Introducing a queen...

[must_dash]

I have a colony with a problem Bought it as a nuc with a 2016 queen. Arrived in late march on 3 1/2 frames and still on 3 1/2 frames. Closer inspection revealed about 30-40% of cells were multiple eggs.
She laying as brood etc.
New queen (mated and tested) arrived today in a plastic cage and going to follow Clive De B's advice of introducing immediatly.

The question is:
should I leave the slide on the cage shut for a few days and then open it, or open it now and let them get on with it.

And how far should it be opened? There is about 3cm of fontant.

 

[Millet]

You have a dangerous situation there for adding a new Queen to that colony, you need to be 100% certain you have no other Queen in there, also with multiple eggs in cells you may also have a laying worker.

 

[colinc]

Who is laying the eggs? Workers or queen? Have you found and removed the old queen? Is there still worker brood in the hive? All clues but you risk losing your bought queen if whoever is laying the eggs is still in there.


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[must_dash]

Laying queen. All eggs are at the bottom of the cells,none on the sides.
If I remove the old queen and leave the new queen locked in with her companions would that work for a few days, then I can ensure no new eggs??

 

[Erichalfbee]

Remove the queen
Wait half an hour and suspend the queen cage between two frames of brood. I use a cocktail stick through the loop you can see. You will have to move the frames apart a little but that's no real problem.
Close up.
If there are no supers on it might be a good idea to give them a litre of 1:1 to simulate a nectar flow which often helps acceptance.
Go back in three days and have look at what the bees are doing to the queen cage. If they are swarming over it and biting the cage leave it for a couple of days and try again.
Usually after three days the bees are not agitated and you will spot them putting their proboscis in which is a good sign.
Lift the cage out and snap off the plastic tab preventing entry into the fondant.
DO NOT slide anything off.
Replace the cage.
In a day or so the bees will have eaten through the fondant and released the queen so you can return in a couple of days to remove the cage.
Close up and leave completely alone for a couple of weeks.
It's important to leave them to it. New queens can easily be balled and killed by looking in too early.
Good luck

 

[Dadnlad]

Whats the rush ? Err on the side of caution, leave the tab on for a few days before letting them at the fondant, then leave them be for a week
Leave the slider alone

Bee inspector told me he has accidently left the tab intact on an introduced cage for 2 weeks - the queen was fine

 

[yeogi75]

question, you have a nuc with 3 1/2 frames of bees, or you have a full-size hive with 3 1/2 frames ?
if you had a nuc with only 3 1/2 frames in they need feed and time to build up before putting into a hive and only buy nucs with at least full frames crawling with bees, need more info, but sounds like you have drone laying queen or laying worker, the queen has had enough time to get started laying into full laying mode by now, did you get in touch with the person who sold you the nuc he might have provided you with replacement queen

 

[must_dash]

It was a 3 1/2 frame nuc over the winter, Transfered this and another nuc to full hives at the same time. The other hive has 8 frames(langstroth) and already filling a super.

She was a 'bad' layer. I have eggs, lavi and capped. But in very low numbers, just sustaining not growing. Certainly wouldn't survive a winter.
She had syrup etc.

As above there are many many cells with muliple eggs and multiple lavae.

New queen in a Eric said. I'll peek on Monday or Tuesday..... and hopefully

 

[Angularity]

Whats the rush ? Err on the side of caution, leave the tab on for a few days before letting them at the fondant, then leave them be for a week
Leave the slider alone

Bee inspector told me he has accidently left the tab intact on an introduced cage for 2 weeks - the queen was fine

I accidentally did the same, for 10 days. The colony had built comb round and down from the cage. The queen was still alive. Two weeks later, she wasn't.

 

[Millet]

It was a 3 1/2 frame nuc over the winter, Transfered this and another nuc to full hives at the same time. The other hive has 8 frames(langstroth) and already filling a super.

She was a 'bad' layer. I have eggs, lavi and capped. But in very low numbers, just sustaining not growing. Certainly wouldn't survive a winter.
She had syrup etc.

As above there are many many cells with muliple eggs and multiple lavae.

New queen in a Eric said. I'll peek on Monday or Tuesday..... and hopefully

That sounds too much like a laying worker to me, do you not have a picture of the frame with multiple eggs.

 

[masterBK]

Does the sealed brood in worker cells have worker cappings or domed drone cappings? If the former then you have a queen present. If the latter then laying workers or drone laying queen.

 

[must_dash]

Does the sealed brood in worker cells have worker cappings or domed drone cappings? If the former then you have a queen present. If the latter then laying workers or drone laying queen.

All capping are normal, as before queen present and functioning, just badly; double eggs, and double lavae. No drones, the colony isn't strong enough for that.

 

[masterBK]

Sometimes a queen unable to reduce laying rate to that which can be looked after by the workers and will double lay as not enough prepared cells available. Get this in Apidea quite frequently.

 

[must_dash]

Had a look just now, all seemed happy . so the tags are off and I'll look again in a few weeks.....
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