[music]
Alright so here we are we are going to requeen a colony.
Requeening is done in two stages:
first you have to remove the original queen.
There is no point in introducing a queen unless
you've actually removed a queen because they
won't accept the new queen.
So we've been into this this colony a day ahead.
We were here yesterday and we removed the queen that
was in here.
She was getting older, she is still doing ok,
but we have new queens and we wanted to replace that
queen, so we went through, found the queen,
pinched her and then we closed the hive
back up again.
It takes at least two hours before the bees start to
sense their queenlessness and if we introduce a
queen too quickly it lowers the chance that she
will be accepted.
Sometimes we introduce them on the same day
if we're in an out yard or a distant location.
I prefer to do it in a two stage process like this.
So we have our new queen here, she's inside
this cage area here and she is surrounded
by attendant bees.
So there are about five young worker bees that
are in there with her and they are keeping her warm,
they are feeding her and cleaning her and so on.
At this end of the cage you can see a candy tube, so that
candy is there for the worker bees to feed on,
but it also provides a slow release mechanism
for the queen.
If we were to just put this queen in and let her go,
the colony would kill the queen, so we don't want
that to happen.
If we put her in with the candy, it takes two or three
days for the bees to chew through the candy
and release the queen.
In the meantime she has grown into their smell,
she has picked up their smell and they have become
accustomed to her smell as well, so it allows
a slow, gradual transition.
We keep track of our queens using a tag
and then we tack that tag on the front of the hive,
so I'm going to go ahead and put that tag on the hive
right now just to make sure we keep track of who is who.
It is just held in place by a thumbtack right above
the colony number, you can see here,
and that is how we are able to keep records of
what we are doing with our hives.
So I'll just set the queen cage down for the moment,
then we will open up the hive to install the queen.
Use just a little bit of smoke to keep the bees nice
and calm, but not too much.
Puff a bit of smoke there,
lay the inner cover down at the entrance
and then again we always take the second frame out
first, so we'll pry that frame loose,
pry this one up
and lean that frame against the far corner.
Now what we are looking for is a frame of brood.
We want to introduce the queen next to a good solid
frame of brood because we know the bees are going
to be clustered there all day and all night
keeping this brood warm.
So there is a really nice frame of brood,
lots of capped pupa in this area here.
We know bees will always stay in this
area so if we put the queen there she will get
lots of attention and will be taken care of.
So we will put that frame back into place
and then we pick up the queen cage
and we turn the screen down.
We'll then move that next to the brood frame
and just wiggle it back and forth a bit to get the
worker bees out of the way, and then we
can gently push that into the comb so it is lodged
into the surface of the comb there, and then what
we do is move the next frame over
and gradually wiggle that back and forth to get the
bees out of the way and we push it up against
the cage so that there is no chance that the cage
can fall down and be abandoned by the bees.
So it is firmly wedged into place in there
and then we can just close the hive back up
and reinstalling the frames, putting them back
in their original position.
So I just get that frame in there gradually.
Then we will puff some smoke on top of the frames
to get the bees out of the way so we are not
crushing any with the inner cover,
and then just gradually lay that down on top giving
the bees an opportunity to get out of the way
and close the lid up.
I am now going to make a note on the lid
at the back of the hive with the date,
May 10th,
queen introduced.
That is going to make sure that I don't disturb
this colony for a week.
If we open up this hive in less than a weeks time
we disturb the hive.
The queen is recently emerged from that cage,
again it takes two or three days for her to get out
through that candy, and if we interrupt the colony
while they are gradually accepting that queen
they will turn on her and kill her, so it's important
to leave the colony for a week before you
come back to see if the queen is laying.
At that point all you are looking for is eggs
inside the hive, you don't need to find the queen
but you look for eggs and if there are eggs
there then everything is normal and you can
close the hive up and you know your queen
introduction has been successful.
If you don't find any eggs, you then may need to requeen
the colony again, but in most cases this
will work out and you've got new young queen,
good genetic material in the hive and the hive
can carry on and flourish.
So that's the basics of queen introduction
and I would encourage you to be buying locally
produced queens that are adapted to our environment
and have been bred for disease resistance
and support your local queen breeders.
Thanks very much. See you next time.