introducing a honey of a queen

[jmgi]

Has anyone been successful introducing a new mated queen into a queenless hive by dabbing honey all over her and letting her run into the hive? I just tried it and hope it works. John

[Dynasty]

I don't know if you were joking or not, but that made me laugh.

if you're serious... i don't know the answer to that

[LampBurner]

You took the exact words right of my mouth Dynasty to a tee.
jmgi if you actually really did do that, keep us posted.
Truthfuly, I suppose what would happen is they would first eat the honey off her then ball her.

[HiveOnTheHill]

I did this with introducing a virgin into a queenless nuc just a couple weeks ago. Not my usual practice but it turned out ok. I put her on an outside frame with a handful of bees and by the time they were done cleaning her all was well.

[LampBurner]

Well I wasn't sure this wasn't a joke, but looks like it is not. Certainly would be a quick and easy way to introduce a queen but I thought very risky. I think I can see possibly the honey covering or masking the new queens pharmones until the honey on her has been eaten, but....... I don't know. I think I might had better stick to the more traditional method for the time being. I'm glad it worked for you.

[RayMarler]

John, it sounds like you've been reading one of my favorite books. No, I've not tried it myself, but Doolittle did it over a hundred years ago and wrote about it in his book, Scientific Queen Rearing as Practicaly Applied in 1889.