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  • From: Todd Walker <mtwalker AT imageray.net>
  • To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Requeening question
  • Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:23:03 -0400

Zac,

A queenright hive (meaning they have a queen) will probably not accept a new queen. The workers will most likely release her from the cage and kill her. If there was a virgin or recently mated queen in the hive, the workers might not react as strongly if they have not connected the virgin/newly mated queen. In that case the two queens will have to sort it out between them. If you check back in a week and see no eggs, the caged queen probably didn't make it.  Give them another week for the virgin to start laying and check again.

As for identifying a queen or drone. The drone has big eyes that meet at the top of the head and no sting. The queen is more pointed, longer, has smaller eyes, and a sting.

~Todd

From: Zac Morris <zac AT zacwolf.com>
Date: Friday, April 5, 2013 1:15 PM
To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [ocba] Requeening question

Hey gang.  This last fall was my first harvest, but I had to be out of town for most of Sept/October.  I checked the hive before I left and had a goodly amount of honey (two sups).  When I got back to do the harvest, I noticed that much of the honey in the top sup was gone, and I noticed that the hive seemed a bit weakened (had a few hive beetles  that they were running, but no larva).  I'm guessing that they had swarmed while I was away?

I harvested the top sup, and let the hive winter with the two deeps.

I inspected the hive two weeks ago, and I only saw one small hive beetle, but I went ahead and installed a few traps.  It wasn't the warmest day, so I didn't open the entire hive (i.e. I didn't look for a queen).

I decided to requeen so picked up a queen yesterday and today when I went to requeen, I inspected the hive, and I found an open queen cell (mid-frame) (and no beetles in the traps).  I had a goodly number of drones (not enough to warrant a concern of workers laying), and that made finding the queen very difficult.  I honestly can't say whether I found her, or a drone. :-/

I installed the new queen in a (closed) requeening frame, and closed up the hive.

A few questions:  

How long should I wait to let the new queen out? (Was thinking 2-days, Sunday?)

When I go to inspect the hive, is there any behavior that I should look for that would say that I didn't get the old queen (possibly a virgin).  If I see any such behavior should I try finding her again, and then wait longer on opening the new queen's frame?

If I still miss the "old" queen, will the two queens just "fight it out", or am I doing real harm by letting them "sort it out themselves"?

THANKS!
-Zac


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