OTS / cell notching — does Disselkoen's method actually work or is it forum folklore?
Skåne, 8 years, and this winter I finally read Mel Disselkoen's OTS (On The Spot) queen rearing material properly instead of absorbing it via forum osmosis. The core mechanical claim: make the colony queenless, then 'notch' — tear down the bottom third of cell walls under patches of the youngest larvae (under ~24-36 h old) — and the bees preferentially build emergency queen cells exactly there, on comb you chose, at a height you chose, easy to cut out and distribute to nucs. Plus his calendar-driven July splits for varroa-break and winter nucs.
I tried a first notch two weeks ago on a strong queenless split: 7 of my 9 notched sites drew cells, only two wild ones elsewhere. Small sample but honestly better than I expected. So, people who've run it for real seasons: does site-selection hold up reliably? Are emergency queens off notching genuinely as good as grafted ones, or is that the folklore part? Feels almost too simple compared to grafting.
#queen-rearing#ots#notching#emergency-cells
▲ 14 votes💬 4 replies
4 replies
MieleMarco · Jun 28, 2026
It works, and it isn't magic — you're just making cell-building physically convenient. Bees choosing emergency cells prefer sites where they can extend downward freely; notching manufactures those sites over larvae of the right age. My ratios run like yours, 70-80% take on the notched sites. Quality: the old 'emergency queens are inferior' line comes from bees sometimes choosing too-old larvae. Notching under larvae YOU verified as under 36 h removes exactly that failure mode. My notched queens are indistinguishable from my grafted ones in practice.
LavenderSophie · Jun 28, 2026
Ran OTS-style splits three seasons in Provence. Agree on quality with MieleMarco, with one caveat — a strong, well-fed cell builder matters more than the notch itself. Notch a weak split and you get few, small cells regardless of technique. His July-split timing also genuinely helps varroa here, the brood break lands right when mite loads climb.
PasiekaOlek · Jun 29, 2026
The part of OTS I'd flag for our latitudes: Disselkoen's calendar is built around Michigan. His July split dates translate poorly to Skåne or Małopolska — our season shuts earlier, so I run the equivalent split 2-3 weeks sooner or the nucs don't reach winter weight. The notching itself transfers fine, the calendar needs local adjustment.
SkaneBees · Jun 29, 2026
All three replies exactly what I was after — especially the calendar shift, PasiekaOlek, I'd been eyeing his dates suspiciously. Plan for next season: notching as the standard method, fat cell builders only, splits pulled forward to mid-June. Grafting tools officially demoted to backup.