INTRODUCTION OF QUEENS

We send our queens in cages that have a slot containing food that the queen during the shipment and before her introduction, feed with the help of some ttendants bees. Some say the ttendants bees should be removed for more reliable input. Some say it doesn’t matter. However, if the queen and her attendants have been in the cage for a long time, it may be beneficial to remove the attendants to minimize the risk of disease transmission. (Cage stress can make Nosema worse for example). 

If you don’t want to risk losing the queen during this process, then leave the attendant bees with her. Before shipping our queens, we let them brood for at least 2-3 weeks in large hives so we know the brood is good and sealed and the queen isn’t giving birth to drones. Marking with the corresponding color for the year and trimming of the wing are done on request.

Caution upon arrival
Caution upon arrival
When you receive the queen bee, the package should be opened and a drop of water from your finger should be placed in the cage. This will give the bees something to drink and help dissolve the queen dough (candy). Inspect the cage to check if the queen is alive and moving. It is not unusual for one or more attedants bees to have died in their cage, this is not an indication of any problem. Keep the queen out of direct sunlight and somewhere warm – room temperature is fine. Avoid keeping the queen in a location where she may come into contact with pesticides or any drug residues.
Placement in hive
Placement in hive
The cage has a hole to secure it with a holding device (eg a toothpick) between the hive frames.The recipient hive must be queenless, free of laying workers, and free of queen cells. Open the hive in the usual way using the least amount of smoke. Remove the outer frame for easy access and slide the frames to locate one near the center. The queen inside her cage is placed vertically between two brood honeycombs without breaking the plastic tab. You may need to squeeze the frames a bit but don’t rely on the frame compression to hold the cage in place as it may fall down and then the queen will be ignored.
Set her free
Set her free
The safest method is to leave the queen in her cage for 2 or 3 days before removing the plastic stopper. Inside the hive the bees will get used to the new queen’s pheromone and will look out for her – feeding her through the cage. If they dislike her, she will stay safe in the cage.

If there is no honey flow, it is good to feed the bees with sugar paste where it will keep them calmer-busy with the processing of the dough and may make the intoduction more secure. Syrup to be avoided if there are conditions for robing.

Cap removal
Cap removal
After 3 days we have to open the hive and cut the plastic stopper next to the food, the hive closes again. The bees will start eating the dough in the cage and thus release the queen while we are not there to disturb them. The colony should be closed for a week to allow the queen to settle and start laying.Be careful, if the cage is tightly surrounded by bees trying to attack her, the queen has not been accepted and you needed more time to release her, the hive must be closed and left for another 3 days.
First Inspection
First Inspection
On first inspection the cage can be removed – check that the queen is not inside. All it takes is a quick inspection to make sure the queen is laying normally. Hopefully you will see eggs and small larvae.It is said that a queen is not fully accepted until she is surrounded by her own bees, so extremely gentle handling of the bee is desirable until one of her own brood is hatched.
Varroa treatment should not be started until the queen has been in the hive for at least 2 weeks.
Additional instructions
Additional instructions
If the queen we are introducing has been placed to replace the queen because of aggressive bees or other negative traits, it will take a few months for those bees to die before you see the change. Sometimes, of course, she gets better within a week or so, once they get her pheromones into the hive.
It is desirable to introduce the queen first to a small nuc with young bees and then join the hive by the newspaper method at a later date. Even then, secure association cannot be guaranteed. If there is a shortage of nectar, feeding both colonies for a few days before the union and then continuing to feed for a few days afterwards can help the process and achieve a favorable outcome.
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