OK I made two nucs yesterday and I am going to buy two mated queens. My question this time is, how long do I wait to introduce the new queens to the nucs.
Thanks
Archie
The commercial producer I work with puts the queen in a push in cage in the center of the NUC 24 hours after making the split. Higher acceptance rate of using a push in cage as its hard for a colony to kill a laying queen.
Bmac is correct. The push in cage will cut down queen loss due to balling the queen as it gives the queen and the bees more time to interact prior to her actual release into the hive.
They have time to see is she will lay eggs, and once she does her acceptance is 99% assured.
She as room to move around and avoid any bees objecting to her.
The longer the hive is without a queen the better the chances of a new queen being accepted up to the point of a laying worker condition.
Remember that queenless also means no queen cells.