyfarm9273]

Hi Jason how is the Nuc's coming along you haven't said anything about them and do you have a date when they will be ready? thanks

[@JCsBees]

Hey Dave, Shot me an email and I will get back to you on nucs.

[@FuzzyOne37]

Hey Jason. So why did you go this route and NOT stick with the egg incubator you did a video about, about a year ago? What was wrong with that setup?

[@terryprentice9338]

Hi Jason, Is the incubator vented. Great video, going to have a go at making one.

[@JCsBees]

I don't have any vent as of yet but may add one. The door leaks a little so that why I haven't added any yet.

[@brittneys4001]

I have a question on the cages you have on your queen cells. Will those fit on the JZBZ cups?

[@JCsBees]

A JZBZ cup will sit on the end of roller cages but not very well, lots of wobble room.

[@brittneys4001]

Jason Chrisman ok that’s what I thought. Do you know of any place that sells a cage that can close that will fit on the JZBZ cups?

[@daviddowen3887]

@@brittneys4001 They will stick in there just fine with a little beeswax in my experience.

[@heathercrichlow228]

Hi 🇧🇧 how do o get a bee queen bee

[@patrickmullen3227]

Jason are you going to sell queens i am a farmer to in east central Illinois and yes this weather stinks

[@JCsBees]

Patrick, I will be in July. jcsbeeblog.blogspot.com/p/my-bee-store.html

[@danmweu3701]

cool welcome to kenya and share your experience with me. im passionate apiarist

[@beckieeldred5816]

Can you build again

[@JCsBees]

Why would I build it again?

[@zeb5478]

Not a relay. It is a transformer

[@cecildean3648]

A little off subject but how long after you introduce a new virgin queen to a hive before she will start laying?

[@mattpeneguy7812]

That's somewhat dependent on weather, but about 7 to 10 days.

[@JCsBees]

Like Matt said, It depends on the weather but it can take anywhere from a few days up to 3 weeks.

[@cecildean3648]

@@JCsBees Thanks Matt & Jason

[@smatt566]

you should use brushes. Plastic shoe brush or similar. Not the metal in the drill. its really dangerous for the eyes and not the correct tool. really really dangerous to use the metal brush with the drill, it can break with a nail and you loose an eye.

[@smatt566]

My dad is a 80yo iron worker and a 40 year experienced beekeeper. I have 10 year experience. Nice videos. Protect your eyes at all cost.

[@JCsBees]

Good point!!