If ‘bee improvement’ is something that you are striving for, and I hope it is, then the thorny issue of introducing queens will inevitably arise. By this, I mean the situation where I have removed a colony’s queen, and have replaced it with a cell, virgin, or mated queen of my choosing. This goes against the will of the colony, if there is such a thing, because I am trying to change the genetics within that colony. The colony will often object, which can mean that the newly introduced queen is killed by the workers. Given the effort and costs involved in producing the queen that I want, her loss is always very frustrating for me, so I’m keen to find ways to persuade the bees to accept my choice. Here are my latest thoughts on introducing queens.

I frequently make up nucleus colonies (nucs) and introduce queens to them. Everyone says that nucs accept queens more easily than large established colonies, which is true, but I have lost plenty nonetheless. What would people accept as a reasonable loss rate, I wonder? Maybe 20%? I would like such losses to be below 10% if possible, but the method of introduction needs to fit into the way I keep bees. The method has to be convenient, and not unduly time-consuming.

Honey Farming

So, as I laid in the sunshine of Lanzarote earlier this month, I decided to re-read (again!) my favourite beekeeping book; Honey Farming by R.O.B. Manley. It’s old, and bits are now out of date, but much of what Manley describes from beekeeping 80 years ago still applies today. He dedicates a whole chapter to this subject, such is its importance. On my return to the UK, I also delved into the research that I could find, and surfed the internet highways for information from what I consider to be reliable sources. And, of course, I have the knowledge and experience of successful bee farmers that I know and trust to tap into as well.

Multiple Variables

There are more variables at play than one might think. There is the new queen; is she in the form of a cell, virgin, or mated queen? If she is mated, what is her condition? Is she dehydrated from days in a cage? Was she plucked from her mating nuc after just two weeks? Is she well mated, and was she produced under ideal conditions? Even with virgins, there is a big difference between a newly emerged queen and one that is several hours or days old.

Then there is the condition of the colony into which the new queen must go. Is it big and strong, or quite small? Is it a balanced colony, with brood in all stages and workers of all ages? Is it actually queenless? Sometimes colonies have two queens, so removing one will not render them queenless. Sometimes mistakes happen, and you accidentally move the queen from her hive into a newly made nuc (schoolboy error, but I’ve done it).

Moreover, there are issues of timing. How long have they been queenless? What about the type of bee? It appears to be more difficult to introduce dark queens to lighter coloured bees, and vice versa. The environmental conditions make a difference too; is there a honey flow, and what is the weather like, or what time in the season is it (early, middle, or late)? I believe there is some sense to the notion that if you give bees what they expect, then you have a better chance of success than otherwise. For example, a colony that has been queenless for a while and has only sealed brood will often kill an introduced mated queen. But give them a frame of open brood with a cell on it, and acceptance is quite likely. A newly emerged virgin would likely work too – it’s what a colony in that state might expect to see.

So, this queen intro business is not straightforward.

Direct Introduction

Some people literally just place the new queen onto the face of a brood frame, watch for a minute to see that the workers don’t ball her, and that’s it – job done. This is the sort of thing you might try if you raise plenty of queens. If something goes wrong, you have others to spare. More importantly, you are moving a healthy laying queen from one colony to another in the same apiary. No caging, no period of not laying. If you do try this, and I have with varying degrees of success, it is best for the new queen to go right where the young bees are, with the young larvae and eggs. Personally, this is not my main modus operandi, but I’m not against it. I have seen bees nip at new queens and chase them around a bit, but often she will be fine. If they start balling her straight away, it’s time to get her out of there as quickly as you can, if you can.

Push In Cage

Most of the bee farmers that I have spoken to say that using a push in cage is a safer way of introducing a queen than using the travel cage (those little plastic ones with a compartment at one end for sugar paste with a tab that you snap off). I learned about them when I stayed with Mike Palmer, as he uses them extensively for queen introductions. The idea is that the new queen is isolated under the cage on some comb with emerging brood and nectar, so the workers can’t get at her to kill her. Nurse bees can feed her, however.

The idea is, that for a queen that has been caged for a while (and is therefore not a laying queen), spending four days under the push in cage brings her back into a laying state, as she re-hydrates and is fed. As long as, after four days, there are no eggs outside the cage, she can be released and is usually accepted. Some people would achieve a similar thing by removing attendants from the travelling cage and leaving the tab on for several days, then returning to snap off the tab, so the queen can be released. Being actually on the comb is better though, and she may well actually start to lay eggs under a push in cage.

There are things about this approach that count against it. Firstly, for bee farmers with numerous colonies to look after, often spread over a wide area, it’s a pain having to return a few days later. Furthermore, as Manley so eloquently says:

“When a queen is held confined in a push-in cage long enough for the workers to join her and feed her to set her going as a layer, in five cases out of six the workers outside the cage will have started queen-cells, and once they have done this, there has come into existence in the hive a reaction which sets free the instinct of supersedure. What my friend Wadey calls ‘the hive mind’ becomes, somehow, set in the direction of supersedure. The new queen is treated as if she were an old, worn-out mother that must be replaced for the good of the community.”

Hopelessly Queenless

Which is an excellent point; you have to check for queen cells before releasing the queen, and remove any. After four days there are still potentially young enough larvae for them to make yet more cells, so maybe waiting 8 – 9 days would be better. Then, after killing all cells, the colony is hopelessly queenless, and possibly more likely to accept the new one.

Corey Stevens does exactly that, for both virgin and mated queens, with good success. However, I still think he’s looking at about a 70 to 80% acceptance rate, across a season, which is not what I’d call great. Even after all that fuss, the bees can still let the new queen lay a patch of eggs, then make queen cells from them, killing the queen.

The Sweet Spot

Manley eventually found a method, using his own design of push in cage, which allows the queen to be released after six or seven hours. He said this achieved the greatest acceptance rate of all. He surmised that this was the ideal time for the new queen to be released because the colony has realised that it has lost its queen, but has not yet started to build queen cells to make her replacement.

As it happens, the scientific research that I found lines up with Manley’s theory. In this study, it was found that the sounds made by the bees changed when the queen was removed. They found that some bees knew almost instantly that she was gone, but the sound intensified over 5 hours, then levelled off, indicating that it took 5 hours for all the bees to be aware of the loss. Martin Bencsik has done a lot of work in this area too.

It seems reasonable to go along with the idea that a queen in good condition would be accepted in a 6 to 12-hour window after the old queen is removed. The bees all know that they are queenless at that point, but may not have got very far at all into the process of building her replacement, in the form of queen cells.

The problem is, introduced queens are often not in a good condition. So, we need to tilt the balance in favour of acceptance by making as many of the variables as possible positive for acceptance. I’ll get to that shortly.

Masking Tape Method

Several beekeepers have adopted a method of introduction which seems to achieve the goal of releasing the queen 6 to 12 hours after the old queen is removed. Gruff Rees picked the method up from other bee farmers, and talks about it on his YouTube channel.

He uses masking tape to slow the release. My guess is that, once the tab is snapped off, assuming the sugar in the cage is quite soft, the queen is probably out in three hours. The masking tape slows the bees down, most likely by a further 2 to 3 hours, which may be the reason that acceptance is so good. However, Gruff is introducing queens to small colonies (nucs); it might be a different story with strong ones.

I’m certainly going to try this method on both nucs and full-sized colonies to see how it works. My instinct, especially with valuable queens, is to use the push-in cage and only release her once they are hopelessly queenless. I would like to watch the behaviour of the workers towards the queen as she is released so that I can pull her out if they are not friendly. However, for high-volume work at busy times, the masking tape method looks worth a go.

I would be inclined to leave the bees alone for two weeks after introduction, and feed syrup if they are nucs. In the past, I have checked to see if the queen has been accepted after a few days. She had been, but my messing about caused them to immediately ball her. They need to be left alone so that the new queen can be properly settled in.

Nucleus Method

An excellent way to introduce a new queen to a large colony is to firstly get her established in a nucleus colony. Nucs are more accepting of new queens, and once she is accepted, she can be allowed to lay for a couple of weeks, or more, so that she has a nice cohesive colony that fully accepts her.

Assuming that the nucleus colony has six frames (all drawn out, most with brood) you can add these to an empty brood box, fill it up with empty comb or foundation, and pop it on top of a large colony that has been made queenless. Given what I think I have learned about the ‘sweet spot’ I would aim to add the nucleus colony 6 – 12 hours after removing the old queen. But occasionally, you just find a queenless colony, in which case you forget about the sweet spot, make sure there are no queen cells, and add the nuc. There is no harm in spraying some syrup onto the bees, perhaps scented with lemongrass or spearmint or lavender.

Later on, you can move back to a single brood box if that’s your style.

Other Factors

Pheromones

It has been shown that queens that are taken from their mating nucs too soon do not fare well after being introduced to new colonies. They may be accepted initially, but are often replaced by the bees within a few weeks. This seems to be associated with the level of pheromones emitted by the queen. It appears that these chemical signals peak around four weeks after she has emerged from her cell. Many queen producers remove mated queens from their tiny mating boxes after two weeks, then cage them and send them out to customers. This is another good reason for making your own queens; you can leave them a bit longer, until their pheromones are super strong.

No Open Brood

As I mentioned earlier, once a colony has been without a queen for nine or more days, meaning that there is just sealed brood in the colony, a mated queen will rarely be accepted. This also applies if laying workers have started to develop. If it is still a strong colony, I will insert a frame of open brood from another colony, along with a protected queen cell or maybe a newly emerged virgin. However, quite often I just shake these colonies out.

Different Strains

If I am trying to introduce a dark queen to lighter bees, or the other way around, I need to be extra careful. I lost too many last season. In future, I will probably use a push-in cage and release the queen once I am sure that the colony is hopelessly queenless.

Poor Weather

In poor weather the foragers are at home, and foragers are older bees that tend to be less tolerant of ‘outsider’ queens. Ideally, the weather will be good and there will be a gentle nectar flow.

Time of Year

Most re-queening takes place in the spring or towards the end of the season. Colonies are smaller then. Swarming tends to happen early in the season, so the bees are naturally re-queening themselves at that time anyway. Supercedure tends to occur at the end of summer, so that seems to be a good time too, as it’s what many bees do naturally.

In Conclusion – My Strategy

As I make queens, I am confident that the queens I will be introducing will be in good condition. They will not be removed from their mating nucs until at least four weeks post emergence (often longer) and they will be laying queens. If I need to move them, they will only be in a cage for an hour or two before going into the new colony. This definitely helps.

Nucleus Colonies

These will usually get a protected queen cell from my queen rearing activities. I make up the nuc, move it to where I want it, then add the cell (which I move using a Carricell plugged into the van). The cell protector can be pushed into the comb near some brood, and will emerge in one or two days.

If I was in a rush, or had spare mated queens to use up, or even virgins, I would try using the masking tape method. For a breeder queen, I would use a push in cage and release her once the colony is hopelessly queenless. That would mean leaving it for eight days and removing all queen cells, then releasing the queen the following day. A lot of effort, but worth it for a breeder.

Production Colonies

I’m going to give the masking tape method a try, just to satisfy my curiosity. If it works, great. If not, then I will go back to the push in cage method, probably also waiting until they are hopelessly queenless before releasing the new queen (as per Corey Stevens).

Early in the season, if they have tried to swarm and lost their (clipped) queen, I will try to have queen cells available from my queen rearing unit. In the past, I have squashed all queen cells except for one, and let them make a queen from that. However, my preference is to introduce genetics of my choosing, so I hope to be able to remove all swarm cells and then add my queen cell using a cell protector. Unfortunately, during swarming time, I often don’t yet have current-season mated queens available.