[music]
So we are here today to talk about grafting
and that is the process of transferring worker larva
into queen cups, which would then be put into
a cell builder colony to raise into queens, but
first we select a frame that has the appropriate
aged larva, we bring that in we keep it moist
by covering it with a damp dish cloth,
just damp, and then we need to have
really good lighting.
I like this fluorescent light because I can see
past it really well, it's not hot so it doesn't
desiccate the larva and that's critical.
We use a ten-power microscope to deposit
the larva in here and that allows us to see
exactly that we've done a good job.
You can see the larva lying in the embedded
royal jelly inside these queen cups.
I find this job I need to be relaxed to do it so
I put on some nice jazz music; I like the sultry
sounds of Diana Krall.
We have our little deserted island here the phones
turned off and a little bit of quiet time where I can
really focus and do a good job.
So let's get started.
We're going to use a tool called a grafting tool.
This is an old style Chinese made grafting tool.
It's got a bamboo plunger that moves up and down
like that and a flexible tip that's used to
pick up the larva and the royal jelly.
So we'll just show you how that works here.
We lift up the cloth, we look past our light,
it's a nice cool light, and I can see by it
and I just push the grafting tool down
the side of the cell wall and then remove it.
So we've got a larva on there and some of the
royal jelly and then we'll move that over to the
cup and look through the microscope, bend the
tongue, push the plunger and then slip the tool
out like we are pulling a shoe horn out.
Move over to the next cell base so I can see
it under the microscope, and it's identified by the
light so I know where I am going now,
and then I look back over to the frame and
I select the larva that is the right age, pick up
another larva, look through the scope and
deposit the larva.
I keep moving along with this, we want to get the
job done fairly quickly so that the larva don't
desiccate, and as soon as we are done one bar
we cover it up with a damp dish towel
and then when we've got all the graft bars done
we put them into a graft frame,
which I will show you here now.
This is the graft frame and we put the cell bar
into the graft frame, push it down into those
grooves there, once we fill this up with three
then we can again cover it up with a damp dish cloth
and carry it out to install in the cell builder.
The goal of all of this is to transfer the larva
into these cups without desiccating them,
so we keep them covered at all stages
with a damp cloth.
There's not a lot to this but it does take practice.
You need really good vision, so use your
reading glasses if you need to,
get a good light source and for
some of us the microscope is the best way so that we
can really see exactly what's going on.
Thanks for watching.
Good luck with your queen rearing.