Requeening question

[u/Hensanddogs]

Hey folks - subtropical Australia so it’s summer here. I’m also in a varroa free area.

Requeened on Tuesday, split one pumping/overflowing hive and the other had a slowing/ageing 2 year old queen with poor lay pattern.

Checked just now after 3 days (Friday here) and the pumping hive has released the queen from her cage. The slower hive had barely started on the candy plug, so I opened the cage and released her, as per breeder instructions on day 3.

I’ve never had to manually release a queen before. I’m still a learner at only 5 years beekeeping experience, so looking for a bit of advice about what may have happened (or not happened) for them to not release her themselves.

Or am I overthinking this and bees are just bee-ing?

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[u/Jake1125]

There could be many reasons, perhaps the queen is not emitting sufficient pheromones? Perhaps more nurse bees are needed in that colony?

I'd say its bees being bees. And check her laying pattern at the next inspection.

[u/Hensanddogs → u/Jake1125]

Thank you, this is helpful. I was starting to despair at the lack of replies!

I reckon you’re onto something with insufficient nurse bees. The numbers are not good. Such an interesting comparison to the hive right next door which is crazy strong.

How long do you recommend until next inspection? I was thinking give the new queen 2 weeks to get going but happy to take advice.

Thanks again.

[u/Jake1125 → u/Hensanddogs]

In 2 weeks you should see the laying pattern of eggs and larvae. The cells are capped on about the 10th day, so you will also begin to see those if the queen is mated. A new queen can take a bit of time to settle in, so don't be too concerned.

If your strong colony can afford to donate, you can move a frame of emerging brood to boost the weaker colony. Don't move upen brood, since the weak colony doesn't have excess workers to feed and warm them. Don't set back your stronger colony though, they need to be full of bees to do this.

[u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer]

Reddit has eaten this post three times, so you get the short form this time.

I routinely requeen hives. My bees sometimes take their sweet time releasing the queen. Smaller, weaker hives take longer to release the queen, perhaps because they lack the workforce to dedicate workers to help the queen escape. I have taken to using a small nail to poke a little hole through the candy plug to accelerate the process.

As Jake said, you can always shift a frame of capped brood to the weak hive to give it a boost.

Best of luck!

[u/Valuable-Self8564]

If either of them still here on your next inspection, it’s not unlikely that they have build queen cells. Take them down and leave it for another week, and then check again. If they have built more on your second inspection, leave them alone.

A new queen can take some time to get up to speed and get her laying mojo back on. They sometimes want to replace them as soon as they start laying.

Re them not releasing her, often it can take more than 3 days… but it is what it is. She’s free now so leave her to it and don’t worry. If you’ve got a laying Q in the apiary she can always be replaced with a frame of BIAS