Apis m. Esoteria 15a

Queen Replacement

What is the difference between buying a mated queen, letting the colony grow a new queen, and moving a working queen from a “replacement parts nuc.”?

Time and money. To buy a mated queen could cost $25 or more and you have to go get here or have her shipped in. Overnight mail costs about $70. The fastest shipping will take about 3 days from the time you order. This queen will be producing new emerging bees in 25 days depending on the introduction technique.

Letting the colony grow a new queen is easy and “free”. Depending on when you discover the need for a new queen there may be queen cells in the colony already. It will take 58 days from the time the worker bees decide to draw a viable queen cell and new bees emerge from the cell. The bees discover the need for a queen +3 days, the select a newly hatched larvae +3 days, that queen emerges +16 days, +6-9 days to mate, +9 days to start egg laying (hormone development), then +21 days to emerging new bees. Do you have that much time to go queenless. The colony will do just fine, but winter may come and terminate the honeybee replacement cycle before there are enough bees back in the colony.

If you have used the “Replacement Parts Nuc” program you have a queen sitting in the apiary ready to go! This is where you have split a colony to control swarming or colony expansion. The nuc is growing but the intent is not necessarily to grow it into a 10 frame colony just yet. Capture the queen in the queen grabber tool. You can set the tool with the queen in it on the top bars of the needy colony and you are done. Or, a better practice is to carefully release the queen onto the face of a frame of the needy colony and immediately cover her with a “push in cage”. This is a tricky maneuver. Place the receiving frame on its side on top of the top bars of the receiving colony to do the work. With one hand (holding the queen grabber tool with queen) and the other hand holding the push in queen cage, release the queen and cover her with the cage so fast she cannot escape. Leave her in the push in cage for a few days and then remove it. The queen will be laying eggs while she awaits release.

The nuc will grow a new queen ready to lay eggs in 37 days.