Rearing Frames

Queen rearing frames are special frames hung in the hive at different stages of queen rearing: the grafting (cell-bar) frame on which the queen cells are lined up, the restriction frame that confines the breeder queen to a single comb, the holding frame that protects ripe queen cells, and the queen bank frame that stores caged queens. All of them must fit the standard size of the hive and be easy to remove and insert without harming the cells or the queens. This page covers the types of frames, how they are built and chosen, and how they are used and maintained.

What is a queen rearing frame?

In queen rearing, queen cells, larvae and queens must sit inside the hive in an orderly, traceable and easily accessible way. The frames used for this look like ordinary hive frames from the outside, but instead of comb they contain bars, cell holders, excluder surfaces or cage slots. Because the frame is standard size, it can easily be hung in the middle of a starter, finisher or mating colony, where the nurse bees are most concentrated.

Only one of these frames, the restriction frame, holds comb for the queen to lay in. The grafting frame has no comb; the queen cups are lined up on bars and the larvae are transferred from another comb.

Which frames are used in queen rearing?

How is a grafting frame built and chosen?

A grafting frame is a frame with the same outer dimensions as your hive's brood frame, but with no comb inside. Two or three cell bars are fitted horizontally between the side bars.

• Removable or rotating bar: If the bar can be taken out of its slot or turned on its own axis, the mouths of the cups can be turned upwards for comfortable work during grafting and then turned back.
• Spacing between bars: Leave enough space so that the cells on the lower bar do not touch the bar above or the bottom of the frame; ripe queen cells are long.
• Cup spacing: Cups are spaced along the bar so that they will not stick to each other once they mature. Cells set too close together get damaged when they are separated.
• Cell holders: Plastic holders fit onto the bar and the cup sits on top of the holder. Because the ripe cell is removed together with its holder, the risk of crushing it is reduced.
• For wax cups: Wax cups are fixed to the bar with a drop of molten wax; the wax must be clean and free of treatment residues.
• Label space: Leave space on the top bar to write the batch number and grafting date.

How is a grafting frame used in the hive?

1. Let the bees clean the cups: The prepared frame is placed in a colony one day before grafting; the bees clean the new plastic and give it the colony scent.
2. Graft: The bars are taken out or turned one at a time, grafted, put back in the frame and covered with a damp cloth.
3. Give to the starter: The frame is hung in the middle of the starter, next to a pollen frame.
4. Move to the finisher: About 24 hours later acceptance is checked; without jarring, the frame is moved to the upper box of the finisher, between open brood and a pollen frame.
5. Distribute: On day 10 after grafting the ripe queen cells are removed together with their holders.

Common mistakes with grafting frames

• Loose holders: A holder that sits loosely on the bar can turn or fall off when the frame is lifted.
• Wrong size: A frame that does not sit properly in the hive leads the bees to attach the queen cells to the neighbouring comb.
• Jarring capped cells: In the days after capping the frame is not laid flat or shaken; bees are removed with a brush.

What is a restriction frame (frame cage) for?

A restriction frame is a box that encloses one comb and whose sides are made of queen excluder. The breeder queen is placed in this cage together with an empty, light-coloured comb and kept there for one or two days. Worker bees can pass through the excluder and tend the eggs, but the queen cannot leave the comb. As a result, all the eggs on the comb are the same age and the grafting day can be calculated precisely.

The same cage is also used in varroa control to restrict the queen's laying temporarily; but in the context of queen rearing its main job is pinning down the age of the larvae.

Holding frame for ripe queen cells

On days 9–10 after grafting, protective cages can be fitted over the ripe queen cells. These cages sit on the bars of the grafting frame or in the slots of a separate holding frame. Even if a queen emerges early she stays in her own cage and cannot reach the other cells, which gives one or two days of flexibility for distribution.

• The holding frame is kept above the queen excluder in a queenright colony, or in a queenless, populous colony.
• So that an emerging queen can feed inside the cage, the cage should contain a little fondant or be designed so that the bees can feed her through the mesh.
• A virgin queen that emerges in the cage is not kept there for days; she is given to a mating nucleus as soon as possible.

Queen bank frame

A queen bank means lining up mated queens, taken from mating nuclei or prepared for sale, in shipping cages on a frame and leaving them in the care of a strong colony. The frame has slots or laths to hold the cages; the cages are arranged with their mesh sides open to the bees.

• Colony: Choose a well-fed colony rich in young bees; queenless colonies, or colonies whose queen is kept in another box behind an excluder, are used.
• Duration: The bank is for short-term storage; the queens are given to colonies at the first opportunity.
• Checks: Check the bank colony regularly for queen cells being raised and for dead queens in the cages.

Maintenance, cleaning and storage

• Cleaning: Bars, holders and cages are cleared of wax and propolis after each batch; plastic parts are washed in hot water.
• Odour: Parts are not stored alongside varroa treatments, fuel or insecticides; odours lower acceptance.
• Disease: Frames and cages used in a colony showing signs of disease are not given to another colony without cleaning.
• Winter storage: Frames are stored in a dry, enclosed place, protected from wax moth.