World of Honey

8 Steps to Queen Acceptance

Queen bee acceptance is crucial for the success of your beekeeping operation. When introducing new queens to your apiary, it’s important to follow certain tips to ensure that the existing colony accepts the new queen.

This can include techniques such as using a queen introduction cage, providing a slow release of the queen, and ensuring that the colony is in good condition to accept the new queen. By following these tips, you can increase the likelihood of successful queen acceptance and ultimately improve the health and productivity of your hive.

Step 1: Verify the colony condition: When introducing a new queen it is important that the existing colony is hopelessly queenless. This means that it must be inspected to ensure there is no existing queen, queen cells, or young larvae that can be made into queen cells.

The existing colony will always prefer their own genetics. This means that if they have the opportunity, they will make their own queen rather than accept a foreign queen. The best way to accomplish this is to age the brood frames for 7-10 days above an excluder on a queen right colony before making up nucs. Be sure to examine the frames and destroy any queen cells the workers may have built. This method is recommended by Cory Stevens at Stevens Bee Co.

Allow the queenless split to rest for 24 hours in the queenless state. This will give the bees enough time to realize they are hopelessly queenless and will encourage acceptance of the new queen. Check one more time and destroy any rouge queen cells before introducing the new queen.

Also, be sure to feed the existing colony. Bob Binnie has noted that fed colonies are more likely to accept a new queen.

Step 2: Isolate the new queen: Before introducing the new queen to the existing colony, it’s important to isolate her in a separate cage within the hive for a few days. This allows the worker bees to become familiar with her pheromones without direct contact.

Step 3: Use a slow introduction method: After the isolation period, use a slow introduction method such as the push-in cage method or queen candy to gradually introduce the new queen to the existing colony. Most queen cages used for transporting queens are supplied with queen candy. The queen candy acts as a timed release. This helps to reduce the chances of the existing bees rejecting the new queen. Make sure to expose the queen candy by removing the cork only on the candy end of the cage. This will allow the worker bees the eat through the candy in about 2-3 days time.

Step 4: Monitor the acceptance process: Keep a close eye on the behavior of the worker bees toward the caged queen. Look for signs of aggression or acceptance towards the new queen. If there is aggression, it may be necessary to re-evaluate the introduction process.

Step 5: Ensure the queen has been released from the cage: After three days carefully open the hive. It is important that there is minimal disturbance to the hive as the queen is not yet established and could be rejected if the bees are disrupted. I use no smoke, and just carefully remove the cage to ensure the queen is no longer inside. Then close up the hive. Do not try to find the queen in the hive at this point as this would be disruptive to the colony and could result in queen rejection.

Step 6: Allow the new queen to establish her brood nest:  Wait 7-10 days without opening or otherwise disturbing the hive. This gives the queen enough time to start laying eggs and to develop a brood nest. This time is critical to prevent rejection of the new queen. Continue feeding the colony syrup during this time.

Step 7: Check the new queen’s laying pattern: After the waiting period you can open the hive and find the queen to ensure she has been accepted. By this time you should be able to see eggs in the comb to determine if the queen is laying properly. Pay attention to the pattern of the eggs. You want to see a solid patch of eggs with very few cells skipped. This is a good indicator that the queen was successfully mated. If the egg-laying pattern is spotty it may indicate a poorly mated queen.

Step 8: Provide additional support if needed: Continue to monitor the strength of the hive. It may be necessary to add an additional brood frame to the newly established hive to boost the population. Remember it will take 21 days for the eggs to emerge as young bees. During this time the overall hive population will naturally dwindle. Don’t let the hive become too weak or it could become susceptible to robbing, pests, or disease.

In conclusion, when introducing a new queen to your apiary, it’s important to follow certain tips to ensure that the existing colony accepts the new queen. These tips include introducing the new queen in a queen cage, providing the colony with time to get used to her pheromones, and ensuring that the colony is hopelessly queenless before introducing the new queen. By following these steps, you can increase the chances of a successful introduction and minimize the risk of the existing colony rejecting the new queen.

World of Honey sells queen bees here.