Introducing buckfast queen to AMM bees

[Do224]

I’ve got a colony of pretty defensive bees that I’m thinking of re queening…possibly with a buckfast queen.

I’ve heard that introductions often fail and they kill the queen if the colony is very different in appearance to the queen you give them. I don’t know the genetics of the bees I’ve got but they’re pretty dark coloured. Am I likely to have success introcing a buckfast queen to them?

 

[pargyle]

Introducing a new queen to a colony that's a bit defensive can be a bit of a gamble ... you might be better off making up a nuc and introduce the new queen to that then, once she has been accepted and is laying, despatch the queen in the original colony and combine them back.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes introduce her via a nuc. That’s the safest bet

 

[magor]

jep nuc army introduce -combine is one method

others are

kill the Q wait a week destroy all the emergency QCells and give them larvae/eggs brood(comb test) to make more and wait another week( 9days?)all brood capped and destroy again all emergency Qcells and introduce the new Q . What you want is limit the chances of not acceptance and also the chances supercedure after, so when you introduce the Q need to not be present any open brood but only emerging brood and also you want to exhaust/desperate/aging the most of current population and most the nurses by feeding 2 times larvae and emergency QCells and also have un amount of newly emerging bees who ll accept Q easily (its a slow build situation from emergency to hopelslly Qless)

if you sure that Qkilled and them not draw Qcells in your comb test frame you can do it even earlier or if just hurry you can do only the first part and introduce her after all the current brood sealed and all emergency Qcells destroyed(9days)

there is also un alternative (and more risky?) method based that you introduce a well mated Q non stopped laying straight after kill the current Q and before them pass on emergency Qless situation (personal i prefer this Q be sister/half sister and as good as the Q killed)

whatever method you do(nuc combine/straight/emergency/hopelessly/cage/push in cage/free walk comb-entrance...........) always check after for any supercedure/swarm cells nothing is quarantee even after a succesfull acceptance ....supercedure is the most common thing happens and most of us do not even notice it

 

[Do224]

Introducing a new queen to a colony that's a bit defensive can be a bit of a gamble ... you might be better off making up a nuc and introduce the new queen to that then, once she has been accepted and is laying, despatch the queen in the original colony and combine them back.

Great tip, thanks. Another option I’ve been considering is combining the defensive colony with another colony using the newspaper method. Would that work ok? The defensive colony is quite big and the other colony is very small…

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Another option I’ve been considering is combining the defensive colony with another colony using the newspaper method. Would that work ok?

yep, just make sure the 'defensive' queen has been introduced to the gatepost first

 

[magor]

Great tip, thanks. Another option I’ve been considering is combining the defensive colony with another colony using the newspaper method. Would that work ok? The defensive colony is quite big and the other colony is very small…

sry me if i answer instead

thats different situation than divide-making nuc-combine after

i d not consider combine large def Q- colony with a very small but may would ways if they are related ,either kinships(more) either closed vicinity and so either em have some ''common''pheros or and them ve exchange pheromones due to a close neighborood (mislead/robbery..)

if small colony is healthy and want to strength it ,given it emerging brood from large one

ve you dived in broodnest for any external enemie or disease before decide requeen cause ussually a colony becomes def when something bothers the broodnest and floor or them really such aggressive sting whatever moves around

 

[Apiarist]

Yes, Nucs are always best, move it a short distance, out of the way, it'll have only Nurse bees, these show less aggression to introduced queens. Many swear that Push In Cages are best.

As for that Old Beeks tail of, it's more difficult to introduce a Queen of a different type to a colony, usually something like you can't introduce a Black Queen to a Yellow bee colony, that was disproved decades ago!