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Requeening Protocol

Requeening involves a two step process of de-queening followed by introducing a new queen. To de-queen, the beekeeper searches through each frame to locate and remove the existing queen or any queen cells. Once the hive is confirmed to have no queen, it is ready for requeening. The new queen is then introduced in a queen cage placed between frames of brood. It is important not to disturb the hive for a week after to allow acceptance of the new queen.

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Dan George Ionescu
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23 views2 pages

Requeening Protocol

Requeening involves a two step process of de-queening followed by introducing a new queen. To de-queen, the beekeeper searches through each frame to locate and remove the existing queen or any queen cells. Once the hive is confirmed to have no queen, it is ready for requeening. The new queen is then introduced in a queen cage placed between frames of brood. It is important not to disturb the hive for a week after to allow acceptance of the new queen.

Uploaded by

Dan George Ionescu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Requeening

Requeening is done in a 2-stage process:

1) Remove the original queen (de-queening)


2) Introduce the new queen (requeening)

De-queening: You are ready to requeen a colony. The


first step is de-queening the colony. Start
looking through the hive until you see…

A MATED QUEEN NEITHER OF THESE OPTIONS


A QUEEN CELL
Awesome. Keep looking You’ve looked through your entire
Is the queen cell hatched? hive and do not have a mated
through every frame. Do you
see any wild queen cells? queen or queen cells. Do you have…

Eggs:

YES NO Since there is no queen or queen


NO YES cells present, the hive likely did not
swarm. If the eggs are normal (one
per cell, placed on bottom of cell)
Keep looking through
then most likely your queen is hiding
Is the queen every frame. Is there
– look again! There is also a small
cell hatched? a mated queen
chance the queen suddenly died and
present in the hive
is not there – in this case the hive is
(do you have a queen
NO ready to requeen. However, if the
YES and eggs)?
eggs are abnormal (multiple per cell,
placed on side of cell) then the hive
Look through STOP! Close the hive is a laying worker colony. The hive
every frame. Is and let them solve should not be requeened – see
there another this on their own. “Laying Worker” YouTube video.
queen present? You can come back YES NO
later and requeen.
A virgin queen:

Look through If you spot a virgin queen STOP!


every frame. Is Close the hive and let them solve this
NO YES there another on their own. You can come back
queen present? later and requeen.

NO YES

If you are positive there is only If you are positive


one queen in the hive, cage her. Cage both queens separately. there is no queen in
If there are wild queen cells If there are wild queen cells the hive, shake the
present, shake the bees off present, shake the bees off bees off every frame
every frame and pinch every every frame and pinch every and pinch every
queen cup and cell. Then, pinch queen cup and cell. Then, queen cup and cell.
the queen. Your hive is now pinch both queens. Your hive Your hive is now
ready to requeen. is now ready to requeen. ready to requeen.
Important:

- Make sure you can see the comb when first looking through the hive. If there are too many bees it is easy to
miss seeing any queen cells. “Pet” the bees or blow on them to move them out of the way and get a better look
at the frame.
- If you miss one queen cell the requeening will likely fail.
- Always pinch the mated queen last. This allows you to correct yourself if you find something new while shaking
bees off the frames.
- Once the hive is closed, make a note on the back of the lid with the date and “DQ” (de-queened).

Requeening:

Requeening is only done after successful de-queening. There is no point introducing a new queen unless the old queen
has been removed because they will not accept the new queen.

Requeening is ideally done 1 day after de-queening the hive. This has the best success for requeening a hive. If we
introduce a new queen too soon it lowers the chance she will be accepted. It is also best if the new mated queen is fresh
out of the mating nuc and with no attendants.

The new queen is introduced in a California queen cage that has a candy tube at one end. This provides a slow, gradual
release mechanism for the queen – without this the colony would kill her.

When introducing the new queen look for a frame of capped brood. We want to introduce the new queen next to a
good solid frame of brood because we know the bees are going to be clustered there and the queen will get taken care
of.

Take the queen cage, screen side down, and wiggle it back and forth a bit against the brood frame. This moves the bees
out of the way. Then, gently push the cage into the comb so it is lodged into the surface of the comb. Place the cage on a
slight tilt (candy side down).

Screen side down

Move the next frame over and gently wiggle it back and forth to move the bees out of the way and then push it up
against the cage to firmly wedge the queen cage in place. This ensures there is no chance that the cage can fall down
and be abandoned by the bees.

Close the hive and make a note on the back of the lid with the date and “Q intro” (queen introduced).

Replace the yellow queen tag on the front of the hive with the new queen’s information.

Do not disturb this colony for a week. If we open the colony too soon the bees may kill the new queen.

Once a week has passed you may open the hive to see if the new queen is accepted and laying. You are looking for eggs
inside the hive, you don’t have to find the queen.
- If there are eggs, then everything is normal and you know your queen introduction has been successful. Close
the hive and make a note on the back of the lid with the date and “Q ✓” (queen accepted)
- If there are NO eggs, check for the queen. If there is no queen, you may need to requeen the colony again (this is
unlikely – most of the time the queen is accepted). Close the hive and make a note on the back of the lid with
the date and “Q X” (no queen)

If you have any questions, watch our “Requeening” YouTube video.

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