PDQ 3: Introducing a mated queen to the brood hive in an artifical swarm

[Ringlander]

Question 3: If you have to do a Pagden (or other) Artifical Swarm and have a nice mated queen sitting in a nuc waiting for something to do is it OK to put her (in an introduction cage) straight into the new nurse bee and brood only hive after getting rid of all the queen cells? Presumably by doing this the loss of brood and potential honey crop will be minimised to just a few days rather than the weeks involved in a natural queen replacement.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sometimes, if they are way down the swarming road they expect to see a virgin queen in the hive, just popping in a mated queen can cause problems, so do it with care.

 

[pargyle]

Play safe... put her in a queen cage and see how they react ...

 

[simonwig]

Hivemaker in a previous thread just runs in either the original, or a new laying queen, after 14 days, following knocking down the original QCs and again after 7 days, then a frame of eggs, knocking down QCs 7 days later and then run queen in.

See Nuc Method of Swarm Control | Beekeeping Forum and Swarm control, "mini nuc method" | Beekeeping Forum

I'll be trying it on an AS from last week so fingers crossed.

Simon

 

[Finman]

In artificial swarm the brood hive has too swarming fever. You must cut first the fever , before you give a queen.

 

[Ringlander]

I have to admit I had already put the queen in the brood and nurse hive before I asked the question, in an introduction cage with a couple of attendants. She went in 24 hours after I split the hive during which time they had started on 6 emergency cells which I knocked down. I checked their reaction to her by laying the cage on top of the brood and although they rushed to see her they didn't try to attack or smother her so I put the cage in between the frames. Checked today and she has been released and was happily wandering around on the frames, with a few eggs laid already. No signs of any queen cells so far but I'll being keeping a close eye on them just in case.
Thanks for the advice and re-assurance, much appreciated.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Brill. That's the advantage of putting in a laying queen rather than a postal one

 

[simonwig]

I think the principle behind the 14 day wait and two lots of knocking down is to try and suppress the swarm urge, so I think you're right to keep a close eye for any more QCs as you reintroduced the queen so soon, do let us know if any more appear.