How to Re-queen a Hive

Signs of a queenless hive include noisy bees, queen supersedure cells, a lack of eggs, and worker bees all over the comb with their wings spread.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• NUC (mini Hive)
• Beekeeper Gloves
• Mini Hives (or NUC)
• Queen Bees
• Spray Bottles
• Bee Veils
• Peppermint Extracts
• Sugar Syrups
• Vanilla Extract
• Common Nails

1. Purchase a queen from a mail order company. She will arrive in the mail in a shipping cage containing sugar candy.

2. Find the old queen. Remove and destroy.

3. Spray the new queen and her box with a sugar syrup containing vanilla or peppermint.

4. Take a small nail and remove the cork from the end of the queen cage containing sugar candy.

5. Place the queen's cage on the hive's bottom board, over the top bars, or between two frames.

6. Be sure the screen is open toward the bees so they can feed the queen during the introduction. The bees will eat the sugar candy and release the queen.

7. Spray more of the sugar syrup containing vanilla or peppermint on the queen and on some frames in the hive you are re-queening. By the time the odor of vanilla or peppermint is gone, the queen will be accepted.

Tips & Warnings

• Some reasons for replacing a queen are: age, inadequate mating resulting in mostly drone eggs, or a mean, aggressive colony.

• You also can re-queen a hive to change the race of bees since bees do not recognize different races. Introducing a queen of a new breed can change one strain of bees to another within 6 weeks.

• You can also re-queen with a mini hive (or "NUC"). Introduce the queen into a small NUC that contains young bees and brood.