Improving likelihood of acceptance when requeening during autumn/no honey flow

[OzBuzz]

It's the end of the season here in Australia – Autumn has set in. I've decided to re-queen my hives as many of the queens I had exhibited quite a ferocious temperament. I separated some of my hives and made, essentially, five splits by taking away a full size box with brood, bees etc and placing it on another base with a lid a few metres away. I've systematically removed the queens from the hives (I have 23 to do) and, following queen removal, left them sit for 24hrs prior to introducing the new queen. The queens arrived in JZ-BZ Queen cages. There is no real flow at the moment and stores are low... I've placed the cages between two top bars in the centre of the hive with the candy pointing up. I also sprayed some sugar water over the top bars/queen cage and sprinkled some feedbee powder over the top frames. I don't have the facilities to put feeders on top of the hives nor do I have entrance feeders... what would you recommend? I know feeding stations aren't encouraged but that seems to be my only option at the moment to simulate a flow... I also don't have the facilities/time to do a screened board introduction – any advice would be appreciated.

[OzBuzz]

I forgot to mention - when I pinched the old queen I left her on the top bars and closed up the hive

[Brian D. Bray]

From reading your post I get the impression that you pinched the old queen and installed the new queen at the same time.  It is best, when requeening, to give a period of time between the demise of the old queen and the introduction of the new queen as the hive must become aware of the queen loss.  Since the new queen has a different mix of phenomones because she is not currently laying eggs, that delay can make the difference between a failed and a successful requeening.  It's more work, but it's worth it, especially considering the price or effort of buying or producing queens.

[hardwood]

Brian, Oz stated that he "left them sit for 24 hrs" before introducing the new queen. I think you did well Oz, I hope you get a great % of takers.

Scott

[OzBuzz]

Thanks guys for the vote of confidence! I really appreciate it! I'm a little nervous with the amount of $ I invested in these girls! I want to get a good success rate - 100% would be great haha. I've also heard some strains are better accepted than others? The replacement queens are carniolan x Italian. Also, do you think two or three feeding stations would help? I was thinking of freezer bags full if syrup with some holes placed in two or three empty nucs directly in front of my row of hives along with some pollen substitute in one of them in dry powder form. Also hardwood, you're correct! They did sit for 24hrs post pinching of the old queen - I know sime say minimum of four hours but I wanted them to know unequivocally that they were queenless.

[Finski]

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Here, when main yield is over, it is difficult to offer a new queen. Bees are sensitive for robbers and react quickly for foreign odors.

But when feeding winter syrup bees accept very well new queens. Two days syrup feeding and it helps.

Last summer I gove a new queens with extracted combs. It went well. It must be worked in the evening that robbers do not attack. Small hives may be destoyed with that system.

[OzBuzz]

Thanks finski... So feeding stations away from the main hives might promote robbing?

[OzBuzz]

Bees are sensitive for robbers and react quickly for foreign odors.

So is the lack of acceptance during a flow simply due to the robbing issue? There is a small amount of nectar coming in at the moment - i wouldn't say it is earth shattering but there is something there.

I was able to install 13 queens yesterday (Wednesday) 11 of those were in full size hives (8F) some of them were single boxes, a few doubles and one triple... i made sure that the queens were installed between the top bars directly above some capped brood (even if it meant taking two supers off the top). I just hope spraying some sugar water over the top of the frames and the queen cage helped... i noticed in all of the installations, except one, the bees climbed all over the cage and started licking the outer surface as well as putting their tongues through the cage screen to the queen and the attendants. There was one hive that seemed a little more 'hyper' for want of a better word but after a few minutes they quietened down - i did see some that initially approached with their jaws open but then as they climbed on to the cage reverted to licking it and the attendants/queen - none of the 13 installations had bees climbing over the cages trying to sting the queen/attendant or squirt venom on them.  :bee:

I have one hive that is incredibly hot! so much so that five bees found their way in to my veil and i copped stings to the ears and the face for the privilege. I did a shakeout on these with a queen excluder over the base and then brood chamber and supers on top (there was no way i could go through every frame to find the queen). In any case there was no queen on the entrance side of the excluder. What i had noticed with these ones though is that when i opened them and they literally filled the air they did gather on the entrance of the hive next to them. This obviously would make the hive next door very defensive... i haven't yet requeened the super hot hive and obviously can't allow them to gather on the hive next door like they did as that hive does have a new queen that is currently being released. Are there any ways of preventing them gathering on the hive next door? I'm thinking i will close the entrance to that hive to start with - any advice is much appreciated

[Finski]

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It is not simply due. I just told that thing.

[Finski]

Thanks finski... So feeding stations away from the main hives might promote robbing?

of course top feeders and filling in the evening.

[OzBuzz]

Thanks finski... So feeding stations away from the main hives might promote robbing?

of course top feeders and filling in the evening.

Would freezer bags under the lid sitting on the top bars of the frames with some small pin holes in them be sufficient? Also, how would the hive react to me lifting the lid to replace them when they're working on releasing a queen from her cage?

[OzBuzz]

Also, what impact would bad weather have one queen acceptance/release? The weather has turned pretty average here today - it's still 17 - 18oC but it's raining - i don't think any bees will be flying today

[hardwood]

With mated queens not much of a problem. With virgins...big problem! Remember, a mated queen won't be needing to leave the hive.

Scott

[OzBuzz]

Thanks guys for all of your patience with my plethora of questions! normally i'm not too stressed about re-queening (I have done it before) but never in Autumn and never with close to $400 AUD worth of queens...

[Finski]

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When you have so much new queens, remember to inspect all hives that they do not continue to rear their own queen cells.

Second thing is that hives will change some part of new queens during next 1 month.
From this you get new good queens.

[AR Beekeeper]

Every time I followed the book and waited 24 hours before introducing the new queen the colony started queen cells and did not stop trying to make their own queen until all eggs hatched and the larvae was too old to make a queen.  My best luck is introducing when the old queen is removed.  I especially like the double screen method of making a weak nuc, placing it above a double screen and introducing the new queen in the nuc.  After she is accepted by the nuc, the old queen is found and removed and the nuc joined with the colony.

[OzBuzz]

I checked my hives this weekened just gone as we're starting to go in to our new season - i had 100% of my hives survive the winter and also 100% acceptance rate for the queens that i introduced in autumn - not one single rejection! how happy am i :)