Hi All
I have been following the thread about putting a new queen in a hive and
decided to throw out my method
 
Several years ago I decided that there has to be a better way to requeen
than prying the frames apart and jamming the queen cage in between two of
them.  I always wound up with burr comb, drone comb and other problems.  I
asked my queen breeder how he requeened and this is how he does it:
 
1. Find and remove the old queen from the hive.
2. Put all the frames back in,remove the plug from the candy end and lay the
queen cage on top of the frames, open side down, centered over the space
between two frames.
3. Invert inner cover to accommodate the cage and close up the hive.
Sometimes the inner cover will rest on the cage and leave a slight crack at
the top of the hive but it doesn't seem to bother the bees.
4. Check the hive in 4 days. If the queen has not been released, release her
unless the bees are being aggressive towards her. If the queen has been
released, check for eggs.  If you find them, close the hive and check again
in a week.  If you don't find eggs or the queen, check again in 2 to 3 days.
If you don't find eggs or a queen at this point she is probably lost and
other measures need to be taken.
 
I have been using this method for 3 years now and it works well for me.
 
Frank Humphrey
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