Introducing New Queen by Letting her Just Walk In??

[Exquisite Bee]

I am requeening all my hives from Texas that had the "Tornado" queens hatching little terrors!! Honest....You wouldn't need a watch dog anywhere on our property to keep the burglars out. We can't even open the house doors to the backyard without bee suits on!! Anyway......now it is time to requeen....By tomorrow evening it will be 24 hours since they have been queenless. I have the new Gals ready to go. The breeder of the queens told me that he has had the best success introducing queens by just letting them walk in the front of the hive just before sunset!!??? versus putting them in the cage and intalling in hive body. He has over 500 hives. He sprays the queen lightly with sugar water to weigh down her wings so she won't fly off and he said he always has a take that way, if she will walk into the hive, they will accept her at dawn!! Any thoughts on this one. Tomorrow will be my introduction day, one method or another. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[size="1"][ July 08, 2006, 12:15 AM: Message edited by: Exquisite Bee ][/size]

[George Fergusson]

I've heard that being done with virgins after giving the hive a good smoking, but never with a mated queen and certainly not with a hot hive. With a mated queen it sounds like a recipe for disaster... these are mated queens aren't they?

Assuming they're mated queens, I'd put the cages in the hives and leave them with the candy end covered for the better part of a week or until the bees are visibly feeding and communicating with her and no longer acting unfriendly, then pull the candy cork and let them release her. The longer it takes the better.

If they're virgins, I don't know what to tell you.

[dickm]

I just let one loose in a package and it worked out OK but that was different. I'd give them 4 days. It will take a month for the bees to calm down. I took all the sealed brood and put it on top of the hive over a queen excluder, after brushing all the bees off. This way I got all nurse bees. I "walked away" with this split and this half of the hive was always gentle, and right away.

Dickm

[magnet-man]

Since the queens are so hot, I think you are going to have a hard time requeen the hives. If these were my hives, I would do the following:

1. Remove any frames with eggs. I will lose some brood but these are hot.
2. Leave queenless for 4 days.
3. On day 5 remove any queen cells. Make sure you don't miss any.
4. Use a large push in cage over hatching brood to introduce the queen.

The purpose is to make the bees accept the queen. With out eggs or young larva they have no choice. Watch for queen cells the next few weeks.

[size="1"][ July 08, 2006, 09:21 PM: Message edited by: magnet-man ][/size]

[Branman]

I was 2 for 4 with direct introduction into nucs after 2 days queenlessness.

it's certainly not statistically significant with only 4 tries, but I guess it can be done.

Just some smoke, then dropped her right in

[odfrank]

I requeen hot hives with a division screen. Find the old queen, mark her, move most of the brood and young bees above the division screen. Place cage. Old bees will return to bottom. Young bees will accept new queen. Old queen is still available if needed, or squish and merge after new queen is laying. Works almost every time.

[Dick Allen]

An old timer up here has simply released queens into queenless hives in the past. Maybe it would work, sometimes it can be done, but why take a chance on having the queen balled? Most beekeepers prefer to introduce a queen a little slower to a hive by caging her for a few days.

[Keith Malone]

Open the queenless hive and take a frame out of the center, and wait a few minutes. After a few minutes if they are desperate for a queen they will begin fanning and a hum will begin. I call this a colony crying for a queen. Place the queen that is in a queen introduction cage on top the top bars of the queenless hive a try to ascertain the attitude of the workers towards the caged queen. If they are crying and they like her you will be able to direct release. If they begin to ball her just pick her up and re-cage her and begin the slower introduction of her to the colony.

[Michael Bush]

If they are queenless and if they weren't hot and if there aren't Russians involved, maybe she'll walk in and get accepted. But I'd put her in a push in cage over some emerging brood. that's the most foolproof method.

[peggjam]

I guess my question for you is what's your hurry? Seems to me it will take longer to order replacement queens and introduce them in the traditional manner than it will to introduce the ones you already have in the traditional matter. Introduction of new queens will not fix the problems of hot hives right away. It will take 6 weeks for all the old bees to die off, and the offspring of the new queens to take over. Until then your stuck with what you have........a hot hive. Just keep your beesuits handy, and introduce your new queens slowly.