Introducing new queen

[Rock_Chick]

New buck-fast queens arrived today, in the past I've taken the workers from the cage before putting queen cage in,I've also I the past wrapped a bit of newspaper round the end to give them that little bit longer to get used to her,
What do other people do with introducing a new queen ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If the hive isn't q- at the moment make them so and wait for a few hours (no need for more time) I never take the workers out (personal choice really - never done any harm so why bother faffing around with the queen unneccessarily) put a bit of tough masking tape or insulating tape over the candy (or if you have purpose made caps like the jz-bz cage use that) put in the queen leave for 24 or 48 hours then go in and remove the tape/cap, close up and leave for a few days then just go in to see if she's been released (just check cage) she should be otherwise there may be an issue with the candy. If she's out remove cage and leave well alone for a week or two.

 

[fiftyjon]

Make sure the receiving colony doesn't have any queen cells before you release the tab/remove the tape on the cage.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Same here

 

[Fahey]

I made up two nucs exactly the same way and introduced two new mated queens after leaving them queenless for 12-24 hours or so. I left the cages in for 48 hours and then removed the plastic tabs to expose the fondant. On checking a week later only one nuc had a marked queen and todays inspection, 2 weeks, showed the remaining queen had started laying and the other nuc had 4 or 5 queen cells. All I can think is that the brood frames I used had eggs of exactly the right age and they had already begun making QC's by the time I had introduced the queen cage. Next time I won't leave it so long to introduce the queen cage. Anybody have a similar experience. The books say to leave the nuc queenless for 24 hours before the introduction.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The books say to leave the nuc queenless for 24 hours before the introduction.

Some may, but the book says a few hours is ample

 

[Stiffy]

Having read the books and subsequently lost many a good queen, I now use a great deal of patience before allowing the bees to get at any queen. Not lost one since, done it now next lot will no doubt be lost ;-)
S

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[Goran]

It depends.. Time of year, flow.. I read in books between 5-6 hours and it showed OK ( in June, July, August I did..). Queens accepted. To help it I feed few days ahead, or at least that day.. Although I play off the books and test various - and result is also "various"..