Introducing A Mated Queen To A Hive 🐝 | Step-by-Step Guide for Beekeepers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ย. 2024
- How to Add a Queen to a Hive - Mated Queen - How To Introduce a Queen
How to Safely Introduce a Mated Queen to a hive is a really useful skill as it allows you to requeen a colony very quickly.
How to introduce a queen bee is a common beekeeping question and there are many queen introduction methods and queen introduction techniques.
In this video I show you my method for the safe introduction of posted, mated queens by adding a queen to a beehive that has been made hopelessley queenless.
If you want to know how to requeen a colony or requeen a beehive you need to ensure they are hopelessely queenless before you add a mated queen bee into the beehive.
Introducing a new queen bee to a hive can be a delicate process, and it’s crucial to do it right to ensure a smooth transition and the acceptance of the new queen. In this video, I’ll walk you through each step of introducing a mated queen bee to your hive, covering everything from preparing the hive to monitoring acceptance, with tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned beekeeper, this guide will help you make this essential task easier and more successful.
Here’s What You’ll Learn in This Video:
Why Introduce a New Queen?
We’ll start by discussing why a beekeeper might need to introduce a new queen to a hive. From requeening an older colony to introducing a queen to a new split or a struggling hive, there are many reasons for this important process. I’ll also cover the benefits of using a mated queen for quicker colony recovery and productivity.
Preparing the Hive for the New Queen
A peaceful hive is key to queen acceptance, so I’ll show you how to prepare your colony for a new queen. This includes removing any rogue queen cells, managing aggressive or overly defensive bees, and ensuring the colony is well-fed and calm.
Introducing the Queen in a Queen Cage
Using a queen cage is one of the most common and effective methods to introduce a new queen. I’ll explain how to place the cage in the hive correctly, so the workers can get used to her scent gradually before she’s released. I’ll also cover the different types of queen cages and how to choose the best one for your needs.
Candy Plug vs. Direct Release: Which Method to Use?
There are several ways to release a queen from her cage, and each method has its pros and cons. I’ll guide you through using a candy plug for a slower release or doing a direct release when time is of the essence. We’ll go over when to use each approach and what to look out for.
Monitoring the Queen’s Acceptance
Introducing a new queen doesn’t end once she’s in the hive. I’ll show you how to monitor the colony over the next few days to make sure the workers are accepting her. From checking for signs of aggression to looking for eggs, these steps will help ensure the new queen is well-received and laying quickly.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Introducing a new queen isn’t always smooth sailing. I’ll cover common issues beekeepers face, like aggressive worker behavior, workers clustering around the cage, or delayed egg-laying. Learn how to troubleshoot these problems and what to do if your queen isn’t accepted.
Why Use a Mated Queen?
Using a mated queen offers a head start in the colony's productivity, as she begins laying eggs almost immediately after acceptance. This can be particularly valuable when requeening or building up a hive quickly, and it’s especially useful in cases where time is crucial for the colony’s growth or recovery.
Additional Tips for a Successful Introduction
From checking for any signs of queenlessness to timing your introduction just right, I’ll share extra tips I’ve picked up from my own experiences with mated queens. Every colony is different, and small details can make a big difference!
Other Beekeeping Tutorials
If you’re interested in more beekeeping tips and want to keep your bees thriving, check out my other videos! I cover topics like hive inspections, seasonal maintenance, and advanced techniques to help you get the most from your colonies.
💬 Join the Conversation!
Have any tips or experiences with introducing a new queen to your hive? Share your stories and questions in the comments below! I love hearing from other beekeepers and learning about what’s worked for you.
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Hi Laurence, big thank you for the great video. I'll follow your steps and hopefully my queen'll be excepted.
I have watched so many vids on introducing queens and this was by far the most understandable, concise, and straight to the point . You did such a great job to explain what exactly is going on in the hives and stages of it! Thank you
My queen arrived today thank you. Looking good and now in her new hive waiting for release day. I love how everyone around when you receive a queen in the post are proper perplexed and intrigued.
Thank you. This was by far the best queen introduction video we've seem
Ah thanks Mike. Glad you enjoyed it.
I've done a few different ones on the channel now 😀
Wish I’d watched this before 😳 Never thought about taping the queen cage shut 🤦♀️ Really need my 🤞🤞 now. 🇬🇧
I had several wire mesh cages made up ready for queen introduction. They measured about 10 or 12 centimeters square and would stand about 12 or 15 mm off the surface of the brood comb. Shake all the bees from a comb, place the queen onto a patch of emerging bees and empty cells, push the mesh cage into the comb with the queen inside. In three to five days, the queen should be laying, newly emerged bees will feed her, and the colony will in almost all cases accept her as their mother. I never had a failure unless there was already a laying queen in the hive
That's the method I mostly use. Simple and reliable.
Very well done. You gave information continuously including tips that you developed.
Excellent video. You are an enjoyable teacher. Glad I found your videos. I have two queens on order due to arrive in May. Keep making your great videos.
Hey Dennis - thanks for the kind comments! Plenty more to come throughout the year :)
Just watched this again in preparation for my new queens arriving from you ina few weeks! As ever, a good clear video. Thanks!
I introduced a queen fast. Took them 7 days to eat through the candy. Knocked queen cells before putting her in and that was it. Wanna guess what happened? Yup i lost her. Thank u for all the details u gave. This is brilliant and will definitely do that next time am queenless. Thumps up
In Australia common practice is to make split knock out cells etc, 24 hrs later add a 48 hr plugged caged mated queen, and sometimes remove half the candy plug so they get her out in 24 hrs or so. I know your breeder is of high value but I found your process way beyond what I'm used to however I'm of the idea that it should not be as rushed as I described. It's last week of spring here in Au with flow on and generally queens really laying strong now. And there is that anxiety to get the new queen going, laying and being productive, I'm listening though and agree the haste can cost you a balled queen. The nucs I just made are quite weak so that should support an easier and trouble introduction. I'm 3rd year beek so I'm not very experienced at this and still learning and experimenting. Hoping for a high success rate but your video spooked me a but as if I'm rushing the process?
I really like the way he talks!
Excellent explanation from beekeeper in Auckland New Zealand. Never done it before so we'll follow your method thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
I can see this is a old video from 3 years ago but I do hope u see my comment, it was a great video, Thanks so much for doing this I have 21 queens coming April 29 and I needed a refresher course on installing, a mated queen. It is a lot of money to mess up. I have to make the nuc the same day but the tape, is the saving trick. You helped me by saying she can stay in the cages as long as it takes, as well, and she will be fine anyway Thanks again and if u see this and think I need to know anything else please say so. Hope u have a very blessed week.
Thank you so much for this video!! very helpful for my studding!
Have ordered a mated queen, hopefully here in 2 days time so glad I found your video!
Good luck. Just take your time and dont pop the cage early!
Very nice video. Thank you😊🐝
Very helpful and thorough. Thank you.
Hello , I upgraded my phone and lost everything that I followed. Good to see your videos again Lawrence.
Loved the video , always nice to see how others do their beekeeping, here in Australia it is a lot different, but even after 57 yrs , I am always interested, how the other half attend their bees, never too old to learn more, cheers Keith, ☺️😊 from down under.
Excellent video! Loved how you explained each step along the way. The only criticism I have is the use of a queen that was imported. If you use locally reared queens there is less chance of bringing in pests from abroad like the Small Hive Beetle that is present in some parts of Europe!
❤I agree.
Hi Laurence, my queen arrived on Tuesday I put her in the hive on Wednesday, checked the hive today (Saturday) Knocked down 2 queen cups and plan to to pop the tabs on Monday as there are no eggs nor larvae, my only concern was that when I put her on top of the frames on Wednesday although they didn't ball her they didn't seem too bothered at all not much attention was paid to her, anyway fingers crossed all will be well.
One of your best! A great explanation - and something I'm about to do so really helpful. Thank you.
Wonderful... welldone!
Excellent video! You're a very good teacher. Keep the videos coming.
Great informative video, many thanks.
cheers Pete. Glad it was helpful :)
An Excellent Queen introduction video. To ensure success.
A question I would ask.... Do you consider removing the attendant bees when introducing the Cage, so only the Queen pheromone is available/present?
Hi, greetings from Beirut Lebanon, thanks for all your Non sense info, but i have an idea concerning inserting a mated queen.
What do you think if we took like three newly emerged worker bees and placed them in a beehive without any eggs. ( Mean to say distribute all the brown frame brood on other beehive ) and insert the queen with its cage like one day after this division.
It saves a lot of time of removing the queen cells over and over again...
Before opening the the cage of the queen spray all the brood with syrup and open on the queen also spray on it some nectar. It worked for me and hope it does for you too.
Im open to corrections for this idea.
Thank you
Good season
So helpful. thank you for this all.
My pleasure. Glad it was useful for you :)
Hey Laurence, thank you for this excellent Video! Like the way you explain everything without all the nonsense.
I ordered a P0 Queen from Dr Stoeffer aznd it will be shipped tomorrow so i prepared the nuc like you told us.
I jhave one question: do you need to feed the bees during this process?
Thank you very much and please make more spledid video’s!
Thanks Tim.
Yes feeding really helps with an introduction as it keeps the bees busy and ensures ample feed for the caged queen
Great video thank you for sharing.
No problem.
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
I'm no beekeeper 😂 but can't stop watching the vids very informative
why is it that you introduce a Queen into a hive that already has 1??
I got some mite mauler breeder Queens coming in the summer I will be following these steps on my splits.
Hey! Good luck with introducing your queens. Hope they zap the mites for you
Wish you lived next door to me!!!!
I am now wracked with guilt over my bodged queen introduction a couple of years ago. I have yet to pluck up the courage to buy in a decent queen and have another go, but your video has made me feel a bit braver!
Sorry to hear that. Just take your time, follow the steps and no peaking ;)
@@BlackMountainHoney I have to say I took nowhere near as long over it as you did, and I certainly was nowhere near as meticulous over knocking back QC’s..... I just thought they’d be grateful if bought them a spanking new queen to save them the bother! But you live and learn, eh?
@@nickieblest3502 I've been there on many occasions 😉
How would the approach change if the colonies are large, but hopelessly queenless? I got very unlucky and all 3 of my hives swarmed at the same time, and no queens have returned. No hives have eggs or larvae but still a good workforce but looking like I'll have to introduce queens. I imagine you start the process from a later step?
Very useful video
Glad you liked it
Thanks for the video. How do you introduce a queen if the hive is queenless? Not doing a split so the hive is still quite full... theres no brood so i need a queen fast.
Where in Germany do you get the queens? I live in Germany and have seen a lot of breeders online.
Thx
How can they make a queen in a queen cell with no queen in the hive? I was under the assumption they can only hatch drones in a queen cell with no existing queen. Thank you for the video and I look forward to anyone helping with the question
They make emergency queen cells from worker larvae
Great video - thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers Matthew
Brilliant. Thank you for cleverly explaining everything.... i feel more confident now... as tried it for some years and not been 100% successful morelike 50% i knew there was something id got wrong...
First year keeping bees. I've ordered one of your queen's which is due for delivery tomorrow which is when I was planning to do the split. It's now meant to be chucking it down all day! Any recommendations? Is it safe to do it in the rain?
Yeah. Do it in the rain. Will be fine 🙂
@@BlackMountainHoney Great, thanks! :) wish me luck.
brilliant video
My colony has been queenless for over a week and no queen cells produced. How soon can I introduce the mated queen? She arrives from you tomorrow!
Hi Laurence, how do these German strain Queens fare in 14x12’s? I don’t run double brood as I have predominantly Danish Queens (IM and random mated) with very low swarm tendencies, was looking to try out the queens you are using in your operation. Cheers, Chris.
Hi Chris. They will do very well. We run them on doubles standard nationals and they will fill both boxes with brood quite easily.
Even more so if they have access to arable crops throughout the year.
The low swarming tendency really helps when using 14 x 12s. We still run a lot on single 14 x 12s and they give us the best honey crop of the lot!
Brilliant, thanks for the swift reply.
All the best
Chris
I’ve been following for a while, great videos mate. I like how straight to the point everything is. I have a buckfast queen coming soon and hoping to breed from here in the future. How long before the introduction (settling down period) of a queen before you feel good enough to start crafting eggs?
Cheers Chris. Pretty much straight away. But don't rush the introduction. Come back after a week of two and there will almost certainly be eggs and hopefully larvae as well which you can graft from.
wont the pheromones spread out in the colony once the queen cage is in for a few days??
Brilliant vid I think I’ve been a bit blasé in the past and lost queens so a bit more caution from now on 👍🏽
Yes. Patience with introducing queens certainly pays dividends. Especially the more expensive ones!
Left field question - what sort of gloves are those? :-)
Thank goodness your explicit and thorough with your explanation ,..our colonial cousins think they have to tell us about what car they drive and how many hairs are on the neighbours cats belly, it makes me want to jump under a bus and loose the will to live.
Excellent tutorial
So after releasing the queen how long before she starts laying? 2 weeks before I check?
Hi Laurence. When is it too late to add a mated queen in the year? We’re into September and my queen is gone but no QC’s. Is there time to stick a mated queen in this late or should I just unite? Appreciate your advice fella!
Still time but just make sure they are actually queenless as some go off lay at this point in the year. We will be out of stock by this weekend. Last batch of the year
Amazing video and the quality if really good. You mind sharing what camera you are shooting with? I'm asking a lot of people before I buy? Thank you
Thanks Brad. Its my phone. Its a Samsung Note 20 Ultra
Hi, great video. Can you please let me know what kind of frames you took to do the split? Was it 6x frames of capped brood? or what did they look like? I have a queen arriving from you in 2x weeks!
Would it be better to move the original queen to the split so they think they swarmed or is the split enough to keep them in the box?
Either way works fine.
That would be great
Hello Laurence, i did something stupid… today, seven days after killing the queen of my ridiculously agressive hive, i removed all the emercency cells and i also removed the tab of the cage in which my new queen is. There is a lot of candy in the cage. Later i realized i had to make a final search for emercency cells on day ten…
Is it a good thing to open the hive tomorrow and when the queen is not released to tape it closed or du i just have to hope for the best and wait?
After 7 days, then will almost certainly choose the queen over new cells from old larvae. I'd leave them to it and I reckon they will accept her. Good luck
Another informative video thanks - do like the emphasis of rubbing out the queen cells to ensure they are completely removed. As regards attendants - some bee keepers will say to remove them as that makes acceptance easier but your process is to leave them in ?
When I am using this method I always remove attendants and just let the emerging brood tend to the queen. When I use the caged queen method (postal cage), I always leave the attendants in with the queen.
Black Mountain Honey thanks got the wrong queen introduction video !
@@BlackMountainHoney I am introducing a virgin queen and attendants into a hive later on and just revising! Queenless for 9 days and cells knocked back will have more to do today I suspect. I assume mated or virgin in a postal cage you would leave the attendants in ?
@@martynhordern7351 I always leave attendants if they are mated. I tend not to introduce many virgins but prefer to introduce Queen cells ready to emerge.
I have 2 totally queenless hives with no brood left. Can I let a new mated queen out before the 7 days?
Yes..If they are hopelessly queenless when you add the queens in, just need to wait 24 hrs before you open the tab and the leave them 7 days before you check back in
Hi and thanks for your content.Fantastic job.Would you please share the web site you order the queen from Germany. Thanks a lot 🙏
Can you then split a colony and just let the second one make its own queen? What is the risk? Also what are the benefits of ordering a new queen?
Can you just make the split the same day you introduce the queen so the bees dont have time to raise queen cells?? Would that work??
great video
Cheers David. Glad you liked it 👍
Hi Lawrence, how would you introduce a virgin queen to a colony? Thanks Tom
We don't like introducing virgins on our scale. We much prefer to make them hopelessly queenless and then give them a cell that is due to emerge within 24 hrs. You can introduce virgins into a hopelessly queenless colony but they need to be super fresh. Much easier to introduce cells IMO
Cheers Lawrence. As always; thanks for your advice.
How long can the queen live in that little cage?
Is this the same process for a virgin queen through the post into a queen less hive with 6 frames of bees
No unfortunately not. Introduction of virgins is tricky and a completely different method altogether
Do you have a video on it
@@roystheboy I'm afraid not. I can do one though ;)
so instead of doing your own cups when grafting queens,
could you just use the bees cups you squashed @12:00 fill them with jelly and place an egg in
Received my queen today and noticed that 3 of the attendants are dead. Is this a problem for the next 9 days before I release her?
Hi John. No - the attendants are there to feed the queen in transit and through the postal system. On arrival you should place that queen cage into the hive ASAP and the bees in the hive will feed the queen through the gaps in the cage. Its perfectly normal for attendants to die during transit. They serve their purpose to feed the queen and get her to you safely.
@@BlackMountainHoney thanks Laurence
Can I requeen a buckfast colony with a jolanta queen
You can indeed :D
@@BlackMountainHoney perfect 😁😁
Can you show how to requeen a huge production colony?
Yes. I'll add it to the list.
I use push in cage, they accept a laying queen far better.
They either accept her or they dont ;) Yeah as I mention in the video, if you are doing 1 or 2, that's the belt and braces method and one I sometimes use. If you are doing lots, then you need another way or you need a lot of cages. I haven't lost a queen in 5 years using this method.
How do you deal with F2 agression if you import "pure" Buckfast?
I dont. I import F0 for my breeder queens.
@@BlackMountainHoney Just for the record: F0 are called the P(arent) generation.
This is a very good way of producing good quality F1 daughters who will also become good drone mothers
You sound Australian which is mostly a warm climate so why would you pay for a queen from Germany where it is a much colder climate?
He's not Australian he's philappino....
why not let the bees create their own queen? i really don't understand is about best genetics?
If you have a poorly mated queen or her genetics are not great it could mean you have to try and deal with poor temperament, prone to disease, low Productivity, etc etc.
So buying in a queen where a breeder is taking time to identify good queens and drones to flood the area.,,,,,you increase your chances of having better colonies.