Introducing Buckfast queen into Italian nuc

[bustergrimes]

Has anyone had experience with this and if so any tips?

Cheers.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No different to introducing a queen to a colony of any other variety of honeybee - I don't think there'd be a language problem

 

[bustergrimes]

Excellent. That's that sorted. Thanks

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Is the nuc Q- yet, or made up for the introduction? if they are Q+ at the moment, I would make them queenless, wait a few hours then introduce the new queen in her cage with the candy coveredwith a piece of insulting tape or whtever to stop the bees getting at it. close up and wait a few days then go in and check (by this time they should be fairly relaxed with the queen in the cage expose the nandy, close up and leave them get on with it, maybe checking in a few more days to ensure they have got her out but that's all - leave for a week or so for her to settle as they could still take offense at her if wound up

 

[bustergrimes]

Diolch yn fawr

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Pleser

 

[Fatbee]

No different to introducing a queen to a colony of any other variety of honeybee - I don't think there'd be a language problem

I don't know that West Country brogue can be a challenge now; or do the modern Buckie's have a more Germanic twang now....

 

[For want of a better word]

My NZs would ball her PDQ... F1 imposter!

Yeghes da

 

[Stiffy]

My NZs would ball her PDQ... F1 imposter!

Yeghes da

Cobblers, they are all same species so with care would be accepted!

Hic locutus onere quisquiliis


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Fahey]

"covered with a piece of insulting tape"

won't the bees mind being insulted LOL

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

 

[Anduril]

I don't think there'd be a language problem

Listening to one of Dr Robert Pickards lectures, he said the Italians have an extra waggle dance. There may be a small misunderstanding as far as forage is concerned, but this will only be for a few weeks.

 

[Fahey]

Requeening a hive can be very difficult and often fails. I would brush off a couple of frames of brood and put them in a BB above a QE and a couple of supers. When the frames have been populated with the nurse bees after an hour or so, transfer them to a nuc. As soon as possible add you new queen cage and she will almost certainly be accepted. Don't leave it too long to introduce the new queen because without the queen pheromone the nuc might start to raise queen cells if there are viable eggs in the frames, and the new queen will be rejected. This way you will still have your old queen to do whatever you wish with and you can remove her and unite the two hives.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Requeening a hive can be very difficult and often fails.

Speak for yourself

 

[Eyeman]

I use 3 methods for introducing a new queen. In order of belts and braces and likely to be most successful they are:
1. Introduce the new queen first into a queenless nuc from the colony to be requeened.
2. Make the colony to be requeened 'hopelessly' queenless by removing the queen and knocking down the emergency queen cells.
3. Remove the old queen 24hrs before introding the new queen.

What method I use depends on:
A. Am I going to be on my hols for the next 1-2 weeks. Then I use method 3.
B. The size of the colony/ season. If I need to requeen a colony mid season when at its peak size because its aggressive then I use method 1 or 2.
C. Reason for re queening. I raise my own queens which are overwintered in nucs. So when one of these is used to requeen she is already laying well and I do my routine replacement re queening in April/may so I use method 3.
D. Using a queen directly from a mating nuc to requeen a colony. This does not arise that often as I would alway put the queen into a 3 or 6 frame nuc first. The problem of introducing a queen directly from a mating nuc into a strong colony that previously had a laying queen is she often gets superceded or they swarm. So in this situation I use method 1.
E. A test frame has shown that the colony is queenless. Remove queen cells and introduce new queen in cage.
F. Colony with laying workers. I don't bother to requeen but simply shake the bees out infront of a queen right colony.
G. Drone laying queen. If worth keeping I remove old queen or if not found the colony is shaken out onto the ground some distance away and returning flyers are later united with an existing strong colony using newspaper.