Marking queens.

This section is specially developed with you, the new, or hobby beekeeper in mind.  We hope you will find it helpful as you seek to both enjoy your hobby and make some extra money doing what you enjoy.

1) The first and most important factor  in the successful introduction of a new queen to your  hive is  the preparation of your hive.  Do you have some good pearl brood, and a frame of capped brood? (as seen in the picture at left) Do you have at least three frames of bees, in your nuc or split? ( This is a minimal number of bees to introduce your new queen into.) Is your hive queenless, or have you made it queenless before the new queen arrives? (We recommend about 6 -12 hours of queenlessness before introducing the new queen.) You can make your colony queenless after your queen arrives in the mail.  That way if there is a delay in the post, or in the unlikely event that the queen would arrive dead you have not disturbed a colony and started a queen rearing reaction in the hive you plan to introduce your new queen into.

Is there a natural nectar flow on, or do you have a way to feed the hive? A steady source of carbohydrate is very beneficial in producing a positive environment into which to introduce a new queen.

2)  Once the above questions have been resolved, you are on your way to having your hive prepared for your new queen.  The next thing is to wait for her to arrive in the mail (Or at your front door).   Once she has arrived you may want to dab a drop of water on her cage and a drop of honey, but that should be sufficient.  The queen should be kept in a dry, warm place, but out of direct sunlight.

3) Finally, you are ready to take the queen out to her new ‘castle’.  We recommend that you release the attendant bees that are with her. Do this in an ENCLOSED room, or the cab of your truck! These attendant bees will seem like strangers to the bees of the new hive and may cause the hive to behave aggressively to the queen and perhaps even kill her.   If you are uncomfortable releasing the attendants, you can introduce the queen with the attendants, as our attendant bees are usually from the nucleus the queen was caged out of.  We try to select very young bees as attendants, this helps to assure that, the attendants, will not behave aggressively toward the bees in your hive.

Thorax held gently between thumb and forefinger.

Apply applicator to center of thorax in fluid gentle motion.

The queen can be released directly back into the cluster after marking.

 We use Jz'sBz's plastic queen cages because they readily fit between combs.

4) Lastly, gently press the queen cage into a nice frame of hatching brood, (see picture above) to make sure that there are young bees in close proximity at all times to care for the new queen.  Queen cages simply placed between top bars and not placed on the brood itself can be ignored in cold weather if the bees have not bonded to the new queen prior to her release.   The nurse bees will chew through the candy and release the queen in 1-2 days.  We recommend not checking the hive for about 5 days, this is to assure that the hive has accepted the queen and gives her time to start laying . Immediately close the hive once you observe that the queen is in fact laying eggs and wait another ten days, by that time the queen should have a nice pattern laid and you should be able to find capped brood.  Finding capped brood you should again close the hive and leave the hive alone for another ten days, by this time her young bees will be hatching and you can now work the hive as you normally would, without fear of disturbing her production.

Many of you have asked about how we treat for Varroa Mites.

Our new  recipe is as follows:

1 Pint Tea Tree Oil + 4 Pounds Thymol Crystals + 1# Menthol crystals +21# powdered sugar +3# Crisco shortening = mite treatment

 In order to make this treatment we warm the shortening in the kitchen oven until it is liquid.  Then we pour the liquid shortening into our mixer along with the Thymol and menthol crystals. Once the crystals have melted we add the Tea Tree oil and sugar. It is  then mixed until smooth and creamy.

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Thymol crystals top, Menthol crystals bottom in preparation for patty making.

Above picture shows the little mixer we use and the finished consistency of the patty mixture.

This final picture shows how we place the 4 'dollops' of the patty mixture on the topbars of the brood chamber.

We medicate the hives beginning in fall after the honey has been pulled and throughout the early winter. We apply four golf ball sized 'dollops' of the new medicine patty to each hive  on the brood chamber topbars , we check them every 10-14 days.  The patties stay potent a longer time than the coasters. So, only add more as the patties  are consumed by the bees or dissipate. The thymol patties work the best when there is a light honey flow in progress and the bees are very active in the hive. Remember all of our hives are on screen bottoms and we rarely encounter temperatures above 90 degrees so if you are treating on solid bottom boards or are in the south where temperatures could exceed 90 degrees be very cautious as the thymol and menthol are very aromatic and could overly disturb the colony. We have been using this safe and natural method of treating for varroa mites since last season with very good success.