First Queen Grafting Day of the 2026 Season!

What a way to start the weekend! Today marks the first queen grafting day here at Chuck’s Honeybees in Old Ortega, Jacksonville. After building and sharing the cell starter setup yesterday on YouTube, I’m diving right into selecting the best larvae from my strongest hives.

The Process

Grafting is both art and science:

• Larvae Selection: Tiny 1-day-old grubs from proven queen mothers.
• Transfer: Gently grafting them into queen cups using a Chinese grafting tool.
• Incubation: Placed into the cell starter colony, where nurse bees feed them royal jelly.

By next weekend, we should see capped queen cells ready for hive introduction or mating nucs.

Yesterday’s Prep

If you missed it, check out my latest video where I assembled the cell starter kit. It’s the foundation for reliable queen cell production without buying from suppliers.

What’s Next?

• Monitor cell acceptance over the next 3 days.
• Plan for split hives to use these new queens.
• More updates coming as the cells develop!

Spring build-up is here—stay tuned for swarm prevention tips and nuc builds.

#OldOrtegaBees #MasterBeekeeper