Mana Kai Queen Rearing Operation - Harvesting

We spent time last week “grafting queen cells”

This week - we harvest these cells ready to place into new hives (splits) or queenless hives.

We begin by opening and inspecting the hive,

We pull out the frame of cells - hoping they have taken and grown well,

We brush off the bees nursing the queen cells and get them ready to incubate,

Each cell is individually removed from the frame and placed into an incubator. From here we take these cells out to site and find hives that need a new queen.

This could be for a new hive split, a queenless hive (where the queen has died or been killed) or to replace an older queen who is now not working hard for her hive.

Any Questions? Ask away!