Queen intro

Bush_84 · May 06, 2017, 05:42:23 PM

So today I installed tow packages and install two queens into premade Nucs. My original plan was to place brood frames above an excluder a few days prior and take those frames today to make a nuc and install queen. I was planning on doing this as my biggest hive is already in three deeps and a super. I wasn't that confident in my ability to find the queen on the spot in such a large hive. Well on Tuesday when I went to select the frames I found the queen. Well that changed my plans. I went ahead and made up the Nucs on Tuesday. They were mostly capped brood but apparently must have had some eggs/young larva. Yesterday I went through and took out all the queen cells I found. Well upon placing the caged queens on the top bars I got a fairly aggressive response. I went through the Nucs again and again I found queen cells. Most were very fresh appearing, except for one that I must have missed.

So now onto my questions. I guess as a beekeeper who has only ever installed package queens I am feeling nervous. They came with candy tubes and I'm wondering if I should have put a cork in. So do I just leave them alone and let them figure it out? Do I go back in today and put cork in place of candy tube? Do I go back in a few days to see if the bees are more calm towards their new queen? I work all day tomorrow so nothing can be done tomorrow. I am off Monday so I could also take action tomorrow. Thanks for the help all.

cao · May 06, 2017, 09:02:30 PM

I would assume that if you got all the queen cells out and it has been long enough for any eggs/larva to be too old to make a queen out of the they should accept the new queen once the scent of the queen cells goes away. I've only ever installed a new queen to a hive that has been queenless for at least a week or to a nucs that was just made(too soon for them to start queen cells). I would do a quick check on them when you get a chance.

Bush_84 · May 06, 2017, 09:04:53 PM

It typically takes a few days to chew through the candy from what I understand. So I should be good until Tuesday right?

cao · May 06, 2017, 09:43:39 PM

If they have no other options for a queen then it isn't much different then when they make up package bees and add a queen to it. The candy is there for the bees to have some time to get used to the queen. I would say that waiting til Tuesday will be fine as long as you got rid of any remaining queen cells.

Bush_84 · May 06, 2017, 09:53:47 PM

Well I went back into the Nucs tonight and put the cork back in. I don't at all feel bad about it. I feel much more at ease. I have no idea how bees are supposed to look when introducing a new queen I have never done this before. I do have a general feel however between happy and angry off bees. When I removed their cells and installed the queen both Nucs looked quite upset at these queens. They were running all over the place. They instantly covered the cage, although I wouldn't say that they were balling her. They just looked skiddish whereas they had been calm before. When I checked them tonight one seemed different from the other. One was still skiddish and erratic around the queen cage and the other seemed calm. The calm hive meandered over to the cage and seemed to chill with her. I put the cork back in with both Nucs. I will go back on Monday and check for queen cells again. If there are no queen cells I'll put the candy back in.

Anybody have any good links or videos for queen introduction?

Bush_84 · May 07, 2017, 12:00:23 AM

Another second thought...should I have capped the candy tube? Lol. Now the queen just has a cork and I am assuming the bees are feeding her. Should I be going back in before work tomorrow reinstall the candy and put the cork over the candy? Arg I don't want to mess this up.

BeeMaster2 · May 07, 2017, 07:40:50 AM

Bush,
Unless you have Russian or Africanized bees and a European queen, you probably will not have a problem.
By now they are feeding her and trying to get her out. If you pick up the queen cage, without crushing any bees, with bare fingers or neoprene gloves, look to see if you can move the bees. Are they biting the cage or sticking their tongues out to feed the queen. If the cage is not fully covered, they are probably doing the latter. If they are feeding her, you ready to release her. Remove the cork and put it back in the hive with the opening up. I would just open the screen and put her on the top frames but you must make sure she does not fly away. At this point she is not oriented to the hive and my not know where it it.
Good luck.
Jim

Bush_84 · May 07, 2017, 10:01:23 AM

Sorry that I'm a bit tweaky about this. I just have expansion plans and if these Nucs kick the bucket that would be a real awful start to the year. When these Nucs build up to full double Nucs I plan of rearing queens in one of them. The other one can then be split once queens are ready.

Edit-this am before work I went out and put the candy back in. I'm not sure my eyes are good enough to see what their tongues are doing, but they were all acting pretty calm and attentive as opposed to angry and skiddish. So now I'm going to just leave the alone for a while. I'll fill their feeder and jam some pollen sub through their feeder, but I think I need to commit 100% to letting them be for a bit. I did remove two more queen cells from the hive that was originally angry. If I check them in about a week they should have released the queen. Then if she is laying and there are more queen cells I can just remove them.

Bush_84 · May 14, 2017, 04:54:45 PM

Well a week later and one of the two queens are out and laying. Queen cells got cut from both nucs. The nuc that hasn't released the queen is probably about 3/4ths through the candy. So I just cut out cells and put her back. I probably could have released her but the fear of her flying away was to great.