Queen Introduction

[grizzly]

Hi All
Was curious to know what methods or approaches we take ?

For example, its nice and straight forward when you remove an old queen and introduce a new one, 1 in 1 out.

But when you have nucs or brood boxes queenless from splits, that have been so for a number of days, things change, obviously now they are well aware of their predicament and will possibly be expecting the appearance of a "Virgin" in their ranks.

Would any of you, Have any of you, introduced mated queens to queenless colonys as above, whats the longest they have been queenless before you introduced ? are there hints and tips we could all benefit from ?

 

[Poly Hive]

You do realise whole books have been written on this matter alone?

Bees prefer to receive what they are expecting. So yes you are correct with Q for Q or a cell in a nuc. They will usually happily accept a cell if there have been cells in the colony they have been made from.

Virgins to be honest are another matter altogether. I wound not council anyone with less than say ten colonies and or an incubator to play with these girls. It is a different field altogether.

The only time I play with virgin Queens is when making up MIni Nucs for the first time.

PH

 

[grizzly]

Have you ever successfully introduced a caged mated queen to a colony that has been queenless for some time ?

 

[ladaok]

You do realise whole books have been written on this matter alone?

Bees prefer to receive what they are expecting. So yes you are correct with Q for Q or a cell in a nuc. They will usually happily accept a cell if there have been cells in the colony they have been made from.

Virgins to be honest are another matter altogether. I wound not council anyone with less than say ten colonies and or an incubator to play with these girls. It is a different field altogether.

The only time I play with virgin Queens is when making up MIni Nucs for the first time.

PH

I'd read the books frankly Grizz