Tips And Tricks For Keeping Males

Breeder's Lab
41

I’ve used small, soft paintbrushes to apply pollen and that works great as well. The bee to my surprise was by far the best approach that I’ve tried so far. Almost like a mini bottle brush - very gentle though and will not snag any pistils when you move it across them.

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Collects pollen off of a surface much better than either a paintbrush or a cotton swap as well.

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Cotton swap test with the same pollen source

I lost it eventually, but next time I find a bee I’ll probably save it to do that again.

I hot-glued it to a bamboo skewer after an ethanol soak. I dried it out using a ceramic heat gun hoping it would help clean it as well.

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42

Oh I like this, never thought of just covering the whole top of the plant. Thanks for the idea, will definitely go this route.
:love_you_gesture::love_you_gesture::love_you_gesture:

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43

Was the ethanol wash a precautionary Step to clean any pollen or pathogens off the bee or just to put the bugger out of its misery?

44

Yeah, mostly just to kill off anything living on it and help preserve it longer.

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45

You think they do this with the butterflies and bug display cases?I was a bug kid growing up and i used to collect beetles.Bee Taxidermy huh?That blows my mind cool

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46

Wouldn’t surprise me if they are preserving the insects long term for display purposes then the alcohol & drying out phase seem like a good idea. For me it was mostly a precaution & hope to keep the bee wand around for a while.

Was luck - was found in the winter time when it was snowy inside stuck in a spider web. The bee was found only a few minutes after I got a delivery notification on my phone telling me that my small paintbrushes that I ordered for pollinating has arrived. Good timing / sychronicity / luck.

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47

Dude thats cool as hell lmao. Nothing beats the basics! Do you get lucky and find a dead bee or are you a bee keeper?

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48

What’s the consensus of everyone, on what week is best for pollinating indica dom hybrids, week 2 or 4?

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49

3 weeks is recommended

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