How To Introduce a Mated Queen To a Hive

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today we're going to show you how to introduce a mated queen. So I introduce absolutely tons of mated queens every year, and this video is specifically going to show you if you order a queen through the post. So you're ordering a mated queen through the post, and I'm going to show you how to introduce that to your colony. So the reason I make that very specific is it's different from if you're introducing, say, a mated queen from within your own apiary. So say she's in a hive and she's kind of laying eggs and everything's good, and you want to take that queen and put her into a different colony, the process is a little bit easier and it's quite a lot different. So like I say, this is specifically for if you're ordering a queen through Through the post and it's a mated queen. So why might you need to order a mated queen through the post? 2 main reasons really. One is your colony is queenless already. Now that might be queenless with some cells or hopelessly queenless, or the other reason is you might want to do a split, a proactive split. So you want to kind of split the bees in half. One half has the original queen and then you want to add a mated queen to the other half. So for the purpose of this video, what I'm actually doing is I'm adding my breeder queen that I've ordered in from Germany into a nuc that I'm going to make up. So the process is very, very similar, but you need to follow some very, very important steps, otherwise they will kill the queen. And when you're spending a lot of money on a queen, it's really, really frustrating when the bees decide to kill her and then make their own out of some cells. So there's a few steps in the process. This So in this video, we'll just run through the steps and it'll give you a really, really good chance of making sure that the introduction goes successfully and they don't kill the queen. So the first thing you need to do is you need to identify where you are kind of along that timeline in terms of have you got a hopelessly queen— a hopelessly queenless colony, have you got a colony that you think is queenless, or have you got a colony that's really, really big, you think it's going to swarm within the next few days and you want to do a split? But you don't want to let them produce their own queen cells. So work out which one you're in. For the purpose of this video, let's assume that we're in— we've got a big colony and we're going to do a proactive split. So the first thing to say is when you're introducing these queens, they come in little queen cages. So the queen hasn't come yet, and this is an important step for this video, is you need to do some work before the queen comes. If you wait until that queen gets delivered and then you perform the steps, It's a bit of a nightmare trying to kind of work out the timings of everything, so I recommend that you do these steps up to 6 or 7 days before your queen is due to arrive. So there's a little bit of planning in there. If you can't do that and you need a queen kind of the next day and you want to introduce her straight away, you can amend this process to make it work. It definitely works a lot better if you kind of take proactive steps and do the planning first. So the queens come in a cage. Like this. I'm sure you've seen them online. Good catch. Now, the reason they come in a cage like that is to kind of protect the queen when you introduce it, so it doubles up as kind of like a postal package and an introduction cage. You always get a plug of fondant in there, and then the ends are always sealed. So those sealed ends are very important, and it allows you to do this safe introduction that we're going to talk about today. Inside there, you have a mated queen, Try and get the best genetics you possibly can, and then inside there you have a number of attendants as well. Always leave the attendants in there. They help to protect the queen and they help to feed the queen while she's stuck in this cage. So you can use things called queen introduction cages, which is kind of a piece of mesh that you put over some brood, and if you wanted to go belt and braces method, that is the method that I would use. I'll do another video on that because it's a very, very different method. I can't use that method because I introduce so many queens throughout the year. I haven't got enough of those cages, and it takes quite a little bit more work in order to kind of get that to work successfully. So I use this method, and I can't remember the last time I had a queen who was killed using this method. So it's pretty much foolproof, but you always do run the risk if you amend these timings that something can go wrong. Right, so we're going to take a nice Big colony ready to swarm, maybe within the next kind of couple of weeks, and we're going to do this split. We're going to show you how to introduce the queen. So give them a little bit of a smoke and then we'll run you through the process. So I'm running low on equipment at the moment, so we're using one of the old, uh, floors that I've scorched. Doesn't matter, you can use any floor for this, um, and you just want to place it kind of Anywhere within the apiary. Really, really doesn't matter where you place it, it just needs to be somewhere different from the original hive. So for the purpose of this video, I'm just going to plonk it here. I will move that at the end of the video because I don't want it too close to the original hive. So what's very, very important with this one is that you find the queen. Can't emphasize that enough, you need to find the queen. If you can't find the queen, you cannot complete this manipulation. So you need to find her. So we're going to go through and we're going to find that queen. So I found the queen. That means that I can use the bottom box for this part of the manipulation. Just keep an eye on her. You need to know where she is at all times. So I know now in this box I've not got any queens. So I've double-checked for that. There's brood in here, there's flying bees in here, there's nurse bees in here, there's brood in here, but there's definitely no queen. We'll just go back and double-check that in the other box as well. Then what you want to do is you want to take that box, and all I'm doing there is 6 frames. You don't need to do a full split here. I've got a bit of foundation in there, so I'll just take that out and I'm going to put that on the new location. So then put the other box back on the original location. The flying bees from here will return to the old box. And for my own sanity, I always like to confirm that the queen is there. So you can see the queen. So at this point you could do this hive back up. We don't need any further resources from this hive, we've got enough down there. So once you've made the split, they should look something like this. You can sense from these bees that they're queenless now. You can hear the noise that they're making. Do you mean they're crying out for their queen? So once you've made this split, you've got 2 separate hives. Hive 1 in the original location, you've got the queen, you've got brood, you've got all of the worker bees, all of the flying bees, and nurse bees. You've basically got everything that you would have had before. That will continue now to kind of be a production colony. This hive over here, what you've got at the moment is no queen, worker bees, Brood and nurse bees, and what's going to happen is that the worker bees are going to fly out, they're going to go and forage, and they're going to come back to this hive. So like I said, this can be anywhere within the apiary. We're going to move it away just so there's no confusion for the bees. We'll just go and plonk it kind of maybe 10 meters away, and we want to reduce the number of bees in this hive, and you will see them reduce. And the reason they will reduce is, like I said, they'll go out and forage and they'll come back to this hive. This is why you can't move hives within the apiary. What you'll get left with in this hive is brood, nurse bees, and very, very few worker bees. A few might hang around, but that doesn't matter. You want to reduce the number down as much as possible, and because this colony now is queenless, they're going to produce queen cells. So we leave them 7 days, and we're going to come back and check for queen cells, and then we're going to knock every single queen cell down. So my queen has arrived 4 days early, so I'm really, really glad that it's arrived early. Obviously it kind of messes up the process that we're using for this video, but it's actually a good example of showing you that if the queen does come early, you can continue with this procedure, but you just need to slightly amend it. So normally, like we said, we'd wait the full 7 days, we'd go back in, we'd knock down all the queen cells, we'd put the queen in there with the tab still on, and then we'd go back 3 days after, so on day 10, and we'd We'd release the TAD and we'd knock down any additional queen cells, and at that point they're hopelessly queenless. So you can continue with the process basically from any day from kind of day 3 onwards. You can actually do it straight away, so on day 0 you can put the queen in, but you still need to wait those full 10 days to make sure that you get the colony into a completely queenless, hopelessly queenless state. But it doesn't matter that the queen is caged in there. So it kind of makes a bit more sense when we go and do the video. I'll show you the queen though. So I've had this through from Buckfast in Germany, um, really, really good queens over there. They come in the cages that I like. I much, much prefer these cages compared to the other cages that you see. Um, the reason being is that there's just one entrance hole and one big puck of fondant, and I find the cages stay together a lot, lot better than some of the other cages I've seen. So not sure how well you can see that on there, but every single attendant is still alive. The queen looks in really, really good condition. They've eaten a bit of the fondant but not too much. They've probably only been in the post for a couple of days. So really, really happy with the quality of the queens that are coming out. I know that as I'm putting this queen into the hive, it's in tip-top condition, 10 out of 10, and if they fail, if they reject her, then it can only be my fault. So there's no comeback. To the person who sold me this queen. They've done a really, really good job of getting it to me. So one thing I mentioned before in the previous part of the video is that I like to tape this cage shut. So make sure you don't get any of the ventilation holes either side. But what I found is that when you put these in between 2 frames, when you come to do that final release and you crack the frames open, it can release the queen from the cage too early and then they ball her. So to stop that happening, I tape around here. So it's the end that the fondant is in, and I just completely close that up, and then I know there's no way the bees can get in that way, but also know that this part of the cage isn't going to come down when I crack it open. So that is ready now for introduction into the hive. So we moved the colony over to this new position. Like we said, the aim of moving it is to bleed off All of the worker bees, all of the flying bees, so that they're not present in this hive. All I want in here is nurse bees, brood, and you're going to find queen cells as well. That's all I want in there. Obviously there's no queen in there as well. They've all gone back to the old hive. So let's open it up, see what we find. So looking into the hive, this is all I've got in there. I've basically got 2 frames of bees, and that's what I want for my queen introduction. I don't want lots of bees there. I don't want the aggressive bees. I don't want a big massive colony like that when I'm doing an introduction, when I'm trying to protect the queen. This is what I want, 2 or 3 frames, nice gentle nurse bees, that's it. We know the queen's not on there, so we can shake the frame. And then that's what you're looking for. You can see they've already started to make those queen cells up, so we're going to go through one by one, make sure we knock every single one of those queen cells down. So as we said before, you need to be incredibly thorough here. Do not miss a queen cell, otherwise this won't work and they will kill the queen. So you can see we've kind of squished them all up there, taken them right back. Anything you think could potentially be a queen cell, you make sure you kill it. Kill all of these, even if there's something that you're not sure, just whack it down. You want to make sure there's zero risk of any queen cells there. So you want to go through the hive, absolutely every single frame, make sure there's no queen cells. Nothing on this side here, lots of nice brood that's going to emerge over the next few days. I mean, sometimes they can be a little bit hard to spot, but obviously, hopefully you spotted the one up there. Get right in. Doesn't matter if you damage a bit of brood around it, you can sacrifice that. You want to make sure that queen is completely dead and there's no chance of them recovering the larvae. So I'm confident there's nothing left on that frame. So the mistake that is very, very easy to make is thinking that you've knocked down all of the cells now, so you can just put that queen in and undo the tab. Do not make that mistake. There are plenty of larvae in there that they can still make queen cells from. They will use any larvae they possibly can to make a queen cell. So we're going to put the queen in, we're going to keep that cage completely secure, and then we're going to come back in 6 or 7 days and we're going to knock down any further cells. However, in the meantime, we need to put this queen somewhere, and instead of kind of keeping it in your cupboard, I like to keep it in with the bees there. That's the best way of kind of keeping the queens healthy, is putting them in the colony. So she's completely secure, she's got ventilation around her, she's got food inside, she's got about 8 or 9 attendants in there. They're all perfectly healthy and alive. She can stay in there for a long, long time. We're going to put it into the colony so they can maintain the temperature, keep her warm, because that's going to be the thing that will kill her, if anything, at the moment. So you want to take a piece of fishing wire, And just kind of thread that through the hole and just tie that so it's tight. Then you want to take that onto in between 2 brood frames. So that's a brood frame and that's a brood frame, and you want to hang it from the edge and then secure it tightly between the 2. So that is what you end up with, and what that means is they're probably going to propolise that together, so she shouldn't move, but that little bit of thread or fishing wire is going to give her the extra security there. And as you can see, the bees are already coming to make a bit of a fuss of her. That's really, really nice behaviour, do you know what I mean? If they're aggressive, you can see them really trying to sting that now, so that's nice gentle behaviour from the bees saying, we found a queen, we're going to make a fuss of her. Do not mistake that fuss I can release the queen. We need to wait here 6 or 7 days. They're going to make all of those additional queen cells. We're going to come back, knock them down. There's going to be no larva suitable for them to make any further queen cells, and then they're hopelessly queenless. Then and only then can you release the tab, and then that'll give them an extra couple of days to go in there, burrow their way through the fondant, and they'll release that queen. Right, so we're back at the hive now on day 7 since we made the split. That's the really important date to remember. So we're going to look inside today and hopefully we're not going to see a single queen cell. If we do see any queen cells, we can safely tear those down. So what I'm expecting to see here today is maybe a slight improvement in numbers over what there was last, over the last few days. Not a dramatic one, but just maybe a few more nurse bees, a few more, a bit more of that brood has emerged. Should give kind of safety in numbers for that queen when she's being released. So we'll get in, take a look. Definitely a few more bees on there, which is good. You know what I mean? You don't want to introduce a queen into a nothing colony. Got more bees in there now. The nurse brood has emerged. Same on that side, you know what I mean? Not a huge amount. We're still on 2 frames here, but there's a decent amount of bees. So what we're going to do is going to shake this frame, look for queen cells. And once again, they've tried it on with another couple of queen cells. So you can see how really important it is. You know what I mean? I'm doing this, I'm breaking it down to show you the steps. I'd normally come in and just do this in one hit, leave it the 7 days and come down and take them all down. I'm showing you though how you do it. If you do it early, they will create these new queen cells. So as you can see, we've got a queen cell here and a queen cell up here, so we're going to take those down now. Like I said before, make sure they're completely down. Absolutely no way the cells can be resurrected. And then that frame there, absolutely nothing on that cell, so they haven't tried it on. Obviously no eggs or larvae of the correct age on that one. The same on that side. So looking at the queen again, absolutely full of life in there, not a single dead attendant. Do you know what I mean? They've got, they've got everything they need to be able to survive in there for a really long time. So don't think that you're doing her a disservice by not letting her out early and that she needs to kind of get out or she's going to die. She's not, she's quite happy in the cage. The attendants will feed her the fondant and the bees in the hive will keep her warm, so they'll stay in there for absolutely ages. So then the final part of the manipulation is we need to go in, we need to knock down every single queen cell, we're going to shake those bees off and then we're going to release the queen. So what I'm hoping to expect to see at this point Is a massive reduction in the number of worker bees that are there. There should only really be a couple of frames of bees in this one because there was a couple of frames of brood, and you want to see more nurse bees as well. Um, you need to kind of take a look at their behavior at this time as well. If they're showing any sort of aggression towards the queen, you want to leave it for a little while, and you want to check every single frame to make sure that there's no larvae there that they can create a queen cell from. So you want to knock down all the queen cells, make sure there's no larva there, and then and only then can you take that wrapping off the queen and release her from that fondant plug. It should take about 2 to 3 days then, depending on how many bees are in the colony, for them to eat through that plug, and then they'll release the queen. So I like to give it at least a week after I release it to going back in and checking to see how they go. So let's get in and take a look. So as you can see, as predicted, a huge reduction in the number of bees. They're only over 2 frames now, and that's because you've bled off all of the worker bees. So all that's going to be left is nurse bees, newly emerged bees, and bees that were nurse bees when you put them in here that didn't know where home was. So these are the bees that you want to use to get your queen accepted. So same as before, you want to go through and check Every single frame that you possibly can. So again, doesn't look like there's any cells on there, but if you weren't to shake that off, you'd have probably missed this one here. So you always need to make sure you shake them off, and that's the only way that you're going to ensure that you're getting every single one. So I'm going to shake these off and I'll show you the frame again. So there's the frame again, and as you can see, they're trying to make that queen cell there, so we'll knock that one down. So to release the queen, get out your Leatherman tool, which I'm sure you've all got by now. You want to just cut off this tape. So all you want to do is go into there and pop the little plastic cage out. Now if, if you can see what's happened here, they've started to eat through that fondant. So what would happen is this would be a really, really quick introduction, and that's not what I want. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to push that fondant back down and spread it around a little bit. And what that will do is that will slow the introduction down. So instead of it being, say, a half an hour introduction, it's going to be maybe a 6-hour introduction. And that just helps, um, get the queen accepted a little bit better. So that's it. I'll do one last check just to make sure the queen is okay, and she's there. And I'm going to go and place this back in the hive. So same as last time, take your brood frame I hook it on the brood frame like that, and then I trap it between the 2 frames as well, so I've just got that added bit of safety. Always do this horizontal, and then you want the bees to enter from the middle like that. So that's my preferred method, loads of different ways of doing it though, it's just how I do it. So then that's my final setup, you can see they're giving her loads of attention again. So the bees will go in there now, they will eat through that fondant, and they'll release that queen. So it's really, really tempting now that you want to see if that queen's been released from her cage. So if you go back in, say, 24 hours to check, there's a real chance that they'll ball her. So just patience is the game here. Wait, give it 3, 4, 5 days, but a minimum of 3 days before you go back in and check. I mean, they will eat through that fondant, they'll get through it, no problem. You don't need to do anything else. They will take care of it from here. If you interfere any further from here, there's a chance that they will kill that queen. And if you're doing like I'm doing here, a breeder queen you spent quite a lot of money on, you want to kind of make— give them every single possible chance of accepting that queen. Right, so we're on to the final stage of the video now. So there's going to be absolutely no chance there can be any queen cells in there now because we've come back, we've knocked them down. The last time we did it, there was absolutely no larva left. That means they can't create any queen cells, and we were safe to kind of open up that cage and let them eat the fondant. So what we're expecting to see is a completely empty cage, and we're expecting to see the queen walking around on the frames. And you're expecting to see a really, really nice kind of temperament and nature towards that queen. What you don't want to see is any aggression towards the queen, and obviously you don't want to see a dead queen. So we'll open it up and we'll give you a look. So what is always worth doing at this late stage is going through each of the frames again and just checking to see whether you've missed a cell, because what can happen is the queen can safely be released, but you could have still missed that cell, and you've got a last chance to go in and do something about it. I'm not expecting to find any cells here, but it's always good practice to check. So as you can see, they've eaten through that fondant Doesn't take them long to get through it. Probably done it in about 12 hours. We're 2 or 3 days later here, and there's no queen. So we're either going to find that queen dead on the bottom of the floor, or hopefully we're going to find her on one of the frames looking healthy. And there she is, queen number 76, safe on the frame. So we're really, really happy with that. A safe introduction. So I'm not going to leave the frames out too long. I'm just going to put it back together now, and I'm going to let this colony build up. You can see the behavior towards her though. That's really, really nice behavior. They're not pestering her. They're not running over her. Do you know what I mean? They're making a fuss of her. They're wanting to clean her. That's the behavior that you want to see. That's good, safe behavior. So that's it for the video. I appreciate it's turned into a bit of a long-winded one, but the reason I kind of wanted to go through all the individual steps of this video is to To show you what not to do and the mistakes that you can make along the way. So introducing a queen, it's a lengthy process. It's not a case of just chuck a queen in and then go the next day and see and she's been introduced safely. You need to take your time and you need to follow your steps and you need to appreciate and understand the brood cycle and get the colony into a point of hopelessly queenless to guarantee that they're not going to kill that queen. Um, So there's kind of risks along the way. You could have laying workers, you could have virgins running around, you could have queen cells that you've not seen, and all of these scenarios could result in a dead queen. So what you're doing is you're categorically going through each and every one and removing that scenario in order to give you as absolute best chance as possible. So we're going to go forward with this colony now. I mean, we've confirmed there's a Safe queen in there. She's been successfully introduced. It was an expensive breeder queen, so we took all of the steps necessary to make sure that she survived. You're going to see a lot of this colony, and you're going to see a lot of these queens going forward because this is my breeding stock for the year. So we're going to let her build up, and then we're going to graft from her. So what we're going away and doing now is we're putting together our, um, our cell builder colony, and then we're going to take grafts from this queen once she starts laying, and the grafts the correct age, and then we're going to put it into that cell builder colony. So keep an eye out for that video, it's a really, really interesting one. So once again, thanks for watching. Please hit the subscribe channel, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video. I'll see you next time.