Snelgrove on requeening a laying worker hive :

[BeeCurious]

The following is Snelgrove's recommended (two step) technique to introduce a queen to a laying worker hive. It's from his book "The Introduction of Queen Bees". I haven't heard of anyone using this technique.

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Direct Introduction To A Stock containing Fertile Workers

Insert a comb of brood... some unsealed, into the stock one or two days previously. Break down pseudo-queen cells and towards night introduce by the One-Hour method (p. 140) Leave undisturbed for several days.



Snelgrove "One-Hour" Method (pp. 140, 141).

Towards dusk dequeen the hive and place from 20 to 30 of the bees in a safety match-box. Keep it in the vest pocket for about 10 minutes. Put the new queen into the box with the bees. Return it to the pocket for 50 minutes (or longer up to a maximum of 1 1/2 hours).

After a preliminary puff of smoke, place the box, opening downwards, under the quilt or over the feed-hole, and push it open with the finger to allow the queen to walk down between the combs. Cover quickly and without noise and leave the hive undisturbed for a few days.

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Any comments?