There are various reasons why you might want to re-queen a colony:
- Your queen is getting old, and her laying rate is declining.
- She may be running out of sperm and laying more drones than workers.
- The colony may show undesirable traits, such as poor temperament or low productivity.
- You may want to try a different race of bee to compare performance or behaviour.
If your reason is due to the aggressiveness of your bees, we have a dedicated post on re-queening aggressive colonies that you may find helpful. https://beckybees.blog/2023/04/29/how-to-requeen-an-aggressive-colony/
You must remove the existing Queen from your colony but before you do this you need to decide when you are going to put the new queen into your colony as you have a couple of choices here:
- Leave the colony queenless for 8 days:
- On day 8, thoroughly remove all queen cells.
- Then introduce the new queen in her cage.
- Introduce the queen later on the same day as you remove the old queen
- leaving the colony queenless for 2-4 hours will allow for dispersal of the old queens pheromones and the colony will know they are queenless.
- Then introduce the new queen in her cage.
Option 1 is more thorough, but Option 2 is quicker and can be just as effective. We mainly use option 2 here but we do also use option 1 if we know we have to leave the apiary and cannot get back a few hours later to introduce the new queen.
The first and most crucial step is locating the old queen you want to replace.
If you introduce a new queen to a colony that already has one, even a virgin queen, the colony will kill the new queen.
The best time to search for the old queen is early afternoon, when most of the flying bees are out foraging.
Once you’ve found the queen, dispatch her quickly and humanely, a fast squeeze between your fingers is considered the kindest method.
Your colony must also not have any queen cells in it before introducing a new queen. So:
- Check all brood frames thoroughly.
- If in doubt, gently shake bees off brood frames to inspect more clearly.
The next step is to decide how to handle the queen cage with the new queen you are going to introduce:
With or Without Attendant Bees?
- Some beekeepers remove the attendants to increase acceptance.
- However, many report no difference in success rate either way.
- Choose the method you’re more comfortable with.
Fondant Tab: Remove Now or Later?
Option 1 – Remove the tab before inserting the cage
- Place the queen cage between the two central brood frames.
- Leave the colony undisturbed for 10 days.
- This is our preferred method.
Option 2 – Leave the tab on for 24 hours
- Return after 24 hours and remove the tab.
- If the cage has no tab, cover it with duct tape and remove it later.
- This allows you to check that the bees haven’t “balled” the queen in the cage.
Important: Once the tab or tape is removed, do not disturb the colony for 10 days.
Things to consider when requeening.
- Requeening is more successful during a nectar flow than during a dearth.
- Smaller colonies with more young bees tend to accept new queens more readily.
- Requeening is often easier at the end of the season when brood-rearing is reduced.
My final advice is “make the choices you feel comfortable making, and that you feel will work for you. Remember that there is no failsafe method of queen introduction, you must accept that no matter what choices you make you may find that your colony rejects the queen. The bees will make their own choices no matter what you try to make them do. Do avoid disturbing the colony once the queen cage with tab removed has been put in, early disturbance can cause them to reject the queen. So many times, I have taken calls from beekeepers who tell me they saw the queen on a frame in the colony a few days after the cage was put in, but when they checked a week later, she was gone!
Beckys Beezzzs 