How to make a new queen?

[Rover Girl]

A fellow beekeeper had a drone laying queen, which was destroyed. A new marked and clipped queen was put in. Yesterday (a week later) we discovered another queen in there - not clipped or marked and no sign of the marked queen. The thought is that the new marked queen was killed by the bees as there was another queen there - who is also a drone layer! There's very little brood in the hive.

I can help by giving a frame of fresh brood and eggs from one of my hives. If we kill off the new drone laying queen, then am I right in thinking that the bees will have a go at rearing a new queen from the fresh frame, what chance of success??

 

[oliver90owner]

Probably only manage a poor scrubby queen, if that.

Better for you to supply a sealed queen cell. Look up demaree, to produce one.

 

[Nige.Coll]

fail

 

[Nige.Coll]

Horsley recommends when doing this to inspect 3 to 4 days after they have been given the frame and been made q- .
If they have made queens from larvae those cells will be sealed.
Queen cells started with eggs will not.
Remove the sealed cells and pick the open cells with the smallest larvae and the most food in. This avoids scrub queens.

Saying that i found out i have a scrub queen in one of my hives and she has maintained a large colony over winter and now has 11 frames of bees and 9 frames of brood.
can never find her though because she isn't very big.

You need mature drones for it to work though Ireland seems to have been held back by the weather from what others have said.

You stand a fair chance but 100% fix is buy a mated queen.

 

[Midland Beek]

Option 1/ Kill duff queen and unite colony.

Option 2/ Kill duff queen and introduce another queen, and add some sealed brood to boost strength. If not another queen, a ripe queen cell.

I do not consider letting them raise an emergency queen a viable option.

 

[oliver90owner]

Old bees in the hive - OP did not say how strong the colony is, but I doubt it is in good shape to be rearing a good queen from emergency cells. Probably been drone laying for some time. Late supercedure last season and failing queen gone duff some time ago? Guessing here but I reckon a good queen cell provided would likely be far better than them making one.

 

[curry756]

how do you provide a queen cell?

 

[oliver90owner]

how do you provide a queen cell?

Read post #2.

 

[Midland Beek]

how do you provide a queen cell?

Read post #2.

Or read the most basic of bee books.

 

[Teemore]

how do you provide a queen cell?

Do you mean "How can I get the colony to produce Queen Cells?" OR
"How do I introduce a Queen cell into a Queenless colony/Nuc?"

To get a colony to produce Queen cells the simplest thing is to make them Queenless and ensure they have eggs and very young larvae from which they can raise a new queen. When a colony is inclined to swarm they will produce a number of Queen cells (numbering from "few" to "lots and lots").

In terms of introducing a Queen cell into a colony, it might be worthwhile having a chat with an established beekeeper and asking if you can observe the next time they do this as in this instance, seeing is doing.

As others have posted, reference to some of the basic beekeeping books and previous posts will help direct your further studies and enquiries. I would stress that you will find it very helpful to spend some time with an established beekeeper.

 

[Arfermo]

"How do I introduce a Queen cell into a Queenless colony/Nuc?"QUOTE]

I was once recommended to get a decently formed QC from somewhere, cut it out of the frame it's on, squish the old queen and then get an old fuzzy type hair curler, put the QC in it with fondant at the end where the Q will emerge and a cork the other end, then put it head doewn between the centre frames in the BB and let the bees do what they do naturally when they release her. IT DOES WORK VERY WELL INDEED.