Re-Queening

[Ron Young]

Ok,

Question that hopefully will give some insight to many. What is the best way to re-queen?

I have been told to remove the old queen two days prior to putting the caged queen in the hive, then allow them to release her on their own.

I have been told to remove the old queen a few hours before putting the old queen in, then allow them to release her.

I have been told to remove and replace all at the same time, allowing them to release her.

So what is the best way to do it?

[Ron Young]

It is getting that time of year for many, and I personally plan to requeen two this week, thus the reason behind my question. I will pick up on Thursday, so have Tuesday to remove if needed. I was just wondering about the possibility of them starting a queen cell in the two days, and rejecting the caged queen in favor of their own cell. Looking forward to the replies.

[Jacobs]

If you have the time and patience, I would go with the 2 day option. The bees will notice the removal of the queen and her pheromones in about 2 hours. The 2 day option really clears out the pheromones and lets the bees know they are queenless. They will not have spent too much time or energy in the replacement process, and should be more receptive to the scent of the new queen. If you just pull out the old queen and put the new queen cage in the hive, they may try and harm her in those initial hours. Many new queens that go up for mating flights are killed when they get disoriented and enter the wrong hive in the bee yard. The royal status does not give her protection if she smells funny.

[Wally]

I would remove in the morning and replace in the afternoon. I think you will have many queen cells if you wait 2 days.

[Ron Young]

I was successful on removing the old queens. I found the one on the last frame of 10. The other one, I looked through three times and did not find. So, having a queen excluder between the deeps, I started to shake bees off and remove the frames. Once I was down to about the last two, I spotted her on the queen excluder trying to get away. (A little tip from Wally) Thanks Wally.

I had them out by 11:45, so I will put the new queens in cages in around 4:00, and check them on Sunday.

I will let you know if it is a good acceptance.

[Ron Young]

Both queens released by today, Monday August 15. They were put in around 3:30 on Thrusday August 11. I did not go deep into the hive looking for a marked queen, but based on the tone of the hive, I am betting she is in their somewhere. They were much quieter when opened up than they have been all summer. I was not expecting that much change in four days! I was really expecting it to take three to five weeks to really change the hive. Does a new queen just go in and start giving all the other girls the what-for, and change things that fast, or is it just the Pheromone that she puts off?


I will wait about a week or so, then go in and look.