[beezy12]

Upon advice from many people to keep cking my hive for a virgin queen as they are hard to find, etc...my hive has been queenless for at least 4 weeks, I think. I have just found a queen that will be here in 2 days but now everyone tells me she'll be balled and the hive won't accept her. Should I try anyway? What is everyone's luck with introducing new queens? Thanks, Robin

 

[bjerm2]

What I would do and always done is make a cage of 2x2 inches. Place the queen in there. Here is a good example of what I like to do
http://www.glenn-apiaries.com/QnIntroInstr.html
This has always worked for me, and you can also keep her attendant with her. As soon as she starts to lay eggs it will be safe to let her out. When you let her out do it very slowly and delibertly so as not to cause her to get upset.
Good luck.

 

[Michael Bush]

It's broodless that counts. The problem is that when they raise a queen they will be without a LAYING queen for long enough for all the brood to emerge. At that point you are in the awkward position of not knowing if there is a virgin about to start laying or no queen and in a short time they will end up laying workers if there is no queen, but at the same time, they will kill any queen you introduce if there IS a queen. The problem is easily solved, however. Just add some open brood every week for three weeks. One way or another you will supress the laying workers (because of the brood pheromone), provide them with the means to make a queen, if they need one, and not get a perfectly good queen killed if they have one.