Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
If the colony's population is small, finding the queen may be easy. Here are a
couple of tricks that may help. The first one is labor intensive and time consuming,
but it generally works.
Have an extra box, and three or four large boards or extra covers with you to
start. First, put the extra super on one board. If you have two or three brood boxes,
lay down anther flat board (the cover if it is flat) and put the top box on that. You
don't want bees falling out the bottom. Lay another flat board on the top box and
put the second box on that, if there is one. You will start with the bottom box on
the bottom board.
Have the empty super close by with a bottom board or regular bottom right on
the hive stand, if you can. Remove the nearest frame. Look at the next frame as
you lift to see if she is running from the light. Examine that frame carefully and if
not there, place it in the empty super. Use smoke sparingly.
Continue looking for the queen. When the first box is done, move the next one,
on its board, on top of the now-full super and examine it frame by frame, put-
ting examined frames in the box you just emptied. Eventually, you should find the
queen.
If you don't find her the first day, you can try the second tip, and that is to put
a queen excluder between the bottom and second box. When you return in three
days, where the eggs are is where the queen is.
Once you find her remove her from the colony. Before she is dispatched to
honey bee heaven, ask if someone wants her as an observation hive queen, or to
hold a nuc until a mail order queen is ready, or for various reasons.
When the queen is gone, a new queen should be introduced within twenty-four
hours. Put the new queen cage, with a queen and the attendants in the colony the
same way you did at first, but now wax comb will help hold it in place. (See page
90 for complete instructions for introducing a new queen.)
With drawn comb in the colony you can simply push the new queen cage into the
comb and have the wax hold it in place, candy side up.
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