laurence edwardsOwner at Black Mountain Honey

How to Introduce a New Queen Bee? 👑🐝

22 Sept 2024 · 0 min

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0:29

In this instructional beekeeping video, the presenter demonstrates the process of introducing a mated, egg‑laying queen into a completely queenless colony. Holding the queen, he shows that the workers quickly accept her, noting their inspection behavior and the immediate recognition of a fertile queen. He emphasizes a critical warning: never attempt this if a virgin queen is still present, as the virgin will likely kill the introduced queen. After the queen is placed on the frame, the presenter stresses the need to monitor and care for her to ensure the colony’s recovery.

So I've got the queen on my hand. She was laying eggs 10 minutes ago. The colony is hopelessly queenless. Don't try and do this if you've got a virgin running around in the colony, because the virgin will still kill her. But these bees here, they are going to accept her within seconds. So there you go, she's on the frame now. She's running around. The bees are checking her out. They're thinking, what is going on here? We have got a mated queen. And not only a mated queen, we've got a queen that is laying eggs. We need to tend to her. We need to take care of her.