Systems of this kind allow queen rearing without grafting. The queen lays in an enclosed cassette with removable cell bases, and the larvae are transferred still sitting in their own cell.

The principle

• A cassette is fitted into a frame and placed in the colony for several days so the bees clean it and it takes on the nest odour
• The queen is confined inside and lays in the prepared cells
• She is released once laying is complete
• After a few days the cell bases, with the larvae still in them, are removed and mounted on a rearing bar

The larva is never touched, never lifted, and never exposed.

The real advantages

• No grafting skill needed — the largest barrier for most beekeepers disappears
• The larva is undamaged and not exposed to air, light or drying
• The age is exactly known, because the laying date is known

The second and third points are where the quality gain sits. Larval age determines queen quality more than anything else, and here it is not an estimate.

The drawbacks

• More planning: The queen must be confined days in advance
• The queen must accept the cassette; this does not always work first time
• Cost compared with a grafting tool
• Less flexible: You cannot rear spontaneously from a chosen colony
• The number of larvae per round is fixed by the system

Getting the queen to lay

The cassette goes into the colony several days beforehand. A unit straight from the packaging often goes unused: the bees have not cleaned it and it carries no nest odour.

The schedule

The laying date is the starting point, and every other date follows from it: transfer, sealing, emergence, moving to mating nuclei.

Because the laying date is certain, this schedule is more reliable than with grafting.

Who it suits

Beekeepers rearing tens of queens a year who cannot manage grafting, or who have difficulty with fine close work.

For large-scale commercial production, grafting generally remains faster and cheaper.