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Jim Paysen lives here.
This story is about the development of the JZs BZs line of parts for Queen Raisers.
In about 1985, most queen raisers were using either hand dipped wax cups or a rather crude plastic cup made in Mexico. We were running out of cups and tried to borrow some to no avail. All other cell raisers were running low also, except one, (Mr X) who had 100,000 cups made in Korea. They were beautiful cups, but the bees just would not accept them. Mr X didn't know what to do with them so we purchased about 50,000 to line the front of our Convention display booth. That really worked good.!!
Because we had thoughts of having a die built $$$, it became obvious that we should find out why the bees didn't like those beautiful cups. For starters, We put an AD in the Bee Journal offering to pay $5.00 for every superceedure Queen cell anybody would send. We received 27. We tested everything!! (All trade secrets) and finally produced a cup the bees absolutely love.
At that time we were producing about 850 nucs a day on our assembly line. It took two men and a truck going around two days later just to plant cells in those nucs. That provoked an economical cell protector which could be planted as the nuc moved down the assembly line. It also gave us an opportunity to test a molding concept, which the molders said was impossible, to be used on our contemplated queen cage.
Some beekeepers didn't like the extra work of spreading the frames to put the cell close to brood, so we provided the Top Bar cell protector.
Many beekeepers use this protector as a re queening device. Her majesty, in the hive, has a given amount of vigor. The cell protector protects the new queen until she emerges, who also has a given amount of vigor. Neither Queen likes another woman in their house, so they have a serious dispute and the one with the most vigor wins. Usually it's the young queen and the hive has just been re queened. If the old queen is victorious, she generally deserves to head the colony for another year.
Then came the queen cage; Didn't like the burr comb the bees would build in the gap which resulted when the old style three hole wood cage was placed between the frames. Took more time to prepare for use, put the cork in the hole, pack the candy, position the sheet of plastic and the screen, and finally the staples. And then, when you're picking queens, where's that cork? Cost more to ship because they are heavier.
The JZs BZs queen cage eliminates most of those objections. Although the design developed slowly and we stubbed our toes several times and had to recall parts, the existing design is considered nearly flawless. Soon another revision will feature a removable candy tube which can be packed by automatic machinery. This will permit the user to receive the candy tubes in a vacuum sealed bag, snap them in position and the cage is ready to go. We urge all queen raisers to give them a try.
Then came the storage bar which provided a means to store queens in a hive until shipping day arrived. Then the bar and 46 queens can be transferred from the storage hive to a Mann Lake type shipping carton. The small shipping carton is provided when small shipments are made. Also used for shipping queen cells.
Next will come a plastic cell bar which will eliminate grafted cell cups from falling out of the cell bar without the chore of adding wax to improve cell retention. That cell bar will be so designed that with the aid of a simple fixture, all cells may be installed and removed by a single stroke.
And if the need for any item is indicated, it will be filled by a JZs BZs Part.
Since Mr X, and now Mr Y also have dies which duplicate the original JZs BZs parts we are compelled to say;
IF YOU CAN'T SEE THE INITIALS JZ BZ SOMEPLACE ON THE PART ~
IT'S PROBABLY AN INFERIOR COPY!
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