Cell protector cage - 1pcs

Queen Rearing Cage for Queen Breeding – 1 pc

Plastic queen rearing cage (often known among beekeepers as "roller cage") is a practical tool for anyone who wants to maintain certainty when breeding their own queens. It is suitable for use in French breeding systems and other assemblies that allow queen rearing without grafting. The cage serves for safe placement of capped queen cells or newly emerged queens and helps significantly reduce losses in the most sensitive phase of emergence.

Safety for Queen Cell and Queen After Emergence

The main benefit for beekeepers is in reliable isolation of the queen cell or queen from surrounding activities in the hive. After emergence, the queen is protected from contact with rivals and from potential damage by worker bees – until the moment when you deliberately add her to a colony, nuc, or mating nuc. The mesh construction simultaneously allows bees to continue feeding and caring for her through the openings without risk of attack. The practical end plug facilitates controlled and safe release of the queen directly into the frame space.

Convenient Handling and Repeated Use

The cage is made of food-safe, durable plastic, which is easy to clean and disinfect and will withstand repeated use for multiple seasons without problems. A great advantage is the thoughtful compatibility: dimensionally it corresponds to standard queen cup holders in breeding sets, so it can be simply mounted directly on the holder without the need to remove the entire assembly from the breeding frame. This saves time and reduces the risk of chilling or mechanical damage to the queen cell.

Greater Certainty During Incubation, Transport, and Incubation

For situations where longer incubation, transport, or incubation outside the hive is needed (for example in an electric incubator), candy feed (honey-sugar) can be inserted into the lower part of the cage (plug/cap). The queen has food immediately available after emergence, which supports her vitality and reduces stress. Overall, you get a more flexible and safer breeding process with less risk of unnecessary losses.

Technical Parameters

Tip for beekeepers: Choose firmer candy feed for the plug, so that it doesn't soften in the warmth of the hive or incubator and the queen doesn't get stuck unnecessarily. Thanks to the construction, the cage can also be used as an introduction cage for safe introduction of a new queen to a queenless colony.

Professional Grafting System for Easier Queen Bee Rearing

Rearing your own queen bees is a beekeeper's path to greater self-sufficiency, better genetic control, and long-term stable colony productivity. This well-designed grafting system simplifies the entire process and makes queen rearing accessible even to less experienced beekeepers. It helps you obtain healthy and vital queens without lengthy, delicate manual work with larvae.

Why Choose This System

• Without manual grafting: No need to work with a grafting tool or transfer tiny larvae from comb. This is especially appreciated by beekeepers with weaker eyesight or less steady hands – the work is faster, more precise, and gentler on breeding material.
• Uniform larval age under control: You don't have to laboriously search for "correct" larvae or estimate their age. Thanks to precisely known timing from the breeder queen, you get larvae of the same age, which positively affects the quality of future queens.
• Gentle and safe handling: Larvae remain in original plastic cups and only the cups are transferred during work. This minimizes the risk of damage, drying out, or chilling during handling.

Technical Parameters of the Assembly

Step-by-Step Queen Rearing Guide

1. Preparing the breeding frame: Place the plastic frame with inserted cups (110 pcs) into a standard wooden frame. There are several options: cut an opening in drawn comb and screw the frame to the top bar, incorporate it into the midrib during wiring, or temporarily attach it to the comb with rubber bands or string. Bees will soon firmly attach the frame and naturally integrate it into the comb.
2. "Polishing" by bees: Place the prepared frame (including the transparent cover with queen excluder) into the colony for 2–3 days. Bees will coat the plastic with a thin layer of wax and propolis – thus adapting it, "scenting" it, and the frame will then be better accepted.
3. Isolating the breeder queen: Lightly brush the queen with honey from the queen excluder side. In a selected gentle and productive colony, find the breeder queen, place her through the front opening into the plastic frame and close it. The queen cannot pass through the narrow openings, but workers can pass through, be in contact with her, and continuously feed her.
4. Checking egg-laying: Place the frame in the center of the brood nest between combs with open brood. The queen usually lays eggs in the frame area within 2–4 hours. The next day, verify that eggs are at the bottom of the cells. If everything is in order, remove the front cover, release the queen, and return the frame so that bees continue to warm the laid eggs.
5. Checking larvae: On the fourth day, remove the frame, carefully brush off the bees, and check larval hatching (after approximately 72 hours, they lie at the bottom of the cell in a slight curve). A subtle sheen around the larva against the light usually means it is already in royal jelly and being fed.
6. Assembling the breeding bar: On a warm day (or in a temperature-controlled room), remove the back cover. Remove the plastic cups with larvae and insert them into yellow holders. Then snap these into base holders that you have previously mounted on breeding bars at 28–40 mm spacing.
7. Placing in breeding colony: Transfer the breeding frame to a prepared queenless colony or to a honey super separated from the brood chamber by a solid divider. Ideal is placement 30–60 minutes after dequeening, so that bees don't start building emergency queen cells from their own brood. Place the frame in the center of the brood body, where there is optimal temperature, humidity, and plenty of young nurse bees.
8. Incubation and emergence: On days 14–15 from egg-laying, cage mature queen cells by sliding the cylindrical rearing cage onto the cup holder. Add a small amount of candy or crystallized honey to the cage as first food for the young queen, who usually emerges on day 16.