Requeening hot hive with push-in cage

[ggleavitt]

Have a very hot hive and am in the process of doing a re-queen.  Using a push in wire cage over emerging brood, removed old queen 24 hours before putting new queen in (in retrospect I might not do this again, 3 days later I went through every frame and had to remove 11 emergency queen cells).

Also at day 3 I thought to release the new queen but could not see well through the haze of PO'd bees on my veil to determine if the new queen was being accepted so left her in the large wire cage. Looks like she has around 30 or so attendants that emerged from inside the cage so I think I’m okay for now to leave her as is.  No more honey inside the cage but some pollen and plenty of now empty cells. Didn’t see an eggs but I’m old and my eyesight is not so sharp.  The bees on the outside are trying to eat down to the plastic in a few spots but so far the cage is holding (#8 wire, pushed all the way to the bottom of the foundation).

Question is, how long should I feel comfortable leaving her in the push-in cage?  A week or 10 days okay?  I'm not at all incentivized to go back into this hive so want to defer as long as is reasonable to get full acceptance.

Thanks

[BeeMaster2]

GG,
First of all where are you located? Are you in AHB territory?
Sounds like you did the right thing, the bees will not accept the new queen with their own queen cells in the hive. By removing the all of the emergency cell, you will force them to accept the new queen. The big question is did you get them all.
I would give them a couple of days and then release her.
If you had slid the cage under the hive it would bee easy to release her without going through the hive again.
Before releasing her, look at the bees on the screen. Are they attacking the box or are they calm and just trying to get her cent and feeding her.
If there are no other cells in the hive, they may calm down with just her pheromone.
Jim

[Michael Bush]

They genearally chew under the push in cage in a few days.  After that it doesn't really matter...

[ggleavitt]

Living in the Northwest so pretty sure no AHB, just a very cranky defensive hive.  They were cool up to around a month ago and the hive right next to them is still as nice as nice can be.  Old queen was Italian from an Oregon package, she was laying reasonably well when I pulled her out.  As far as bees already releasing the queen from the cage, I'll check in a day or so.  Didn't think I saw overly aggressive behavior on the cage itself (they were more focused on trying to get to me!) so will hope all is well in the event she's no longer inside.  Worked pretty hard at day 3 to ensure that I had no queen cells left in the hive.  After I get around to having a look, will report back.  Thanks!

[ggleavitt]

Went back into the hive today (day6), was not looking forward to it and again had good reason.   These are nasty bees!  Discovered 4 more now capped queen cells that I must have missed at day 3. Queen cage was still in place with new queen and the emerged brood inside.  Bees were being nice and she released fine.  Watched her for a minute (pretty much everyone let her be) then gently buttoned everything up.
My hope (for them!) is that everything settles down before winter really kicks in (November around here).  I’ll watch (from a bit of a distance) and see if they calm down slightly and get back to work.  Plenty of stores so won’t do anything with them today as far as syrup (I threw some patties in).  As a side note since I was doing one queen, I bought a second to do both hives (I have only 2).  The other hive right next door was a real pleasure to re-queen and although I put the new queen in right after taking the old one out (didn’t kill the old queen from the nice hive, she’s in a nuc as my insurance policy), I did have to tear down capped emergency queen cells in the second hive when I checked today.  So for sure in my case, whether putting the cage in 24 hours or 15 minutes after pulling the old queen, checking the whole hive for queen cells is a must before release if the release is delayed for more than a few days.  Or so I would have you believe…

[jayj200]

Glad ya didn't pinch the queen in the nice hive.

down here we have AB's  they get real nasty.

if we pinch all the queens? even the nice ones.

how can anyone not expect AB.s to take over all