Raising Multiple Queens from One Split, NO Grafting!

This is a follow-up to my double screen-board split video. After waiting 12 days, i moved the split to my home apiary. My hope was to get four queens from this one split. In order to accomplish that i had a queen castle ready to go. All i needed was four frames with viable queen cells from the split.

The queen castle has thin plywood dividers, a segmented inner cover, and four entrances which allow you to use it to store/raise up to four queens at a time. I’m using it as a super mating nuc. When I got into the split, I found three frames with viable queen cells. Two of these went into 2-frame nucs. Queen cell/brood frame + a honey frame. The last went into a 5-frame nuc where I removed a divider between two of the sections. That nuc will grow much more quickly with three brood frames and two resource frames.

The hope is that three queens will successfully emerge and mate. Since shooting the video i’ve checked and all three have a virgin queen. Mating flights should be happening soon and if all return then we’ll have eggs within the week. Once i see new eggs i will promote these nucs into larger boxes. The 2-frame nucs will move into 5-frame nucs while the 5-framer gets moved into a single deep. If someone doesn't return, I will combine the queenless nuc with a queen-right nuc.

I hope to constantly raise queens through this method all season. I have not requeened any of my hives this year. I will wait until after the flow and requeen in late July/early August when a brood break will help with mite management. The queen castle will allow me to raise and bank queens for planned and emergency replacements. If i end up with extras at the end of the season i will either sell them or overwinter some nucs. Thanks for watching and reading! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

#beekeeping #honeybees #queenrearing #beensbees