Signs of accepted caged queen?

[Susan1]

I killed a queen of a very hostile hive yesterday and placed a new bought queen in a cage on a frame of brood.

I had planned to break the tabs today but when I went into the hive as well as the bees being grumpy as normal, they were absolutely covering the cage. Even after I shook them off and placed it on top of the frames they seemed to frantically cover the cage again.

I checked a few brood frames for any emergency cells but couldn’t see any but as they we so grumpy with me I didn’t want to hang around and check every frame.

I have re-queened once before but that was with a split and the bees just seemed a lot calmer around the cage after 24 hours it they accepted her with no issu

e.

Does that frantic behaviour sound normal on a very busy hive or is this sign they would currently ball her? What should I be looking for to see that they have accepted her?

Should I wait a few more days before breaking the tabs?

I watched a video which suggested leaving queen in cage for 7 days. It was Black Mountain bees. I definitely wouldn't be letting her out yet. Not with the price of bees these days.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I watched a video which suggested leaving queen in cage for 7 days. It was Black Mountain bees. I definitely wouldn't be letting her out yet. Not with the price of bees these days.

They are not likely to accept her even after 7 days, at least my experience is that the longer your queen doesn’t lay the worse her chances.
The best way to requeen a nasty colony y is with a nuc. Then you are replacing a laying queen with another. A queen in a transport cage is not a laying queen.

 

[BernardBlack]

I shook them off.
I will take a video tomorrow, I take it there is no issue leaving her in the cage for another day or so until somebody gives me confidence to break the tabs?

I had to requeen a couple of years ago, with a cranky colony.

Was worried they would kill her, so I left her in cage for 3/4 days. Might even have been longer. They accepted her when I opened the tab.

I didn’t want to take any chances, as it was late in the season, and if they’d killed her, the colony would have died out.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I watched a video which suggested leaving queen in cage for 7 days. It was Black Mountain bees. I definitely wouldn't be letting her out yet. Not with the price of bees these days.

and I wouldn't leave it much more than 24 hours before breaking the tabs - unless the bees were being extremely aggressive to her - and then I would expect them to kill her whether I waited seven day or seven weeks.