Introducing Queen Bees to a new Hive
26/11/2019 14:11
At times beekeepers need to requeen a colony. Either the old queen died or the hive will not be performing too as desired. The new queen's offspring can bring desirable traits to the colony. Commonly, these desirable traits incorporate gentleness, fantastic collectors of pollen or nectar, pest and disease resistance, lowered swarming behavior, a desired body colour, or helpful pollination. Get much more details about buy a queen bee
It really is crucial to meet particular criteria ahead of attempting to introduce a brand new queen otherwise the colony may reject and even kill the new queen. There are numerous procedures for introducing a new queen to a hive, but no certain procedure has been universally agreed upon because the best for all circumstances.
Most typically the process entails an introductory period of about 3 days. For the duration of this introductory period the queen is kept separated from the colony in a wire gauze cage. The workers in the colony will feed her by means of the mesh on the cage. The workers can let the caged queen into the hive by eating away a candy entrance plug inside the cage. This makes it possible for for the queen to become introduced with out the interference of the beekeeper. The beekeeper also can manually introduce the queen at the same time.
Younger bees are often more receptive to a new queen. Separating the older foragers from the younger bees can help make introducing a brand new queen a lot easier. You can separate younger bees by turning the colony so the entrance is facing the opposite direction. A different hive with at the least one frame of honey, but no bees, is placed together with the entrance facing in the very same path because the old colony. As older foragers leave the repositioned hive they will return to the new hive. Following about per day, each of the bees left within the original hive will likely be young bees, when most of the older worker bees will probably be within the temporary new hive. The new queen might be safely introduced towards the hive together with the younger bees. Just after a couple days, the colonies are reunited plus the new queen is established.
A great approach to tell if a brand new queen can be safely released would be to observe the behavior of the bees outside the queen's cage. In the event the outside bees are clinging towards the cage and are difficult to brush off, it is almost certainly not protected to release the queen however. When the outside bees can be effortlessly brushed off, the queen might be released.