Open Source Content Management

How to Requeen

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A queen (painted with a blue dot) in a queen cage resting on top of a brood chamber

1. Find the old queen.

• Find the old queen by looking through the colony frame by frame, focusing on areas where eggs are located. Use as little smoke as possible to keep the bees from running.
• Alternatively, if the brood nest is made up of several boxes, you can place queen excluders between each brood box. Return after 3 days and check the location of eggs. The queen will be in the box with eggs.
• Ultimately, you have to be able to distinguish the queen from the other bees by her appearance. Even if you have marked her or bought her already marked, it is not uncommon to be looking for a queen that is unmarked because of a missed swarm or unexpected supersedure.

2. Destroy the old queen.

• Pinch her.
• Then release her pheromones by crushing her head against the cage of the replacement queen. This assists in the colony's acceptance of the new queen.

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3. Introduce the new queen.

• Insert a mailing cage between two frames or insert a push-in cage onto a brood comb.

If using a mailing cage, remove the cork from the candy end and insert the cage between the frames so that the bees have access to the screen side of the cage and the candy plug is facing up. Check in a few days to be sure she is released and eggs are present.

If using a push-in cage, you will have to physically release the queen after 3–4 days.

• Create a nucleus colony (see Spring Splits), feed it light syrup, and then introduce the queen. Use the newspaper method to combine the nuc with the larger colony.