Introducing a queen

[deemann1]

I went to introduce a queen to a colony today that I suspected is Q- because there is no open brood or larva or eggs and around 10 play cups ,There is 6 frames of sealed brood..
I did my inspection and put the queen in the cage on top of brood frames to see how the bees would react
The bees were trying to sting the cage and after a minute
I heard a very strange sound coming from the hive it was a queen piping but don't know if it was my queen in cage or maybe there is a virgin in there somewhere.....
What to do ???

 

[Madge]

I think there’s a queen in your hive. She just hasn’t started laying yet. I’d remove the queen in the cage and find a new home for her.

 

[Beefriendly]

Suspecting a hive is queenless and it actually being queenless are two different issues.
What to do......
make up a nuc from somewhere and introduce your new queen to it.
Don't try adding her to a hive you only suspect is queenless. Brood breaks from laying happen all the time/ virgins can take long times to start laying.
Add test frame of eggs/very young larvae from one of your other hives to your suspected queenless hive and sit back for a week or two. If they draw queen cells probably queenless, if they don't then you have saved another queen.

 

[deemann1]

Thanks
Il make up a nuc and add frame with eggs to hive . I ended up with a worker laying colony this summer and was afraid of it happening again...

 

[Beefriendly]

The brood pheromone from adding eggs/larvae will help suppress laying worker development in the absence of a queen. It's a win win win scenario (usually )

 

[Millet]

I went to introduce a queen to a colony today that I suspected is Q- because there is no open brood or larva or eggs and around 10 play cups ,There is 6 frames of sealed brood..
I did my inspection and put the queen in the cage on top of brood frames to see how the bees would react
The bees were trying to sting the cage and after a minute
I heard a very strange sound coming from the hive it was a queen piping but don't know if it was my queen in cage or maybe there is a virgin in there somewhere.....
What to do ???

Ignore that colony and put it on the back burner for now.. as suggested by other folk make a 5/6 frame nuc and put the Queen in the nuc.

I will be making another Nuc on Saturday but that little baby will be filled with drawn foundation full with stores from other hives.. i do not want to see this nuc start of weak at this time of the year so i will give it a head start by mainly raiding a strong colony that i do not like... (aggressive) ...
Good luck.