New queen failure

[Beefriendly]

I think you may be releasing her too soon.
At least 3 days if they are acting like this, longer if required. The more they feed her and accept her queen pheromones the more likely they are to accept her.
I release the queen onto a frame with bees and see how they react to her. If they start butting biting....it's back in the cage with her. If they start "licking" her or forming a court she's fine. But a word of caution I did have one queen fly off never to be seen again when she was released.

Other thing they may well have still been raising their own queen cells. They seem to prefer their own genetics to "alien" introductions.

There is a press in introduction cage that if used correctly is almost 100%. You push it in over brood that is shortly to emerge with your queen inside. As the brood emerges they automatically accept the new queen and if you keep them there for a week/2 weeks she emerges with her own converted retinue of bees. I've never used one but several people on this forum swear by them.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

I think you may be releasing her too soon.
At least 3 days if they are acting like this, longer if required. The more they feed her and accept her queen pheromones the more likely they are to accept her.
I release the queen onto a frame with bees and see how they react to her. If they start butting biting....it's back in the cage with her. If they start "licking" her or forming a court she's fine. But a word of caution I did have one queen fly off never to be seen again when she was released.

Other thing they may well have still been raising their own queen cells. They seem to prefer their own genetics to "alien" introductions.

There is a press in introduction cage that if used correctly is almost 100%. You push it in over brood that is shortly to emerge with your queen inside. As the brood emerges they automatically accept the new queen and if you keep them there for a week/2 weeks she emerges with her own converted retinue of bees. I've never used one but several people on this forum swear by them.

yes that sounds effective

I was just following instructions with queen…anyway…have two good hives and caught a cast/virgin queen which I hope takes and develops

 

[Beefriendly]

yes that sounds effective

I was just following instructions with queen…

If that was the instructions for releasing that came with the queens the seller should be whipped......it's a sure fire way to lose a high percentage of queens. The cynical side of me says it is good instructions for selling more queens.

 

[TooBee...]

...There is a press in introduction cage that if used correctly is almost 100%. You push it in over brood that is shortly to emerge with your queen inside. As the brood emerges they automatically accept the new queen and if you keep them there for a week/2 weeks she emerges with her own converted retinue of bees. I've never used one but several people on this forum swear by them.

How big is that plastic cage?

 

[Beefriendly]

How big is that plastic cage?

15 x 13 cm

 

[Cuckmere couple]

If that was the instructions for releasing that came with the queens the seller should be whipped......it's a sure fire way to lose a high percentage of queens. The cynical side of me says it is good instructions for selling more queens.

thats interesting....two different places (reputable) had similar instructions and seemd in line with most web advice

24-48 hours in cage with clip in situ (one said remove attendants, the other didnt)

then release the cap

check in 2-3 days she is out of cage successfully

leave for 7-10 days

all the time suspended between two frames of bees/brood

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

what is more important is what you do to the recipent colony before putting the new queen in - I don't leave them Q- for more than five minutes (and that does not mean with QC's) before inserting the cage with candy protected, either that, or properly 'hopelessly' queenless ie queen cells removed and left for a good few days with only sealed brood with no chance of producing more

 

[colinc]

thats interesting....two different places (reputable) had similar instructions and seemd in line with most web advice



24-48 hours in cage with clip in situ (one said remove attendants, the other didnt)



then release the cap



check in 2-3 days she is out of cage successfully



leave for 7-10 days



all the time suspended between two frames of bees/brood

I modified this as I recently introduced 2 new queens to my hives and was terrified of my investment flying off.
I put the travel cage with the tab removed and almost all the fondant removed under a larger wire mesh introduction cage over emerging brood.
In 4 days both queens were still in the travel cage. They failed to get through 3-4mm of fondant.

I bit the bullet opened the cages under the intro cages and 3 days later the queens were readily accepted. Guess I wasted 4 days.

Now hope they don’t supercede straight away


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[Beefriendly]

thats interesting....two different places (reputable) had similar instructions and seemd in line with most web advice

24-48 hours in cage with clip in situ (one said remove attendants, the other didnt)

then release the cap

check in 2-3 days she is out of cage successfully

leave for 7-10 days

all the time suspended between two frames of bees/brood

As Jenkins points out state of recipient colony is very important.. Now you are gambling when you remove the fondant tab as the bees can be through it in no time at all, particularly if they want access to the queen. It's why I leave for 2-3 (3 more often) then directly release queen observing bees reaction. I'm not saying you should do it exactly this way, just explaining how I introduce new postal queens into Nucs.
You must, depending on how your nuc was set up check for queen cells before you release the queen. She is more likely to be rejected if they are still raising their own...and they can, when desperate, raise queen cells from 4-5 day larvae (these will not develop into full queens). More of a confused sexuality disorder

 

[Cuckmere couple]

very very helpful

not planning to buy any soon, but all helps the understanding

 

[colinc]

very very helpful



not planning to buy any soon, but all helps the understanding

Just to be clear I removed the tab straight off because I had a clear introduction cage around the travel cage.

It was a security blanket and it didn’t really work. Next time I will go straight to the introduction cage as it was straightforward.

Due to my rumblings the new Queen was safe in the colony for a week before release and had young larvae at that point.


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