Grafting
Lexikon
Grafting refers, in queen rearing, to the deliberate transfer of very young bee larvae from normal worker cells into artificial queen cups.
Grafting refers, in queen rearing, to the deliberate transfer of very young bee larvae from normal worker cells into artificial queen cups. Because a larva can only develop into a queen during the first hours of its life, provided it is fed exclusively with royal jelly throughout, this technique allows the beekeeper to have offspring of selected breeder colonies raised specifically as queens, rather than waiting for random supersedure.
The age of the larvae used is decisive for success: according to the Bavarian Fachzentrum Bienen, the larvae removed must be no more than one and a half days old for a fully developed queen to grow from them. With a fine grafting tool or a sable-hair brush, the larva is carefully lifted out of the cell from its rounded side and placed in the prepared queen cup, without turning or injuring it.
In practice, grafting above all requires practice and a calm environment; many beekeepers use an illuminated magnifier to reliably identify the tiny larvae at all. A common beginner's mistake is using larvae that are too old, which at first glance hardly look any larger but are already on their way to becoming workers and then, despite being transferred, no longer produce a fully developed queen.