I used a Chinese grafting pen, I have other grafting tools but I like the Chinese pen. I have used the JZBZ cups but found that the Nicot cups are much easier to insert and hold between the frames with their flared base . Another trick that I also do is pull the tongue out of the Chinese pen and shave with a razor blade so that it is thin enough to easily flex when touched to your finger nail. .
Interesting. the second graft you did that had "more acceptance", was this done after or at the same time? Very often when i am raising queens the second round of grafts i put in, often have better acceptance and none of the cells are pre filled, primed with royal jelly or put in the cell builder before i graft to get the bees to "polish out " the cells. i just graft direct in to brand new cups and get excellent acceptance, so i am not convinced. Can you please repeat this. It would be really useful to know if it does work. I will try this this season too and see what results i get. Just to say (constructive critism) i dont think your cell builder is as strong as it really could be. Your bees should be overwhelmingly strong, so strong in fact that hat you can hardly get the frame back in. You can see at 1:40 that your cell cups are not full of royal jelly (when you look though the side of the cell cup), which they should be when their capped over on day 5. Thats really the best scenario. I am really grateful you posted this and please dont take my comments the wrong way. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Richard, The grafts were done and installed at the same time from the same frame of larva. Your correct about the size of the hive it was small but it actually backs up the priming the cup with honey process. That small hive with limited bees knows it has limited resources to raise a queen so I am assuming that the bees would be even more critical on which larva to grow into a queen. I always feed the cell builder hive sugar syrup with liquid amino acids and powered vitamins to give the bees maximum materials to grow a healthy queen. I didn't take your comments as constructive criticism I looked at it as having an honest dialog between two beekeepers, let me know how your test comes out.
Jeff, brilliant. Thanks for your reply and yes, thanks for saying that. I am all for sharing etc, were all in this together. I will definitely give this a trial and get back to you with my results! we've all got to try different ideas! good luck this season! hope you raise lots of good queens. Richard.
Years ago before the eyes got old and the hands got unsteady I found that putting honey or syrup in the cell cups for the bees to clean the cups really helped.Like you I never got a queen to lay in the nicot system honey in the cells for them to clean them up or not.Now days it cut out queen cells put in hair roller cages.After all the years I also started using an incubator to hatch queens.Putting virgins in mating nucs is better than cells.You know that queen is in there and you dont have to worry if the cell was a dud.
it is also because one of the frames is dead in the middle of the cluster and the other is at the end where usually the are not so many nurse bees. The honey trick definitely works but placement of the frames also plays a part...abundance of nurse bees, difference in temperature etc etc
I came to a similar conclusion but got there a different way. When spraying frames with comb with 50/50 sugar water & bleach to attempt to get rid of chalkbrood, I noticed that the bees would clean up the comb that they hadn't otherwise been using... and that the queen began laying in the "freshened comb" not long after. I then tried spraying a grafting frame before polishing with 50/50 sugar water thinking it would attract more bees and noticed that there was significantly more wax build up around the edges of the cups than usual... which I interpreted as MORE visits. While spraying the frame with sugar water is easy, adding drop of honey in each cup is nearly as easy. It would take a little longer but would be less messy.
Jeff...just trying to make sure I understand this...did you add the drop of honey into the cup and place in to a swarm box to let bees polish before you grafted?
Hi Diana, That is correct, I put honey in each grafting cup and place the frame in the hive for 24 hours to make sure each cup has been licked clean by the bees and the cups are now prepped for grafting. I still use this method whenever I graft larva to insure a higher larva graft acceptance, I wish I thought of this before all my grafting failures in the past.....
Hi Max, First you put honey in the cups to force the bees to clean the cups out 24 hrs. prior to grafting. The sticky consistency of the royal jelly keeps the larva in place when the queen grafting rack is put into the hive.
Scoop out the larva and the jelly it is on top of, then place it in the graft cup. There are a bunch of videos of different ways people graft larva, choose the one you like and practice with it.
Hi Jeff, Did adding the drop off honey prove to be the answer to higher queen rates? I'll be grafting for my first time in the spring and have been trying to learn everything I can. Thanks for the video and all your helpful advice. Kurt
Hi Kurt, This trick has improved my queen grafting acceptance almost 100%. Now whenever I do a rack of queen grafts I always prep the cells with honey 24 hrs prior to grafting the larva. With a little practice you'll be grafting like the pro's, Good luck.
I don't know what else I can explain to you, I'm showing everyone on You-Tube how it increased my graft acceptance performance. Try it yourself, what do you have to loose, besides as you stated before you have a right out of the bag 95% graft success rate why are you even watching this video. This is for people like myself who have had problems with graft acceptance. As I stated before I wish I had your 95% success ratio in the beginning.
Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I tried the Nicot system a few years ago and the queen just wouldn't lay eggs in it, so I went back to the old reliable hand grafting. I may try the Nicot system again but prepping the cells with honey first, that is the trick that works.....
Hi Grenville, Any of the two would work, it makes the bees "want" to lick inside the graft cups. I use this little trick for grafting all the time now...
Jeff Willard brilliant gonna try it here in New Zealand, I think you’ve hit a jackpot as when bees move into a new drawn out super they put nectar in.. clean it out then eggs.. pushing up So well done Jeff! Just love this cleverness!
I wished you had shared this idea years ago because it would have saved me a lot of headaches, I have watched every Queen grafting video on You-Tube when I first stated out many years ago and I never saw anyone doing this. I never make a video if someone else has done one on the same subject, I feel that it is stealing from that persons idea..
I did it cause the available info said to give them a few days to clean and polish the cell cups and I didn't have a few days so I figured they would clean them quicker if I put honey in them and it worked. I didn't do it to increase acceptance
I disagree with you there Jeff.. If you do a video, you may do something just slightly different, that may make more sense to someone, or maybe your camera angle will catch something that was actually MISSED.. PLEASE don't not do a video, because someone else had done one like it. Thanks for this information
But, it looks like empty frames are in the right hence bees are crowded in the left near food and Nicot cup cells with blue mark. I cant see it from here. Im gonna try, thanks for the trick.
I used a Chinese grafting pen, I have other grafting tools but I like the Chinese pen. I have used the JZBZ cups but found that the Nicot cups are much easier to insert and hold between the frames with their flared base . Another trick that I also do is pull the tongue out of the Chinese pen and shave with a razor blade so that it is thin enough to easily flex when touched to your finger nail. .
Marvelous
Interesting. the second graft you did that had "more acceptance", was this done after or at the same time?
Very often when i am raising queens the second round of grafts i put in, often have better acceptance and none of the cells are pre filled, primed with royal jelly or put in the cell builder before i graft to get the bees to "polish out " the cells. i just graft direct in to brand new cups and get excellent acceptance, so i am not convinced. Can you please repeat this. It would be really useful to know if it does work. I will try this this season too and see what results i get.
Just to say (constructive critism) i dont think your cell builder is as strong as it really could be. Your bees should be overwhelmingly strong, so strong in fact that hat you can hardly get the frame back in. You can see at 1:40 that your cell cups are not full of royal jelly (when you look though the side of the cell cup), which they should be when their capped over on day 5. Thats really the best scenario. I am really grateful you posted this and please dont take my comments the wrong way. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Richard,
The grafts were done and installed at the same time from the same frame of larva. Your correct about the size of the hive it was small but it actually backs up the priming the cup with honey process. That small hive with limited bees knows it has limited resources to raise a queen so I am assuming that the bees would be even more critical on which larva to grow into a queen. I always feed the cell builder hive sugar syrup with liquid amino acids and powered vitamins to give the bees maximum materials to grow a healthy queen. I didn't take your comments as constructive criticism I looked at it as having an honest dialog between two beekeepers, let me know how your test comes out.
Jeff, brilliant. Thanks for your reply and yes, thanks for saying that. I am all for sharing etc, were all in this together. I will definitely give this a trial and get back to you with my results! we've all got to try different ideas! good luck this season! hope you raise lots of good queens. Richard.
Years ago before the eyes got old and the hands got unsteady I found that putting honey or syrup in the cell cups for the bees to clean the cups really helped.Like you I never got a queen to lay in the nicot system honey in the cells for them to clean them up or not.Now days it cut out queen cells put in hair roller cages.After all the years I also started using an incubator to hatch queens.Putting virgins in mating nucs is better than cells.You know that queen is in there and you dont have to worry if the cell was a dud.
That's a neat trick!
Thank you, it certainly surprised me.....
it is also because one of the frames is dead in the middle of the cluster and the other is at the end where usually the are not so many nurse bees. The honey trick definitely works but placement of the frames also plays a part...abundance of nurse bees, difference in temperature etc etc
I came to a similar conclusion but got there a different way. When spraying frames with comb with 50/50 sugar water & bleach to attempt to get rid of chalkbrood, I noticed that the bees would clean up the comb that they hadn't otherwise been using... and that the queen began laying in the "freshened comb" not long after. I then tried spraying a grafting frame before polishing with 50/50 sugar water thinking it would attract more bees and noticed that there was significantly more wax build up around the edges of the cups than usual... which I interpreted as MORE visits. While spraying the frame with sugar water is easy, adding drop of honey in each cup is nearly as easy. It would take a little longer but would be less messy.
Thanks for watching and sharing your idea.
Jeff...just trying to make sure I understand this...did you add the drop of honey into the cup and place in to a swarm box to let bees polish before you grafted?
Hi Diana,
That is correct, I put honey in each grafting cup and place the frame in the hive for 24 hours to make sure each cup has been licked clean by the bees and the cups are now prepped for grafting. I still use this method whenever I graft larva to insure a higher larva graft acceptance, I wish I thought of this before all my grafting failures in the past.....
what you put in cups or they are empty then you put larva , when you turn frame down they dont fall out
Hi Max,
First you put honey in the cups to force the bees to clean the cups out 24 hrs. prior to grafting. The sticky consistency of the royal jelly keeps the larva in place when the queen grafting rack is put into the hive.
so when i live it 24 h they will clean honey and put there royal jelly or i must take with larva little royal jelly
Scoop out the larva and the jelly it is on top of, then place it in the graft cup. There are a bunch of videos of different ways people graft larva, choose the one you like and practice with it.
never hurts to do something different and see if it works
I use this trick to clean the cups every time before I graft larva and it works each time. Thanks for watching....
Hi Jeff,
Did adding the drop off honey prove to be the answer to higher queen rates? I'll be grafting for my first time in the spring and have been trying to learn everything I can. Thanks for the video and all your helpful advice.
Kurt
Hi Kurt,
This trick has improved my queen grafting acceptance almost 100%. Now whenever I do a rack of queen grafts I always prep the cells with honey 24 hrs prior to grafting the larva. With a little practice you'll be grafting like the pro's, Good luck.
From what i see you have the frame with less take outside the brood nest and not next to the other cell bar. Why
I dont see very many bees also
I don't know what else I can explain to you, I'm showing everyone on You-Tube how it increased my graft acceptance performance. Try it yourself, what do you have to loose, besides as you stated before you have a right out of the bag 95% graft success rate why are you even watching this video. This is for people like myself who have had problems with graft acceptance. As I stated before I wish I had your 95% success ratio in the beginning.
i have grafted with cells right out of the bag and got 95% take
I wish I had your 95% grafting success, but then I wouldn't have thought this up to help other people like me...
Hi. 24 hrs before grafting larva I spray a lot of sugar syrup on to Nicot system. Bees will take care for the cups in no time.
Why you dont use nicot
Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I tried the Nicot system a few years ago and the queen just wouldn't lay eggs in it, so I went back to the old reliable hand grafting. I may try the Nicot system again but prepping the cells with honey first, that is the trick that works.....
Cool very interesting
Or even spray a light honey or sugar syrup mix over the cells? Hmm 🤔
Hi Grenville,
Any of the two would work, it makes the bees "want" to lick inside the graft cups. I use this little trick for grafting all the time now...
Jeff Willard brilliant gonna try it here in New Zealand, I think you’ve hit a jackpot as when bees move into a new drawn out super they put nectar in.. clean it out then eggs.. pushing up
So well done Jeff! Just love this cleverness!
Thank You....
most likely because the one frame with 6 capped is too far from bees main work area
The frames are equally spaced in the hive between the brood area
been doing this for several years
I wished you had shared this idea years ago because it would have saved me a lot of headaches, I have watched every Queen grafting video on You-Tube when I first stated out many years ago and I never saw anyone doing this. I never make a video if someone else has done one on the same subject, I feel that it is stealing from that persons idea..
I did it cause the available info said to give them a few days to clean and polish the cell cups and I didn't have a few days so I figured they would clean them quicker if I put honey in them and it worked. I didn't do it to increase acceptance
I disagree with you there Jeff.. If you do a video, you may do something just slightly different, that may make more sense to someone, or maybe your camera angle will catch something that was actually MISSED.. PLEASE don't not do a video, because someone else had done one like it. Thanks for this information
Maybe its because is in the center
The frames are in equal positions, 4th frame from the left and right... but thanks for the message.
But, it looks like empty frames are in the right hence bees are crowded in the left near food and Nicot cup cells with blue mark. I cant see it from here. Im gonna try, thanks for the trick.