new nuc with Russian queen installed on Friday

[dfizer]

Hello all -

When should I check the hive to make sure that the queen is out of her cage.  The details are - I pulled some frames of eggs / brood and honey from three different hives - and put those into a nuc.  I added the bees that were on the underside of the inner cover from two of the hives and let them sit for about 20 hours.  When the 20 hours were up - I put the new queen in the nuc with a piece of tape over the candy plug end of the queen cage.  It has been three full days now therefore I am wondering if I should get in their and take the tape off the end of the queen cage that had the candy plug.  I have read that this if ok if the queen has been in the hive for more than 3 days - but I have also read to leave it alone for at least 6 days. 

Which philosophy would you follow - or does it matter?  I am also curious about what I should see once I open this nuc up again.  Should the bees in the nuc be all over the cage?  Should they be trying to feed her or more or less ignoring her.  If bees are all over the queen cage and they move off easily when I use my finger to get the bees off the cage?

Please advise.

David

[BeeMaster2]

If the weather is nice, open the hive and gently take out the queen cage. You will either see a couple of layers of bees all over the cage which means they are not ready, or a light layer of bees which means they are ready for her. Look at what the bees are doing on the cage. Does it look like an attack or does it look like touching, getting her sent? If the latter remove the tape and put a small hole in the candy and put it back in the hive or remove the staples and let her out onto a frame. If they are still in attack mode, did you accidentally put a queen in the hive. Look for eggs and then if there are any look for the queen. If there are eggs, I would find the hive that she was removed from and put her, still in the cage, in that one.
Jim

[RHBee]

http://www.revisrussians.com/Queen_Introduction.html


Take a look here.

[dfizer]

Thanks - given that today will be day 4 and relatively cool - 10C/50F I think I'll wait until tomorrow to take the tape off the candy plug end of the queen cage.  I'm going to see how the day goes and since it's supposed to get up to the high 60's F/20C later today I may open the nuc and take the tape off - assuming it warms up like it should. 

I will be paying close attention to how the bees are reacting to the queen.  I'm not sure I'll be able to tell if they are attacking her cage or simply getting close to get more of her scent.  I will be able to see of there are multiple layers of bees or just a few.  I did learn from Michael Bush that if it's somewhat easy to move the bees from the cage with your finger then it's a good sign of acceptance.  I am hoping that they bees have accepted her by now - since I combined bees and frames from three different hives in the nuc to start.  I am hoping that this caused ample confusion and allowed the acceptance process to begin.   

The weather is warming up quickly today so who knows - I may be able to get in there after all.

David

[RHBee]

dfizer,
Sorry about that bad link. I corrected it, good information.

[dfizer]

I found it and liked the info... I took a look and the bees were not balling the cage - they looked like they were just very interested in what was inside.  I removed the tape and gently lowered it back into the nuc.  Given this was the 4 day I think Im ok.  I will be checking back in 5-6 more days to see if they released her and if not I'll do it myself. 

I am trying to figure a way to feed the nuc as the instructions said that feeding may aid in queen introduction...

David

[WarPonyFarms]

Make sure there are no queen cells being produced.  Day 4 you may have eggs just hatching so keep sharp eye.

When I've  introduced Russians to hives, they have not been readily accepted until they are the only game in the hive.  As soon as the bees have no more chance of raising a queen they've accepted them 100%.  Sometimes its a full week before I can expose candy so they can work on her release.

I've never tried starting them in a nuc so perhaps that is the way to go. 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Dale

[dfizer]

Its interesting you mentioned the queen cells because there were two that were found and promptly removed.  I will be looking back in the hive on day 6 to make sure she is released.  Also I will feed a little sugar syrup to help with the introduction process. 

Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes!

David 

[Caelansbees]

I've even had newly introduced Russian queens superseded as soon as they have started laying.  But I agree mostly with whoever stated, "once they can't raise any of their own they're near 100%".  I'm having a bit of trouble overtaking some Italians with carniolan queens right now.  Day 4 and still aggressive towards new queens.

[dfizer]

Well - day 6 was the Friday 17th of May - I opened the hive quickly to see if she was released and much to my surprise - she was not.  I took my pocked knife out and freed up the screen on the front of the queen cage.  She walked right out, took a turn toward the frames and down between two she went. 

Leap forward to today when I just went out to check the bee activity at the nucs and much to my surprise there were boat loads of bees hauling in pollen.  Also they was so much air traffic congestion it was unbelievable.  This nuc is literally going gang busters. 

The queen introduction instructions on the revisrussians website says once released the queen should be left alone for 10 days without being disturbed.  My question is can that time be shortened at all?  I am worried that this nuc may get to a point were the bees run out of room.  I'd like to install this nuc into 10 frame deep as soon as possible and if waiting until the 27th is what's required then by all means I'll do it but wow wee is this nuc / hive cranking.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this subject you may have!

David