How to plant a queen in a hive: what is it for and rules, methods and difficulties

Beekeepers often face a situation where they need to transplant a fetal queen into a queenless family in order to save her. This is a rather difficult task, which does not always give a result. It all depends on a number of factors - the methods of the procedure, the state of the bee colony and the queen, and climatic conditions. How to properly plant a queen in a hive? There are several ways to do this.

Meaning of uterine implantation

The older the queen bee, the more drone eggs she lays. As a result, the family's tendency to swarm increases and honey production decreases.It makes no sense to keep the queen in a bee colony for more than 2 years. Therefore, it is important to plant the young individual in layering in a timely manner. It is important to keep strict records and record replacement queens.

Unscheduled replacement is carried out for the following reasons:

• decrease in bee colony productivity;
• unsatisfactory wintering - diarrhea, abundance of death;
• physical damage;
• the need to change the gene pool - this is required if the insects become too aggressive;
• need for breed replacement;
• development of diseases in the hive.

After the spring inspection, it is worth making notes about the strength of the bee colonies, the condition and origin of the queen. Constant replacement of queens increases productivity and promotes brood until late autumn. This has a positive effect on wintering.

What do you need for this?

To plant a queen bee in a queenless colony, the following conditions must be met:

• warm and sunny weather without wind;
• presence of a good bribe - while the bees must be calm and productive;
• spring or summer - these are the seasons that are more suitable for replacing the uterus;
• evening time of day.

How to plant a queen in a hive

To place a queen in a hive, it is recommended to choose the right method and strictly follow the recommendations for this procedure.

Easy lift rules

For the correct replanting of the queen bee, it is recommended to follow these rules:

• Introduce the female from April to the first half of June. At this time of the year, the hive is dominated by young bees who are loyal to new individuals.
• It is best to place a queen in a small but growing family. Layers with non-flying juveniles show no aggression towards new bees.
• In order for the bees to accept the queen, all combs with larvae and eggs must be removed from the hive. It is also necessary to remove barren queens.
• You can not transplant after the main honey collection - in July and August. At this time, the bees show strong aggression.
• Transplantation can be done from late August to October. The aggression of the colonies is reduced and they accept the queen.
• Don't put the queen in during the most suspicious bees, when there are frequent cases of theft.
• Don't put the queen near the bees in a pre-swarm mood.

One of the options for transplantation is in a forwarding cell. Breeding farms sell fetal queens in plastic containers, which consist of two compartments.

Also, the queen bee can be planted under a cap.

Direct method

This method is considered quite risky. When it is used, the queen enters the family without any special mechanical means of protection against aggression. You can use this method in the following situations:

• when replacing an old individual with a young one;
• during the active flowering of honey plants;
• for small growing colonies with lots of printed brood;
• for families with a predominant number of young individuals.

The procedure is simple. First, it is required to remove the old queen from the colony and remove the new queen from the nucleus with the comb on which she was at the time of removal.

The new female will sit in the same place as the old one. After 3 days, you need to check. It is not recommended to disturb the hive until then.

Indirect method

In this case, beekeepers use mechanical devices that allow you to temporarily isolate the queen from contact with aggressive insects. To do this, use caps, cages, insulator containers.

The most popular option is Titov's cage. At the same time, replanting the queen bee is simple. To complete it, you need to do the following:

• Remove the old queen bee and replace it with a young queen in a cage.
• Attach the cage to the honey part of the honeycomb.
• Carefully inspect all brood combs in the hive for fistulous queen cells.
• After 3 days, release the queen bee and glue the exit from the cage with wax or zabrus.
• Carefully monitor bee behavior. If the insects imprison the queen in a club, she must be returned to the cage for 3 days. Then try again.

The main advantage of this method is the impossibility of killing the queen bee by aggressive bees. However, this method brings a lot of discomfort to the queen herself. This is due to unnatural conditions of detention, a violation of the diet, the risk of injury, stopping the laying.

Adoption of new queen bees

Sometimes there are situations when bees do not accept a new queen bee. In this case, you should watch for insects. If they are calm, you can try to release the queen on the comb or make holes in the foundation.

If the bees are aggressive, do not rush to release an individual. If the queen is in a ball, she must be put back into the cell. In this case, you need to wait for changes in the state of the insects or simply take the brood from them. This has a calming effect on them.

Possible difficulties

When planting a queen bee, you may encounter the following problems:

• Bees destroy substituted queen cells or do not lay their own. This means that the family has an infertile uterus. The queen must be found and decided what to do with her.
• There is no sowing of eggs and larvae in the bee colony. This means that the bees did not accept the queen or the individual turned out to be infertile. In this case, it is required to put combs with one-day-old eggs from another family, wait 5-10 days, and then check for the presence of queen cells.
• There is no sowing of eggs and larvae in the family, however, on 2-3 combs, the bees polish the cells. This indicates that the queen is preparing to lay her eggs. The presence of inoculation should be checked after 3-5 days.
• Bees have laid a lot of fistulous queen cells. This indicates the disappearance of the queen bee. In such a situation, it is required to pluck the fistulous queen cells and give a new uterus.
• Several queen cells have the correct shape. This suggests that the bees have not accepted the queen and want to spend her quiet shift. If it does not concern another breed, it is better to leave the queen cells until new individuals emerge.
• Bees have laid queen cells on the bottom edge of the honeycomb. This indicates the preparation of the colony for swarming. You can let the bees line up or perform layer formation.
• In a family with a young uterus, 1-2 fistulous queen cells were formed. This speaks of replacing the new queen with her own breed. In this case, it is required to give the bees the opportunity to breed a young queen, pick her up and use her for layering of the same breed.

Introduction of a young queen into the hive can be done in different ways. It is important to choose the right method and strictly adhere to the recommendations for the procedure. This will help you achieve good results.

Recommended