Introducing Queens

[Buzzlodge]

How long should it take bees to release a queen when introduced in one of these boxes? I had thought it would take several days but...

I introduced one 6 days ago in a similar box as the first video with the entrances filled with fondant. I checked today and found she had been released and later observed her walking across the comb, so all well in that respect.
However what puzzled me was that there were several drone cells and drone larvae, estimated at 5/6 days old and no worker brood or eggs visible. The drone larvae were all in old drone cells at the bottom of the frame, not in worker cells. There was a lot of honey in the brood frames so that might have deterred her from laying.
She was mated ok as she had previously laid workers in an apidea. I added a drawn frame so hopefully she will lay workers there.

 

[bobba]

inside hive its really really loud buzzing like hornet nest or jet engine ,but in your film its nothink like that ,hope i help a bit

The temperament of the first hive definitely seemed to change. Originally they were like the bees in the latest video, lovely bees. They later became very revy, any little bump to the box or even a puff of smoke set them off. Going through the hive changed from an experience of curious enjoyment, to roars and bumps on the veil.

The second hive had grumpy behavior as described from the start. Today is the most chilled I have seen them. When previously checking for a queen they were very intimidating and getting increasingly grumpy, so tbh I was unable to check as well as I would have liked.

Thank you Beersmith for the kind words. I tried to act logically. I figured better to buy unneeded queens that not buy and loose all my bees. So it was a choice driven by fear of loosing bees rather than logic.

If the weather is good tomorrow and the bees are back on good behavior, I may have another check for any lurking queens.

I should have had a look today

I was quietly confident everything was going well, but Dariusz has got me worried again. Ahhha....the beekeeping roller coaster.

Thanks for all the help and kind words as usual guys.

 

[Erichalfbee]

ic.

If the weather is good tomorrow and the bees are back on good behavior, I may have another check for any lurking queens.

I should have had a look today

No bobba
Please wait
You risk even an accepted queen getting balled if you open up to early
What I do is remove the cage three days after opening the tab. Quickly and close up
Check a week later for eggs...thats all...... no queen hunting

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No bobba
Please wait
You risk even an accepted queen getting balled if you open up to early
What I do is remove the cage three days after opening the tab. Quickly and close up
Check a week later for eggs...thats all...... no queen hunting

 

[Erichalfbee]

How long should it take bees to release a queen when introduced in one of these boxes? I had thought it would take several days but...

Hours
Easily overnight unless the fondant has set hard. I always check it hasn’t.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hours
Easily overnight unless the fondant has set hard. I always check it hasn’t.

Had one colony once, chewed through the tape protecting the candy, demolished the candy and had the queen on the frames happily laying within 36 hours

 

[Stevo1977]

Often you can learn a lot from just looking at the outside of the hive as to whether there is a Queen inside.....for instance are they taking Pollen in, if yes this is a good indicator that there is brood that was laid by the Queen within several days.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

not really - bees will bring in pollen when it is available, regardless of queen situation. Have a hopelessly queenless hive here now which is absolutely jam packed with pollen

 

[Erichalfbee]

Often you can learn a lot from just looking at the outside of the hive as to whether there is a Queen inside.....for instance are they taking Pollen in, if yes this is a good indicator that there is brood that was laid by the Queen within several days.

Sadly not infallible
I have seen queen less colonies fill the whole brood box practically with pollen

 

[Stevo1977]

I've been corrected by more experienced members......pollen being brought into a hive is no indication at all that there is a Queen inside. disregard my statement.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don’t be silly
That’s not what I said

 

[Stevo1977]

'Don't be silly'.........that's a little insulting. However I wasn't being silly.....my point was that pollen being brought into a hive cannot really be used to confirm whether or not that there is a Queen inside, that was meant generally along with other checks. There is only one sure fire way to confirm that and that is to see her or eggs.

 

[Erichalfbee]

.for instance are they taking Pollen in, if yes this is a good indicator that there is brood that was laid by the Queen within several days.

To which I replied it wasn’t infallible then you came back to say

I've been corrected by more experienced members......pollen being brought into a hive is no indication at all that there is a Queen inside. disregard my statement.

I didn’t say it was no indicator and as for “don’t be silly” I’m a girl, it’s how I speak. If it offended you I apologise

 

[Swarm]

Pollen coming in is just bees doing what bees do, queenless or queenright.

 

[Poly Hive]

It's often quoted by newbies as an indicator and its not.

PH

 

[bobba]

Ok - will hold off inspections. Thanks for the warning. I was working on the assumption the queen would still be in the cage for about 3 days after I pulled the plug.

Regarding the pollen thing. I had noticed an abrupt decrease in the amount of pollen being bought in to hive 1. I have never seen much going into hive2. There is still a little going into both hives. I thought this may just be down to flows ending, but I did not see much pollen when the brambles came into flower.

From my own studies, I was of the belief that the quantity of pollen coming in would decrease when there is less demand from brood. So it can be an indication of no queen, however if there are laying workers then pollen collection may resume. And pollen collection can change with availability, so its not by any means a reliable indicator.

I also suspect there is a difference in this behavior between strains or even different hives of the same strain. I think I heard Don TFBM say something about how this works for his Russians. And am sure I heard that Italians will just snuffle up any pollen they can find even when queen less.

However I have little bee keeping experience so cannot vouch if this is true or not. But I will keep observing and hopefully one day I can decide if i think it works as an indicator.

It would be interesting, if you guys that have an opinion to whether the pollen collection indicator works, can say what type of bees you have?

Thanks as always.

 

[Stevo1977]

To reiterate..........newbee here.....there is only one way to ascertain that a queen is present......that's to see her/eggs.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Unfortunately sometimes newbies get told the wrong information by the entrenched accepted knowledge brigade who probably never checked that what they were told years ago was correct or not.

 

[Swarm]

When a novice takes exception to learning from others with years of experience, I tend to leave them to it.

 

[Stevo1977]

Anyway this continued chat is merely watering down the original post and any valuable information will be lost.