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.
Third Graft Attempt
“Many of the projects that we do that appear quite successful, it’s actually often the second or third time we’ve given it a try.” Dr. Edward Boyden, MIT