Requeening

[spafmagic]

I have a slight situation with my bee package I got on the 31st of March. Sporadic *edit* brood *edit*, one Queen cell about to be capped. So I know the queen isn't doing her job. Just bought a new one, and need to know how long to wait after removing the old Queen to introduce the new one.

[Michael Bush]

I would have just let them supersede her...  But to answer your question, 2 hours.  Not more than 24 hours.

[spafmagic]

Thank you. I had to edit my post a bit LOL. Speech recognition picked up the word Road rather than brood. If I knew there were more honey bee hives in my area, I probably would have taken the risk of letting them supersede her. But it's been two weeks, and without a really good laying Queen, their numbers are dwindling. I only have one hive.

[iddee]

We just delivered 600 packages to Kernersville. I think you have plenty of bees in the area.

[spafmagic]

We just delivered 600 packages to Kernersville.

If "just" as in the end of March, then I likely got one of those packages. I know bees can fly out to 3 to 5 miles from the hive to forage, by which I based my conclusion that since I haven't seen any other bees but my own prior to obtaining them, I'm not in range of any other hives... if maybe just one other. After hearing about the dangers of the new queen possibly not returning due to getting eaten and what not, I felt it best to re-queen rather than risk the old queen flying off with half of the population this far into the process.

At any rate, the deed is half done. The queen cell has been removed, as well as the old queen. After speaking with the owner of the bee supply store I go to, to ask about the best method for the act itself... he suggested to do what he does when re-queening... dispatch the old queen over the new queen's cage, to spread her pheromones over it mixing them with the new one, to help the workers with the transition. As the old queen's pheromones fade, they would get used to the new one.

In the morning, since I'll be within that 24 hour mark... I'll be doing just that. But I'm open to other suggestions at any rate.

[iddee]

You probably did. It was March 29, or April 5.  Even if you don't see them, there are plenty of bees around you. I have done several removals in and around K-ville. and
George has been in business for years.

[spafmagic]

You probably did. It was March 29, or April 5.  Even if you don't see them, there are plenty of bees around you. I have done several removals in and around K-ville. and
George has been in business for years.

Well... I figure some good news is a good reason to dredge up this thread one more time. So from bad news to good news...

After a failed requeening, I discovered more queen cells. So, I introduced a queenless package to the hive before the other queen cells hatched, to add to the workforce hoping the new queen would hatch and go on a mating flight. Soon enough I found a virgin queen crawling on the ground after the cells hatched. Putting her on the landing board, she was immediately being forced away from the hive.

So George came out and looked at the hive not long ago, and best he figured, there was a laying worker in there despite no evidence of eggs. I got a new queen the same day for one more attempt. We took the hive out a good ways and knocked all the bees off the frames to eject the laying worker. A good chunk of them stayed there, while the ones that have been out of the hive flew back. Oddly enough, the queen cage had a THICK candy plug. After nearly 5 days, they were still trying to eat her out. So I pulled the direct release plug and let her out this Thursday. Today, I found Mama, and an estimated hundred+ "mama droppings" (eggs). The comb cells for some reason vary a little bit in size. I hope she didn't put drone eggs in the slightly larger cells.

[BeeMaster2]

Drone eggs are the same size as worker eggs. The only difference is that worker cells are fertilized.
Jim Altmiller