Relarving means the transfer of youngest worker bee larvae into artificial queen cups and is an established technique to obtain new queen bees. However, it involves some uncertainties, especially for the doddering casual beekeeper with deteriorating visual acuity: Do I have the right tool? Will I pick up larvae at the right age? Do I have such good eyes or/and a suitable magnifying glass to see the tiny larvae? Are my hands steady enough so that I can work with the delicate relarving tool without hurting the larva?

Inspired by a tool offered by the chinaman, the idea of how to make the relarving process more robust against user error was born:

The larva, along with the cell, is punched out of the honeycomb with a cutting tool. Then the cell is clamped into a temporary cell holder. In this process, the larva is not touched, and it remains in its feed juice. The cell holder is simply hung in a perforated carrier between two combs.

In the first experiment, the colony accepted at least one of the three cells, but decided to attach the cell to the side of one of the honeycombs.

The cell holder was designed for 3D printing and manufactured in-house: It consists of two halves that are connected by a hinge. A household rubber holds the two halves together. This allows the punched-out cell to be clamped in place, or alternatively a conventional Nicot cup.

Tinkering is the beekeeper's delight :-)