How did it go? How did you do it?
I have only done it a few times and every time was successful. I removed the queen and placed the cage at the same time, maybe waited 2-5 minutes.
Removed the old queens at 4.00pm, came back following day at 10.00AM and placed new queens in cages with fondant plug and left them closed up.
Came back 8 days later (dodging bad weather) and opened them up. Both cages were empty (hurray!) but I could only find one of the queens and she was running around on her lonesome on one of the outer frames - they seemed to be ignoring her. I couldn't find
any eggs in either hive.
I put the lids back on and retired for a think - anyway, no time to deal with it for a few days but went back yesterday for a look.
I found the same queen again but she was surrounded by bees and there was lots of new eggs and very young brood in her hive. All of the older brood was capped; there being no big fat, pre-capped grubs left in either hive, so I guess that's from the hiatus between the old queen being removed and the new queen getting started.
I still couldn't find the other queen but from the presence of eggs and new brood (lots of them), I know she's in there somewhere.
Both queens were marked with blue spots but I noticed that the one I did find had very little blue left on her, it had almost all worn off, so now I'm thinking that the other queen has possibly lost hers altogether and as I was looking for a blue spot, probably missed her.
Interesting though, the last time I requeened my other 2 hives back in February (one unsuccessfully, hence my thread starter), there were new eggs and brood in the one which was successful at the first inspection, 7 days after requeening. I wonder if these new queens were so new that they weren't laying initially and have only just come into production?
It is Spring here and I reckon the breeder is probably pushing them out of the door as soon as they're available.