Yesterday, I made my third attempt to graft. We pulled a frame from Hive-B.1 and transported it to the house. I left it covered in bees and placed it in a special box that did not allow the frame to move in transit.

I made (15) grafts in (3) different types of cells: JZBZ’s green cups with JZBZ mounts, Brown JZBZ cups with waxed wood plug mounts, and wax cups on wood plugs.

The (15) grafts only took me (15) minutes – half the time of the previous two attempts. I also used a German tool rather than the Chinese tool. The last thing I did different was that I hooked the larva from the closed end of “C” rather than the open end.

I mean to say, that the larva forms a sort of “C” shape. Previously I tried to approach the open end of the “C” but found it much easier to do the opposite – as in the picture shown above.

The larva was placed into each cell with only the royal jelly that clung to it. This could cause a problem but I should know tomorrow night when I get home.

The grafts were placed in Hive-A.1.

CHICKENS:

I ordered (4) baby chicks that will arrive on Saturday morning. I am hoping they will help to break the beetle cycle. We’ll see.

For now VD (giggle giggle) is still infected (giggle giggle) – Damn it, it’s not funny! Anyway, I mashed all the beetles and larva in VD (giggle giggle… damn it) and added the frame of bees from Hive-B.1 and gave VD… the… (giggle giggle – DAMN IT!) the frame that I grafted from. This will either strengthen the hive or give the beetles more brood to eat.

All the hives at Dr. D’s are doing well.