How to : Build a portable queen cell incubator

I probably get more satisfaction from rearing my own queens than any other aspect of beekeeping. Furthermore, I've probably learnt more about bees and beekeeping by rearing queens than from producing tons {{1}} of honey over the years.When I use the term queen rearing here I'm referring to an active process in which I introduce larvae of the right age to a prepared colony (the 'cell raiser') and rear multiple queen cells simultaneously. Typically, I'll do this by grafting 'day old' larvae.Once sealed and mature, the queen cells are removed from the cell raiser and transferred to queenless colonies — full-size production hives, 5–frame nucs, or mini-nucs, as appropriate — where the queens emerge, fly from, and (eventually) get mated.It's an engrossing pastime that keeps me entertained, frustrated, and fascinated — in approximately equal measure — from late April until sometime in August.Part of the appeal is that queen rearing is not incompatible with honey production.These are not…

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