Tutorial Page--Answers to some of our most Frequently Asked Questions.

Introducing Queens “101”

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 queen-less, or have you made it queen-less before the new queen arrives? (We recommend about 6 -12 hours of queen-less-ness before introducing the new queen.) You can make your colony queen-less 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.

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.

 For the last 8 years we have been using Tylosin as a control for American Foul Brood. One treatment applied very early in spring 250mg in an 8oz sugar patty. We have had no occurrence of AFB while using this treatment. Tylosin in not affective against European Foul Brood however. 

We discovered this winter that we have been harboring a low level EFB infection for a number of years,  which undoubtedly contributed to our CCD losses this fall. This winter we have started using a new/ old treatment, terramycin dusting, which is a tetracycline and powdered sugar mix. This is an antibiotic that is designed to be used three times over the period of three weeks. This way you can assure that you are getting the treatment to all of the bees in a complete life cycle.