I rarely deal with a virgin queen introduction. Help me out here. I just introduced a virgin queen to a swarm with stumpy cells. I did not take the cells out it was raining at the time so I just walked her in. Will the virgin not kill the other queen cells? Do I need to go in an tear the cells down?
Can someone list some dos and dont's:
introducing a virgin to a queenless hive
introducting a virgin to a queenless hive with cells
introducing a virgin in a hive with mated queen
introducing a virgin in a queenless hive in a cage
introducing a mated queen in a queenless hive
It seems the responses are usually all over the place on this subject, so what works for you. Also I have head tips like dabbing the virgin queen in honey before walking her in.
There certainly are other methods. Some quicker, some longer. Some consistently successful, some not so much. Pick what you think will work for you. Below are imho to you scenarios for best chances of success.
Treat virgin queen introduction the same as a mated queen introduction. The difference is that once the candy is set; the VQ you are going to leave alone for at least 2 weeks, whereas the mated queen you are going to check on her every 5 days.
introducing a virgin to a queenless hive
- VQueen 3 days in cage, corked. 4th day destroy queen cells. Check bees aggression towards the cage. Decide to extend intro a day or not. If looks good, remove the cage cork and put a single mini marshmallow or candy. Not alot of candy, set a short fuse.. Do not go back for 2 weeks. Longer if the weather is poor for flying.
introducing a virgin to a queenless hive with cells
- destroy cells.
- VQueen 3 days in cage, corked. 4th day destroy queen cells. Decide to extend intro a day or not. If looks good, remove the cage cork and put a single mini marshmallow or candy. Not alot of candy, set a short fuse.. Do not go back for 2 weeks. Longer if the weather is poor for flying.
introducing a virgin in a hive with mated queen
- don't do this.
- kill old queen first or move her to a nuc as backup contingency
- no need to wait after the kill for introducing the caged virgin. can be put in immediately
- VQueen 3 days in cage, corked. 4th day destroy queen cells. Decide to extend intro a day or not. If looks good, remove the cage cork and put a single mini marshmallow or candy. Not alot of candy, set a short fuse.. Do not go back for 2 weeks. Longer if the weather is poor for flying.
introducing a virgin in a queenless hive in a cage
- see above
introducing a mated queen in a queenless hive
- see above HOWEVER......
- do not wait 2 weeks. You must check thoroughly every 5 days for queen cells and destroy them, every 5 days, until she is stable. This may take 3 weeks.
***** Virgin queens are subject to all the hazards and trials that go with the mating flights process. The introduction to the hive may be 100% successful but the queen then be lost or fail on her mating flights. Bee cautious to not be quick to attribute lost or missing or failing virgins to the introduction method. She faces many odds against her soon as she leaves the entrance for here flights. Mating success varies by many factors. Can be anywhere form 0% to 80%. We say virgin introductions are 50% successful. That is based on how many end up as mated laying queens. They can all be 100% successful at being introduced and accepted by the colony. But then fail in the mating period. The %age is determined much more by her mating period, and little by the introduction method. Assuming you introduce using a sound method in the first place. It is really important to clearly understand this when talking about success rates of VQ vs MQ.
Hope that helps!