Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: orvette1 on May 13, 2011, 11:53:12 am
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I moved a hive and put a nuc in its place. I put some capped brood and honey in it. In the past I let the nuc make a new queen. But this time I went a different route. I waited about a week and put a new queen in. She is in a cage with a candy plug. Do I wait about 5 days before releasing her if they haven't?
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Check for cells first, before you release her. If they have even one cell your new queen will be wasted money.
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After making the split, you only need to wait about 3 hours (Although 24 hours is advised.) Bees know within 3 hours that they are without a queen as the pheromone levels quickly are lowering.
Just because they have queen cells does not mean they will kill off an introduced queen. But to keep any possible damage to your new queen, if in fact one hatches (Bees are keen on hiding their own queen cells away from the queen) it is best to destroy any queen cells.
I never wait more than 2-3 days to release the queen. Either they take her in this time, or they don't. I hear some suggest up to a week. What a waste of production time being overly cautious.
Next time, make your split, wait till the next morning to introduce the queen, and she should be laying a few days later.
Good luck.