How to use Capped Queen Cells
You can use capped queen cells to start new hives by making up splits or starting resource hives (4 over 4 NUCs, support hives, pamerized hives…). You should not expect 100% success rate with capped queen cells. Not all of the queen cells will hatch, not all hatched queens will get mated and not all matted queens will display an acceptable laying pattern. So you should start with more than you plan to end up with. Some estimates are that 75% will hatch and then 25% of those won’t return from their mating flights. I have not seen estimates on how many mated queens then develope into productive laying queens. For this reason it is common to put capped queen cells into small hives called mating NUCs until their laying pattern has been evaluated and then moving the acceptable layers into larger hives. Resource hives can be used as mating NUCs and then expanded to overwintering size.
Timing
Timing is very important at the beginning of this process. Queens usually emerge on day 17 after the egg is laid (egg laid on day 1, queen emerges on day 17). Mating NUCs or splits must be queenless for 12 to 24 hours before the queen cells are added and the cells must be added before the queens start to emerge. Queen cells are too fragile to move on days 11 to 14 and are usually moved into mating NUCs on day 15.
Making Mating NUCs (or Splits, or Resource Hives)
A good plan is to make up mating NUCs (or splits, or resource hives) the day before you will be putting the queen cells in. You can also make mating NUCs in the morning and add the queen cells in the evening. All you need to start each mating NUC is one frame of capped brood with bees and one frame of honey or nectar with bees. If the frames are not very full of bees you can shake in a few extra bees from other frames. This gives just enough bees and resources to support a hatched queen cell while the new queen goes on her mating flights. Not all of the queen cells will hatch and not all of the queens will mate successfully, so at some point you can take frames from unsuccessful NUCs and add them to successful ones. Or you can add them to weaker mating NUCs to give them a boost.
When making up mating NUCs you must make sure you do not put a laying queen into the mating NUCs and you must make sure there are no queen cells on the frames you use. A convenient way to do this is to use a shaker box (box with queen excluder on the bottom) to add bees. (I have not had much luck getting the bees to go down through my queens excluder when I use a shaker box. I suspect I am doing something wrong, so let me know if you have success with this method.) You have to start by shaking all the bees off of the first 2 frames by just shaking them into their original hive. Then check the bee-less frames for queen cells and remove any you find. Next, add the frames with no bees into your first NUC box. Then put the shaker box with queen excluder on top of your first NUC box. Now you can find 2 frames you want to use in your second NUC and shake the bees off of them. This time you shake the bees into the first NUC box. The bees will go down through the excluder and cover the first two frames. If you happen to shake a queen into the shaker box she will not be able to get through the excluder and you can find her and return her to her original hive. Do this as many times as you need to stock all the mating NUCs you want to make. If you pull frames from multiple hives, make sure you check the shaker box often and return any queens to their original hives. In case you just can’t see a queen that is in the shaker box, you could take the shaker box back to the current hive and dump any bees in the shaker box back into their original hive before you move on and start pulling frames from the next hive.
If you don’t use a shaker box then you must look over each frame very carefully to make sure you do not put a queen into your mating NUC. Michael Palmer says 20% of hives have 2 laying queens. So once you find a queen do not assume she is the only one, keep looking. If you have the time, you could put a queen excluder between the 2 hive bodies 4 or 5 days before making up the mating NUCs. Then look to see which box has eggs and very small larva. That is the box that has the queen so take frames from the other box to make NUCs.
Transporting Queen Cells
Always handle queen cells carefully, they are fragile. In the hive, queen cells are kept around 95 degrees. Some queen suppliers shipp queen cells sometimes with a heat source and sometimes without. Depending on the distance shipped, suppliers only expect 50% or less of the cells to hatch. If you are only transporting for an hour or so you should not see much change from the usual 75% hatch rate. The best way to transport is by putting the cells in a “hair roller cage” and carrying them in a shirt pocket so your body heat keeps them warm. However you transport them, make sure they do not giggle around, perhaps by using rubber bands to hold the “hair roller cages” together. You may also have success using coffee cups in the drink holder of your vehicle or a small cooler with a warm bottle of water in it.
Adding Queen Cells
Always handle queen cells carefully, they are fragile. When adding the queen cells to the mating NUCs It is a good idea to use a queen cell protector. These prevent the bees from tearing down the sides of the queen cell. The bees may try to do this if they have not been queenless long enough or have started raising queen cells on their own. This protection can help increase the acceptance rate of queen cells. Press the queen cell and protector into the upper section of one of the drawn wax frames and make an indentation with your thumb in the wax of the frame facing it so that it creates space around the queen cell when the two frames are pushed together. Also make sure there is nothing under the queen cell that would prevent the queen from coming out of the bottom of the cell. You can also just hang the queen cell and protector between 2 frames, making sure there is nothing under the cell that would prevent the queen from coming out.
Feeding
To increase the acceptance rate of queen cells, and just in case the nectar flow stops or the weather prevents foraging, you should feed 1:1 sugar syrup as soon as you make the mating NUC and for at least the first week after adding the queen cell.
Check for Hatched Cells
You put the queen cell in on day 15. Two days later, on day 17, the queen will emerge. Four days later on day 19 you should check each Mating NUC to see if there are any queen cells that did not hatch. Unhatched cells should be discarded. Make sure you have your days correct. If you are not 100% sure, then delay discarding by a day or two. The frames and bees from mating NUCs with unhatched queen cells can be added to mating NUCs that did have a queen cell hatch. Or they can be returned to their original hives. You must look for queen cells on these frames and destroy them before putting these frames in any other hives.
More Timing
The queens will start going on mating flights on days 21 & 22.
All of the capped brood that was in the frames you used to start the mating NUCs with will have emerged by day 24.
The first day the new queens could start lying is Day 28. You can give them an extra day or two and start looking for eggs on day 29 or 30 but don’t expect to find many eggs at first.
Treating for Mites
If you want to treat for mites, day 34 is a good time to do it since there is 0 capped brood in the mating NUCs as of this day. Any eggs that were in the frames used to make mating NUCs would emerge by this day. There will not be any capped brood from the new queen until day 37. Tha leaves 4 days with no capped brood and therefore no mites under any cappings. Treat sooner than day 34 if using a timed release method.
Checking and Evaluating
By day 35 you should expect to see eggs. Day 37 is the first day possible for you to see capped brood from the new queen.
On day 41 there should be enough capped brood and larva that you can evaluate the laying pattern of the queen and determine if she is sellable or usable.
Give Them More Space
On day 49 brood from the new queen will start emerging. The hive will start building in numbers at this point. If you are not going to remove the queen and use her to re-queen an existing hive you may need to give them extra space around this day. At this point you should start managing the NUC as a normal hive. Move the frames, bees and queen into standard equipment and give them frames to expand onto. Or if your are using resource hives this is the point you could add the upper boxes. Pull one brood frame up into the upper box so the bees will expand up.
Get a Free Queen Rearing Calendar
Keeping things scheduled and happening on the correct day is easier if you use a Queen Rearing Calendar. You can use the free one at: http://www.loneoakhoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Siouxland-Beekeepers-Queen-Rearing-generator.xlsx