We have completed 7 grafting sessions – so far we have grafted approximately 400 eggs this season. Yesterday was day 6 of the Cloake Board method for grafting session 7. I had to remove the slide and close the main entrance which was originally rotated 180 degrees on day 3. Since it was raining I attached a large umbrella to my walking staff with duct tape so that I could work in the rain. I checked the developing queen cells and it looked like we had close to 100 % acceptance. Then I fed the bees a large amount of our pollen formula and refilled their sugar syrup feeder. The Carniolan and Russian cells will be sealed on Monday. Here are the remaining important dates for this grafting:
6/27/11 – move sealed queens cells to an incubator colony
7/4/11 – Virgins emerge
7/9/11 – Virgins begin mating
7/16/11 – Queens begin laying
7/20/11- We determine which queens can be sold based on their brood pattern and vigor.
