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Author Topic: Re-Queen How-To?  (Read 9202 times)

Offline Steve M.

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Re-Queen How-To?
« on: July 11, 2008, 04:37:13 pm »
I am going to requeen my hive today, and I have never done it before.  What are some good approaches?  The queen I have is in a plastic JZ-BZ queen cage.  The attendants are surrounding the queen cage in a separate battery box.

Do I just open the battery box, dump out the attendants, and then put the queen cage in the hive?  I  have read about spraying the cage with a scented sugar syrup to mask her scent for a while.  Is this recommended?

As for placing the queen cage in the hive, do I try to jam it between two frames, lay it on top of the frames, put it on the bottom board (as I read in one source), etc.?

As for the cage itself, is there a special cork, etc, that I have to remove (like in the 3 hole kind...as i have heard)?

I am going to attempt this in about another 2 hours, so I will most likely just figure it out as I go, but I know how quickly some of you respond, and thought I would give it a shot.

Thanks in advance.
--Steve

Offline Bennettoid

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Re: Re-Queen How-To?
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2008, 04:46:46 pm »
Is the old Queen dead? If not you need to catch and kill her, give them a day and then give them the new Queen.

Offline Steve M.

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Re: Re-Queen How-To?
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2008, 04:58:43 pm »
As far as I can tell, there is no queen around to kill.  I guess I will find out though soon enough if there is.
--Steve

Offline jojoroxx

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Re: Re-Queen How-To?
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2008, 08:55:15 pm »
I just had to re-queen a hive and from my research it went like this:
 
-Attendant bees can stay.

-Open brood box and secure queen (still in the cage-cork in place) pretty near the center of the cluster. I did this by securing a string to the queen box with a staple, and then suspending it between two frames SCREEN SIDE DOWN. The string is secured outside the hive with a push pin.

-Close up hive for 2-3 days

-reopen hive and NOW remove the cork. At this time I also used a paper clip to bore a hole into the sugar plug. (don't stab the queen) Close up the hive. Wait 2-3 more days.

- reopen hive. Is the queen out? She should also be laying at this point, and little eggs are hopefully present. If they have not released her, you can then manually remove the sugar plug and release her. Remove queen cage.
 
For me, it seemed to go ok.

One thing that was very interesting, was when I went in on the fifth day, to confirm she was out and laying, and to remove the queen cage, I first noticed some very fuzzy, almost webby looking stuff on top the frames near the box. I was afraid there were some web moths or something...No, The bees had shredded the nylon string that the cage was suspended by, in fact they CHEWED the entire SCREEN off of the queen cage!

Motivated.

Hope it goes well for you and your hive.

Offline dpence

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Re: Re-Queen How-To?
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2008, 12:05:28 am »
I requeened a few weeks ago with Carniolans on a split and a weak hive.  First and for most make sure the hive you are requeening is queenless.  Leave them queenless for at least 24 hours.  Suspend the queen cage between two frames of emerging brood and empty cells.  Depending on the race, you may want to leave the plastic cap (JZ/BZ) or cork (three hole) on for a couple of days then remove it.  Allow the bees to eat the queen candy and release her.  Make sure there is plenty of honey and pollen stores in outer frames. Good luck.  Both of my queens took, and they both have good solid brood patterns. 

David     

Offline Robo

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Re: Re-Queen How-To?
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2008, 09:55:58 am »
The safest way to requeen is with a double screen board.

http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/queen-introduction/
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline Steve M.

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Re: Re-Queen How-To?
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2008, 11:05:35 pm »
Sorry about posting this in the general forum...wasn't paying attention.

I ended up just wedging the JZ-BZ between the tops of two frames, and left the candy end pointing slightly up.  Probably not the best approach, but what is done is done now I guess.  I will check back after a few days to see if she has been released, or if I have to do it manually.

There was absolutely no brood in this hive before I introduced the queen so I figured I would just put the cage as close to the center of the deep as possible, but ended up being right below the inner cover.

I will take a look at the double screen board for future reference.  Thank you.