A Jenter kit or Karl Jenter kit is a piece of equipment used by

beekeepers A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper ...

to raise large numbers of queen honeybees. Rival techniques for rearing queen bees generally require grafting the honeybee

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e by hand. As such, the development of this kit by Karl Jenter is a significantly useful tool to assist in

beekeeping Beekeeping (or apiculture, from ) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as '' Melipona'' stingless bees are ...

Application

Beekeepers once had to graft the

honeybee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the c ...

eggs or larvae by hand, using tiny scoup-like tools and in some cases by using tools such as tweezers. This fiddly approach would frequently result in the damaging of the egg or larva that was being grafted thus halting the development into a queen bee. The Jenter kit uses a system of plastic cups or 'cells' in which a queen bee can lay her eggs. The cells containing the eggs can then be removed from the laying box and placed into an isolated box for larval development - with no direct handling of the larvae. As the first queen bee to hatch will kill rival hatchlings, the eggs are covered with a small plastic cage. This prevents a newly hatched queen from approaching the other eggs, and thus harming them. This allows a beekeeper to return to the hive to find a large number of newly hatched queen bees. Within 30 days, it is possible to rear as many as 50 queens using a single Jenter kit. Challenges with using the Jenter kit range from queens taking several days to decide to use the cups to lay in, to having to carefully observe the eggs and larvae which are hard to see due to the coloration of the cups in the kit.

Usage

In modern times, the Jenter kit is in use by Western European and North American

apiarist A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper o ...

s. The kit allows for Queen bees to be produced commercially to supply other beekeepers, or a beekeeper may increase their number of

hives Hives, also known as urticaria, is a kind of skin rash with red or flesh-colored, raised, itchy bumps. Hives may burn or sting. The patches of rash may appear on different body parts, with variable duration from minutes to days, and typically ...

. Both uses have become increasingly important as a mechanism to maintain large numbers of bee colonies worldwide in the fight against

Varroa mites ''Varroa destructor'', the Varroa mite, is an ectoparasite, external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on honey bees and is one of the most damaging honey bee pests in the world. A significant mite infestation leads to the death of a honey b ...

and

Colony collapse disorder Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee bee colony, colony disappear, leaving behind a queen bee, queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining ...

References

External links

How to use a Karl Jenter kit for Honey Bee Queen Rearing
(2008) {{BeeColonyMemberTypes Beekeeping tools