Equipment needed ..
   queen cell frame
   queen cell cups
   a little honey

I place my plastic queen cells on a two row frame and lightly coat with honey or sugar syrup. This encourages the bees to polish the cells. I don’t reuse them, but I think it help to have the bees polish and the frame gets “the odor of the hive”. I place this in the breeder queen’s hive until the next day when I’m ready to prepare the hive.

Preparing the hive to make queen cells

   Equipment needed ..
   2 division board feeders
   1-1 syrup
   nuc box

The hive with my Minnesota Hygienic breeder queen is now a very strong two-story hive. I take 5 frames of brood and the attached nurse bees and put with my breeder queen into a nuc box. I find the frame with the most larvae of the age I need and mark it as I put them in. Into the lower hive box I put 2 division board feeders and frames contain only honey or pollen. Do not leave any broad in this lower box. Do leave enough space for the queen cell frame. Now shake the bees from the top box’s 10 frames into this lower box. The lower box is thus loaded with bees and will be more so when the forages return tonight. Put the 10 frames from which you shook the bees back into the top box and place this top box on an adjacent hive for temporary storage. I replace the covers and leave the single lower box full of bees sit for 4 hours after I fill the feeders with 1-1 syrup.

Grafting .. later the same afternoon.

   Equipment needed ..
   grafting needle
   frame of larvae from nuc box
   warm moist towel
   miner type head light and 2x eye glasses

I use plastic queen cell cups and a frame that holds about 20 cups in two rows. For me the Chinese grafting tool with its soft plastic tip works best but you should try several types. It’s very important to graft only 2-3 day-old larvae. I’m of the age I need to wear reading glasses and also it helps to use one of those lights you wear on your cap. Two day old larvae are just beginning to become “bent” and the rings about the larvae are just barely visible. If the larvae are definitely “C” shaped or definitely “ringed”, it is too old to use. Try to place the larvae in the same position in the queen cell cup as it was in the comb. Take a small amount of royal jelly with the larvae. While you graft keep the cells covered as best you can with a moist towel. When you are finished, put the frame of queen cells into the single story breeder hive. Wear your bee veil, the crowded in bees by now realize there is no queen, there is no space and the ladies seem to remember it was you that left them in this stat

The following weekend ..

   Equipment needed ..
   moist towel
   Nuc box with breeder queen

Remove the frame with the queen cells. Keep this frame upright and treat it carefully. Rebuild the queen breeder hive by removing the division board feeders, cut out any queen cells on the lower frames and put back the 5 frames from the nuc you removed. Also put back the top box you temporary stored or an adjacent hive. Be careful to insure your breeder queen is moved back.

Making splits

   Equipment needed ..
   moist towel
   Frame of queen cells
   Nuc boxes

I make splits by taking about ½ of the brood and bees from a strong hive and placing into a nuc box. I push one of my new queen cells into the comb of one frame. Make sure you leave the queen in the original hive unless you are also wish to requeening the main hive. Don’t use queen cells that are smaller than the rest. Some people will hold the queen cell up a light and examine that they have a normal looking pupae. You don’t need to move the nuc boxes away from this apiary since the bees won’t leave the brood. The forages will return to the main hive. Within 2 days the queens should hatch and within another 2 days she should fly to be mated, weather allowing. Don’t disturb or examine them for at least 10 days as you don’t want to upset this process. When you return you should find a laying queen and brood in various stages of development.