At the beginning of July,  Philip Denwood will give us a demonstration at the Association Apiary of queen raising using the “Ben Harden” method.    This is similar in many ways to the “Jenter” method described by Will Steynor at our March meeting.

In this method,  the queen is made to lay in a special cage which contains a number of removable cell cups.   After 4 days the cups with young larvae are transferred to a frame containing a row of cell holders where the queen cells can develop. 

Fourteen days after the eggs were laid,  the sealed queen cells are transferred to apideas (small polystyrene mating boxes) where the queens emerge and remain until mated.  

The procedure sounds straightforward enough when you see it written down but there are many pitfalls and we are very grateful to Philip for coming to show us how it should be done.

The timetable is quite critical. The various operations will be done on the following days.

Day 0 - Wednesday 2nd. July. 7:00 pm. The queen will be introduced into the laying cage.

Day 4 - Sunday 6th July.  

11:00 am The cell raising colony will be prepared and the queen released from the laying cage (if she has not already been released by the workers).   The colony will then be left for two hours to settle down.

12: 30 pm.   Go for a pub lunch

2:30 pm.    The cell cups with the young larvae will be transferred to the cell cup holders.

Day 14 - Wednesday 16th July.  7:00pm.    The sealed cells will be transferred to Apidea boxes.

The timing of these operations is critical so they will need to go ahead even if the weather is poor.

I hope that as many of our members as possible will be able to come along. It will be an excellent opportunity to gain experience of a very important beekeeping technique (and enjoy a pub lunch together on the Sunday!)