This is a temporary post.

Here’s a cheap and easy method of making queens that doesn’t require grafting. All you need is a foundationless frame full of open worker brood.

I’ve known about this method for years, but I’ve always found that buying mated queens was less of a headache to meet my unambitious approach to beekeeping. (I can’t afford to be ambitious. That requires money.)

Another cheap and easy method for making queens that I learned from this guy involves crowding a healthy colony into a small hive. The bees get crowded just like they do when they’re compelled to swarm. You just make sure to take all the swarm cells before the bees swarm. Swarm cells often produce the healthiest queens.

I write about it in more detail on this Facebook post.

The Fat Bee Man also provides a method for making your own queen cups from wax, just to show you that grafting isn’t an evil thing.