leave em queenless for 24 hours at least
queen cells
How soon should you make up nucs before you put in a queen cell. ie, one hour? one day ?
thanks Johns bees
thanks Johns bees
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
The bees will know that they are queenless almost immediately.
If you are pulling a queen that's laying well off of of comb from another hive or a mating nuc you can introduce her directly and have no problem 90% of the time, even if they've only been queenless an hour.
If she's in a cage, it also can go in directly, but a candy release to allow her pheromones to spread throughout the hive.
In a few days the bees will have eaten through the candy and she will be out and accepted.
Either way, if your queen is killed by the bees, the most likely cause is that there was already a queen present in the hive -- often a virgin.
(Sometimes a daughter queen and her mother will both be in the hive at the same time, laying, and not fight...so just because you kill one queen doesn't guarntee your hive is queenless.
If you are pulling a queen that's laying well off of of comb from another hive or a mating nuc you can introduce her directly and have no problem 90% of the time, even if they've only been queenless an hour.
If she's in a cage, it also can go in directly, but a candy release to allow her pheromones to spread throughout the hive.
In a few days the bees will have eaten through the candy and she will be out and accepted.
Either way, if your queen is killed by the bees, the most likely cause is that there was already a queen present in the hive -- often a virgin.
(Sometimes a daughter queen and her mother will both be in the hive at the same time, laying, and not fight...so just because you kill one queen doesn't guarntee your hive is queenless.
Most commercial breeders note greater acceptance rates and better % mating when the nucs are made up 24 hours ahead of time, and queenless.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
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