New Queen Arrived In The Post

[Stevie Day]

Hi Peeps,
I'm in the process of creating a new colony from my single hive.

I placed an order for a new queen, which I planned to collect on Saturday. And yesterday evening placed 4 frames of brood & stores into the new hive in readiness of her highness.

Either I made an error in order placement, or by the supplier. As on returning home from work this evening found a package in the mail containing her highness & attendants.

Hey ho, main thing though HRH & attendants are healthy & well - could say they're 1st class

But this has put my plans up in the air. Too late this evening to introduce HRH this evening & new colony needs 2 days without old queen. Tomorrows forecast not looking good either.

My question is. How do I maintain HRH & her entourage in the cage until I introduce her to the new colony?

Cheers
Steve

 

[Swarm]

The nuc you made up only needed a couple of hours queenless before introducing the new queen. Hopefully you chose frames of sealed brood to minimize emergency cell building. When you say new hive, hopefully that is a nuc which is not going to be too big a space for a small colony to keep warm. Some drops of water will sustain the caged bees and queen.

If they are in the garden I'd get it done, it's still light enough.

 

[REDWOOD]

Probably new QC allready

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Hi Peeps,
I'm in the process of creating a new colony from my single hive.

I placed an order for a new queen, which I planned to collect on Saturday. And yesterday evening placed 4 frames of brood & stores into the new hive in readiness of her highness.

Either I made an error in order placement, or by the supplier. As on returning home from work this evening found a package in the mail containing her highness & attendants.

Hey ho, main thing though HRH & attendants are healthy & well - could say they're 1st class

But this has put my plans up in the air. Too late this evening to introduce HRH this evening & new colony needs 2 days without old queen. Tomorrows forecast not looking good either.

My question is. How do I maintain HRH & her entourage in the cage until I introduce her to the new colony?

Cheers
Steve

They'll be fine for a few days in a quiet moderate-temperature place with a few drops of water or 1:1 morning and evening. Just don't give them long enough to eat through the fondant and don't forget to remove the plastic tab.

 

[Stevie Day]

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately hives not in garden - about 6 miles away on a friends land.

Yes nearly all sealed brood, but will be on look out for QCs being built.

I did read that more than a drop of water a day can get fondant wet & get onto bees & they'd be unable to clean themselves. Another was to lay a wet QTip bud on top of the cage.

If weather clears in time tomorrow evening I'll introduce her to her new home.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The nuc you made up only needed a couple of hours queenless before introducing the new queen. Hopefully you chose frames of sealed brood to minimize emergency cell building.

I leave mine a couple of hours at the most before introducing new queen (attendants et al) just leave the candy covered for a day or two before leaving the bees at it.
Leaving queenless for a few days is nonsense and can lead to all kinds of introduction problems

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I did read that more than a drop of water a day can get fondant wet & get onto bees & they'd be unable to clean themselves. Another was to lay a wet QTip bud on top of the cage.

The day my Hivemaker Q arrived I was rushed off to hospital, leaving her and attendants in the eager hands of the family: got free two days later and the Q and attendants were gummed solid with sugar syrup. The buzzing was completely silenced. They were fine. It's amazing what you can get away with. Seems from what others are saying the health of the Q is not the issue though.

 

[For want of a better word]

When I used to buy in queens via Royal Mail... I would make up a nuc and introduce the queen to it... allow to produce some brood that could be checked for disease.. and making sure she was not a drone layer..... had a few that were!
Once checked and all OK the nuc could be merged with a queenless strong colony.

Yeghes da

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Ensure there are no queencells started - destroy anything you think might be the start of one; then pop the new girl in and leave them alone for a week.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I leave mine a couple of hours at the most before introducing new queen (attendants et al) just leave the candy covered for a day or two before leaving the bees at it.
Leaving queenless for a few days is nonsense and can lead to all kinds of introduction problems

Put her straight in and never mind the weather.
Just get an assistant to hold the brolly

 

[Thymallus]

Yup even more agreement,......I wait for queen to arrive in post head to another apiary, make up nuc, ....sod the weather...bring back to home apiary and quickly stick her in. The confused bees often don't even realize they have been made queenless.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

And then there is this... http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/hug...o-et-al-08-hbee-direct-queen-introduction.pdf

 

[Glenviewbee]

A question relevant to this thread given one of the comments - if you don't get rid of any emergency queencells initiated when the colony goes Q- and then introduce a new queen - are you running the risk of swarming? I thought colonies did not swarm off emergency cells, plus wouldn't the new queen see off her rivals if they went to full term, or wouldn't the workers actually go round and tear down the emergency cells once they found they were queenright again?
Just interested

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A question relevant to this thread given one of the comments - if you don't get rid of any emergency queencells initiated when the colony goes Q- and then introduce a new queen - are you running the risk of swarming? I thought colonies did not swarm off emergency cells, plus wouldn't the new queen see off her rivals if they went to full term, or wouldn't the workers actually go round and tear down the emergency cells once they found they were queenright again?
Just interested

One of the things I was told is that if they make QC's, even if you take them down, the bees are expecting a virgin not a mated queen so could (not will) cause issues.
I had one introduction last year to replace a not very good queen, it was at the beginning of a thunderstorm and the doomed queen was on the first frame I pulled so it was a quck squish, new queen cage in and close up. Unfortunately the bees were of the same opinion of the queen and they'd built a supersedure cell which I hadn't seen.
Three days later they released the new queen, a week later I opened up, no brood, the new queen had swarmed (luckily into my bait hive) and the supersedure queen was just emerging from the only QC in the hive.

 

[Erichalfbee]

One of the things I was told is that if they make QC's, even if you take them down, the bees are expecting a virgin not a mated queen so could (not will) cause issues.

Wally Shaw's Modified Snelgrove depends on this not happening......but then you are returning their old queen so perhaps that is the nub of it.

 

[Stevie Day]

Thanks everyone for your comments & advice & all taken on board.

A No of the literature I had read recommended to leave the new colony queenless for a couple of days. The reasoning being that it allows the previous queens' pheromones to wear off. So the bees will realise they're now queenless & will be more willing accept a new queen.
Yes I'm also expecting to pull down some QCs prior to inserting the cage. This was also part of the reasoning that they'd be more willing to accept new HRH after a couple of days being footloose & fancy free.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thanks everyone for your comments & advice & all taken on board.

A No of the literature I had read recommended to leave the new colony queenless for a couple of days. The reasoning being that it allows the previous queens' pheromones to wear off. So the bees will realise they're now queenless & will be more willing accept a new queen.
Yes I'm also expecting to pull down some QCs prior to inserting the cage. This was also part of the reasoning that they'd be more willing to accept new HRH after a couple of days being footloose & fancy free.

Sometimes, more often than many may think, there are two queens in a hive, either both mated or one still a virgin, any new queen introduced straight away in this instance, will be killed.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A No of the literature I had read recommended to leave the new colony queenless for a couple of days. The reasoning being that it allows the previous queens' pheromones to wear off. So the bees will realise they're now queenless & will be more willing accept a new queen.

They will know they are queenless within a few minutes of her leaving and will start getting 'stressed' about it not long afterwards

Yes I'm also expecting to pull down some QCs prior to inserting the cage. This was also part of the reasoning that they'd be more willing to accept new HRH after a couple of days

That's why you should make sure they can't get at the candy for a day or two by putting tape over it - they are then well accustomed to the new queen's pheremones.Mind you I have introduced a queen with masking tape over the plug into a full colony thirty seconds after removing the old queen on a Saturday lunchtime the following day at about 1030 (beginner's class at the association apiary) and the bees had chewed through the tape, released the queen and a few days later she was laying away.
Read Snelgrove on the introduction of queen bees, you don't need any other book

 

[mbc]

Sometimes, more often than many may think, there are two queens in a hive, either both mated or one still a virgin, any new queen introduced straight away in this instance, will be killed.

I'm already getting the phone calls, "I need a new queen because my virgins disappeared", I always give the advice to hang on until all the old brood is hatched or try a test frame before committing to buying an expensive queen, and lo, most don't get back to me.

 

[Stevie Day]

That's why you should make sure they can't get at the candy for a day or two by putting tape over it - they are then well accustomed to the new queen's pheremones.Mind you I have introduced a queen with masking tape over the plug into a full colony thirty seconds after removing the old queen on a Saturday lunchtime the following day at about 1030 (beginner's class at the association apiary) and the bees had chewed through the tape, released the queen and a few days later she was laying away.
Read Snelgrove on the introduction of queen bees, you don't need any other book

Yep I will be leaving the cap over the candy for a couple of days.
Introductions should be done slowly. Its not a speed dating venue lol