Small Scale Commercial Queen Rearing

a Canadian Beekeeper's Blog
Here is a collection of all my 2018 queen rearing videos starting with setting up the queenless cell builder, managing the graft, rotation of the graft frames though the cell builder and into the queen cell incubator. I show how we make up nuc, and then the process of using the queen cells to mate in the nucs which then I use as multi queen colonies to collect the late summer honey crop.
Hope you enjoy the recap from the 2018 season! Don't hesitate to comment below with question on this video and I'll do my best to answer.
Ian

[@QWhyAwhy]

Just came across your KZbin channel last night and have to say your vids are some of the most enjoyable, easy watching and informative that I have seen, they just have a very relaxed feel to them and really highlight that being organised, thinking and planing ahead with back up plans if something doesn't go quite right can make beekeeping more enjoyable and, dare I say, potentially more profitable and less stressful. Well done to you, yoiur family and your team, hope you continue to produce them.

[@gerardjohnson2106]

I don't have bees. At 68yo I may never but I can't not watch every minute of your apiary work. My inquisitive nature totally enjoys the information you exude. Thanks for the entertainment, education and commentary.

[@mikecabral1579]

Gerard Johnson Ha ha I’m 70 years old and in the same boat. Who knew I would be watching bee videos listening to Roman history books, watercoloring videos and panting. Spend most of my time in bed because of a back issue that can’t be fixed. However, filling my time with topics that to my surprise peak my interest. Have fun Gerard I am.

[@k_froggy]

Man Carrie is a lifesaver. Great work and video. Really enjoying seeing the longer ones all put together its a lot easier to learn from.

[@philsstuff]

Really appreciate these videos. Always valuable information to be gleaned.

[@runningdogapiary5009]

Thank you for sharing the knowledge that you have acquired. I love that the 3 nucs have the same footprint as 2 full hives. Very efficient...genious.

[@vaclav2062]

Thank you very much, I was rearing queens for fisrt time this year and it didn't go quite well, after countless attempts i had queens with 1 month delay, this video might help for next year. Greeting from Czech republic

[@bennytroyer8897]

this is a fantastic i love the way you put it together i know what to have people watch when they ask me about queen rearing ,thanks for all the hard work. benny

[@sherifkarnak]

Please keep doing what you`re doing you are helping us tremendously, you are a bright example of the very rare good and successful people who share their knowledge and experience, so we who also want to accomplish something in the beekeeping sector can benefit and learn from it. Thank you so much, greetings from Bulgaria.

[@grounded7362]

Ian Thanks for the great hands on video of your queen rearing process. I have tried grafting this year of the first time and my first round I grafted 24 and ended up with 4 drawn out. WOOHOO my second round I grafted 8 thinking maybe I just took to long and chilled them trying to graft to many at a time. Second round I have 7 out of 8 drawn out. You mention that your builders get a little upset if you don't use a little smoke. So far what I am seeing is mine get very flighty but do not get defensive and stinging. I am noticing this year (I am paying much more attention to everything this year), that my colonies that ended up queenless or have a queen cell just going about their business, but as soon as they have a virgin queen in the hive they are as pissy as they can be until the queen is mated. Prior to having a virgin in the hive when they were queenright they were very pleasant.

[@PawPawMountain]

Thanks Ian, Your information is priceless!! Blessings to you and the family!

[@flatwoodsbeefarm1015]

Thank you, Ian, for making this video. It couldn't have come at a better time. Winter finally arrives here in North Carolina this weekend. Snowstorm headed in. This will be a great snowy day video to watch. Thanks again.

[@tonybass5662]

Another great video. Thank you Ian. You are a great resource to the community and I wholly appreciate all you do.

[@skylerruin]

I just found bee keeping videos 2 days ago. Today I found you channel and you read a letter from a keeper in the town near me. Fantastic stuff. Trying to learn everything i can.

[@steveluepke9654]

Love your audience in the background. Family is the most important and keeping them in the loop is great. Love your info videos. Merry Christmas

[@jayl8813]

I have 2 daughters and 5 hives. I wish I had your energy and time lol. Love to explode things here. Cheers to you. Thanks for the videos. Ontario.

[@scottmaschino1927]

Was hoping you would do something like this. Very helpful seeing the whole rearing program in a single vid. Thanks for taking the time to do it. One thing I would like next season would be more of Carrie and her thoughts and techniques.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

that might be a hard sell

[@scottmaschino1927]

@@aCanadianBeekeepersBloglol. Figured she probably wouldn't want to. It would be nice though. Running your queen rearing program successfully like it seems she has, I think she could give a lot of useful advice. Tried it last year myself and had very poor results after the first batch. Hoping for better luck next year.

[@soundsofnature7015]

Brilliant videos and quite an amazing operation. Keep up the good work.

[@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork]

@ 31:00 excellent explanation of how this affects your operation.. greatly appreciated! Thanks for another great video!

[@baddestbees5924]

HELL YEAH..GOOD ONE AS ALWAYS..BLESSED TEACHER,BLESSED LISTENERS TOO

[@ke6gwf]

Excellent explanation of the process and why! Thank you

[@hootervillehoneybees8664]

Great stuff Ian and Carrie

[@247KW]

This video is AMAZING. Thank you for making it.

[@toufik326]

In the name of humanity;THANK YOU for the informations you're sharing with us!!

[@josephwoodall832]

This to me looks like the fun part of beekeeping nice video I really enjoyed it

[@framcesmoore]

Ha Ian just found this video it was great thanks I found some talks u did as well u did a wonderful job with the slides and speaking have a wonderful week

[@teejay401]

Thanks Ian. Great video

[@MasiMoreno]

Que fantastica familia tienes... me he reído mucho con la niña pequeña que no paraba de reírse..😂😂

[@imkereistappert3183]

Good Job and great Way to do a lot of them! Compliments to Carry:-)

[@zwz.zdenek]

Very informative. I wonder what a large-scale production looks like because yours impressed me a lot already.

[@DuncanHeather]

Really appreciate the time you took, to put this together. Such useful information, hugely appreciated. You may want to check out the video which goes blank at 54.47

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

ah shoot, it does!

[@goranpavlovic932]

Good work Ian. Regards from Serbia!

[@drjmarkrodgers1428]

Great example of ingenuity at work!

[@davidryle1164]

You're idea of cranky bees and my idea of cranky bees.......two very different creatures, really great video, please keep doing them.

[@cricketscorner6514]

You cant argue with success. 😎👍👍

[@w4447]

What I have been seeing on you tube about rearing your own queens comes down to something more fundamental. With imported or queens from other areas you just aren't getting the genes you need for your hives. I'm in Florida not Manitoba. I would never think of shipping my bees to your climate up there. They'd never last the winter.

[@outdoors30rudenko63]

Nice work I watch your videos and learn something new all the time i’m a beginner we keep her I can’t get my bees just survive the winters in Iowa

[@stevesoutdoorworld4340]

Thanks for sharing sure like the way you roll.

[@danilamahag535]

2017 user until now... thank God HD...I i am a cancer but now thank GOD im ok... becuase of this product..

[@andrewmunn3499]

Nice work as always Mister. What I find most interesting is your selection criteria, the fact that you are taking into account the importance of propolis production and its effects on colony well being is a big deal in my opinion. I raise my own bee's from my own bees as well, but am always looking for fresh "northern hearty" genetics to add to the pool for diversity. Let me know when your ready to ship a few of those girls out East...seriously.

[@brooksmillfarms7087]

Your expression as you walk into the “cluttered” honey house 😂😂

[@shawngordon1563]

Wonderful videos

[@puttyputt5074]

The Canadian MAN NO QUESTION!!!!!

[@nohandle62]

Fascinating business.

[@framcesmoore]

This was really good Thanks

[@smokeydabeecharlescoleman8365]

that grass ia very tall, may want to drill and run a wire between those frame rests. Maybe a retractable keychain for the date disk. Cool items. Love the family vids.

[@trentsmith3672]

Thank you. I got my order in. Merry Christmas.

[@decaturridgebees8761]

What a great wife! You are blessed my friend

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Decatur Ridge Bees Carrie is my farm employee

[@decaturridgebees8761]

Oh lol! I’ll shut up

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGWXfZuIatxpnKs

[@adanlibrado9032]

Good video greetings from Mexico

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Mexico, thanks!

[@HornadySetiawan]

Your 'small scale' doesn't look small to me...,😘😘😘

[@YOUR00RIGHT]

This is large scale indeed😊

[@harveygussow7913]

Thanks Carie!

[@BIBBA_UK]

Really nice to see you moving away from buying in queens to producing your own. Much more sustainable. It would be interesting to know how things have changed for you since changing to your own, locally reared stock.

[@beebob1279]

I always like to see how different pollinators and breeders produce their queens. The grafting methods are generally the same, but the rest is always a little different from each other. Thanks for showing your method of producing the nucleus colonies from single boxes. Where I am that won't work due to hive beetles, so I'll just divide the double deeps we run and take the top box away. Replace the top frames with foundation and let the original colony re-build new comb. A question I have it this. My colonies continue to get either DWV or PMS. The mite counts are 2 and below. This year I've even gone so far as to use Apivar going into fall to kill any mites being brought in by my hives robbing local crashing colonies (mite issues in neighboring community hives). Any idea how I can fix this? With those dead outs I'm trashing the old comb that may be harboring the viruses. Any other suggestions for me? It's frustrating.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Bee Bob Just killing mites

[@beth-rg8bm]

8:00 Yes... A definite step in the right direction!

[@jeffsea6490]

*AbsolutelyAstounding*

[@trentsmith3672]

Thank you.

[@richardcich2018]

Remember Grandpa move around the three 2 box hives from the plum trees to field that had clover and potato patch along side...Dont think he ever got stung...Traded queens ? hives with neighbor that he knew in Europe who was a few miles away...( 1945 to 1955)

[@scottpierson7495]

Thank you 🙏

[@TheSoilandGreen]

23:05 I said amazing right when you did. Glad you agree lol 😂 bee goals

[@davidwalsh3734]

Great compilation of your queen rearing videos! The literature is full of references to starting on the emergency impulse and finishing on the swarm impulse relating to queen quality. Just wondering on your feelings on this as you just use queenless finisher. Obviously it works for you! Also why don't you use a Migratory cover for your nucs like you do for your production hives? Thanks for sharing your practises. Goes a long way to help new beeks!

[@abdulameerbahrouh1316]

Thx... Very nice and cool

[@lisagrafton2529]

Looking for the queen reminds me of the Where's Waldo puzzles!! LOL

[@carlnelson708]

Thanks Excellent excellent video

[@zanemahlythi8249]

Very good

[@toorawsteven]

Hey Ian quick questions. Some of my hives took a dump on me recently, I have some really full hives right now. Do you think I will be able to do splits in the spring and still have enough time to pollinate almonds?

[@mcgavernvue3782]

Canadian Beekeeper's Blog, I just want to take this time to say Thank you for uploading video my family and friends enjoy watching vblog. Keep it up you are making a difference. If you have time please buy a 4k resolution camera and record yourself it will make everything less blurry. I recommend getting a Sony 6500 it is small and it can record in great resolution. Good job we will be watching you from Central California.

[@fayesmith9059]

I love to watch the bees it relax me I love it

[@justducky0]

Hey Ian, thanks for sharing your thoughts through the season. What is the eyepiece your grafting artist is using?

[@kevmarmarsh4238]

Great vid compilation. I now have some vids to work from next year. what do you use to determine your breeder Queens. Also any idea of percentage lost to swarming, and have you even gone through the trouble of catching and rehoming them?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

I use a flag system, finding characteristics wanted. Add the flag to brilliance, take the flag away from undesirable traits

[@ruannaude8197]

In your grafting hive with the queenless young bee's. How do you keep them from becoming laying workers with no brood in the box ??

[@rimsa80]

Hello Ian thanks for taking time and making videos. I have a question about regrafting. How come they feed new queens when they got cupped ones?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

The queen disc can be found at: [e-mail]

[@arkansasbeekeeper]

Thanks Ian for posting dcs email address. I watched this video last night and decided I was going to purchase a disc. Got up this morning planning on spending 30 mins looking back through your videos looking for his email address. Enjoy your video. Thanks for taking the time.

[@pescariabarcoserotas3490]

Bom Trabalho .

[@oriben-shir6742]

how can i find your selection criteria? and how do you actually check for the various criteria? thanks, O

[@jameshowlett1590]

Hi Ian, when you put seconds on the nucs you spray the bees with something. Is that honey bee healthy to stop them fighting

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

ya HBH to help merge smells

[@user-fy5jb5wk6i]

Ian thanks so much for sharing. Do you use breeder queens that are artificially inseminated for grafting your larvae or else? Thanks in advance

[@roycarter6235]

It is great to see a US beekeeper wearing some level of protection. Do they have magic bees in the US? My bees are quite docile BUT!!! they will sting from time to time. I must be a a chicken as I don't appreciate being stung. As for the content of the video. Thank you, you have given me a lot to consider and trial

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Canadian;)

[@linr2870]

Query, where do you buy your graft bars, also when moving new nucs, after you move them to their new home do you close them up for a day to keep bees from going back to old hive? TIA

[@TrestleCoffee]

Love your videos! I am a newbee but wonder why you put the cells into an incubator rather then straight into the nucs?

[@peppersanchez6044]

Next generation of beekeepers

[@notafuckinpplperson8233]

how long can u keep a builder box in rotation? once your done with the builder box, do you add a queen in and turn it back into a honey producing hive?

[@jonhale482]

Awesome Video!! Couple questions. what is a good set up for drone yard? and. Would you mind sharing the dimensions for your nucs to fit 3 under the 2. that is awesome and I would love to try it.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

I use my production yards as my drone bank, as those are drones off the queens we mated last season. So a multi year stratagy. the dimension of the nucs are 11 inches wide

[@user-fy5jb5wk6i]

Hi Ian, thanks so much for sharing! Great video!Do you use breeder queens that are artificially inseminated for grafting your larvae or else? Thanks in advance for any of your opinion on the subject of AI queens.

[@mamoore314]

Can you shake bulk bees into builders while cells are in?

[@fjbamberger6474]

Hi Ian. I saw this video, and love it, it explained a lot of questions I had. I am currently working in North Dakota as a bee keeper. My employer normally just buy his new queens. I am a South African and have my own hives back home, so my question is, will queen rearing work in South Africa (southern hemisphere).

[@stefanoc49]

Hi, any special advice to reach the highest level of graft acceptance? Here's my personal list: 1. Dig the tip / rim of the plastic cell cup into beewax, to simulate the queen cell building process has already started; 2. Use a queenless cell builder with almost all brood hatched out; 3. Grafting the youngest larvae as possible; 4. Composed nutrition: syrup feeder + pollen patty. The only missing step i see is preparing the bottom of the cell cup: currently i'm grafting the larvae into the cleaned plastic bottom of the cell cup but i read some studies which describe that, adding some nectar or distilled water on the bottom of the cup (just a small drop) can help the acceptance of the cells. Have you ever tried? Do you directly graft on plastic cleaned cup?

[@jcmac185]

Where do your drones come from for mating? Do you have other hives that are producing drone?

[@beth-rg8bm]

My father once told me you don't pay for your existence until you raise a child of your own.... You must have been one little terror to have earned the pleasure of raising daughters...its gonna be a hoot to watch them grow in the upcoming years!

[@liargoldlg8652]

Kereen👍👍

[@LovinLife-pv7op]

Once the new queens hatch, how long will they live if there are no nucs ready to put them into?

[@gusmitchellcranesnesthoney6529]

Ian, have you tried or considered queen right cell builders? I had good success this spring with trying that way. Seems to provide a longer lived cell builder and doesn’t need as much replenishing.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

yes, it works better for sustaining and maintenance of the colony. Im focusing on 2-3 weeks, with continual bee boost. It eliminates the entire problem around rouge emergency cells that get missed

[@gusmitchellcranesnesthoney6529]

a Canadian Beekeeper’s Blog thanks for the reply, great video also. I use queen excluders often, but have never used them to let nucs share a super, I’m going to give that a try next summer. I really appreciate you sharing your management methods with single brood boxes in other videos and past posts on beesource.

[@kevmarmarsh4238]

I can never remember to ask this question, what determines the larvae that you use for the graft, what do I look for, how do I remove and place?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

look for the youngest well fed larvae, look for eggs, then find the larvae right next to them, as they are the freshest hatch

[@Ryangander-ww4br]

How do you graph the queen cup back into the frame/Nuc for them to hatch

[@andrewsherwin2664]

Hey Ian. Question for you. Those foam pieces with all the holes for your cells when they go into the incubator; do you buy those or make them yourself? And if you make them, how do you drill the holes? I haven’t tried yet, but it seems to me that a regular drill bit would just catch and rip the foam apart. Thank for the great video!

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

I stole that foam out of my wife’s down stairs couch cushions. I used a 1/2” sharpened copper pipe to punch the holes

[@andrewsherwin2664]

a Canadian Beekeeper’s Blog ah perfect! Thank you so much.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

The video missed my finale, oh well, 54 min is long enough ha ha

[@TheOregonOutlaw]

Wondered WHAT happened! LOL Terrific video - thank you

[@chrifchrif8221]

a Canadian Beekeeper’s Blog شكر على الفديو انا مربي نحل متلكم صديقكم الجديد محمد الشريف الجزاءري

[@TheOregonOutlaw]

@@chrifchrif8221 You're welcome.

[@stufarnham]

Hi, Ian, I’m a small scale hobbyist. My goal is to become self sufficient this year via increase and by starting to rear my own queens. I lost several hives over the winter; two were too small to winter successfully (I suspected as much and should have combined them in the fall) and one to varroa, which reinforced for me the importance of follow-up monitoring. My question for you is this: I do not have the number of bees coming into the spring to fill a 10 frame shell builder as full as yours. Is this something that can be done with a smaller colony, say a five-frame nuc, that is relatively as full as you show? Thanks, Stu

[@BinodKumar-ff6dj]

Smallest girl is intelligent and bubbly. We remember our times when we couldn't stop laughing.

[@suzanneguiho4882]

Is there a video where we can see where and how you introduce the queen cell in the nuc? There is no mention of the drone cells when you talk about the brood frames that you install. You talked about mated queens...so...must have drones somewhere. Are they just mating by just one day deciding to take a flight and there are loose drones around somewhere in the air? How does that happen? Do you ever see the Virgin queen take her nuptial flight? I feel funny asking these questions. The more I listen to your video, the more I am second guessing myself in starting bee keeping. Your just too good at it.

[@lifeonsibuyanphilippines7212]

Yeah. . .. much information, but the more watched, the more questions I have. I would love to see videos on the basics and the details of "why".

[@suzanneguiho4882]

Life on Sibuyan, Philippines : I know I sometimes suffer from info overload. We are really dealing with advance info most of the time in theses video. I am at baby steps at this point and I find overwhelming sometimes. If you go to barnyard bees channel, he has videos for beginners and thy help me to ground myself I my reality. I would suggest him, although it is from the US and not from Canada, thus from a warmer climate . Hope you had a merry XMAS and wish you a Happy New Year.

[@joecnc3341]

What is the purpose of moving the frame from Position "A" to Position "B"? - is it just to help the timing of the frames to get them into the incubator at the correct time? or is there another purpose?

[@mickeylaster1627]

New viewer, how do you get new queen bees? Do the queens breed queens?

[@tonyt.1596]

I really like the round graft date minder. Is he selling these?

[@Vogda]

A quick question: do you manage to have a drone hive around the nucks?

[@steffenwuensch8549]

@Carrie Martindale-Wetherup How Do you find the breeders? What selection criteria you are looking for?