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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Kyle Lewis <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 7 Feb 2002 15:03:53 -0500
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Fellow Beekeepers,
We have talked about multiple queens in the same brood chamber.  I'm only a
beeginner, and have only raised one queen that I know of (it was an
accident).  But it seems to me that there is a great advantage to smoking
in a virgin queen into a colony with an existing laying queen.  There is no
mating hive to mess with.

Building, maintaining, stocking, feeding, and storing mating nucs sounds
like a genuine nuisance.  It is probably a necessary evil for those who
sell queens.  But for your own queens, which you are going to plant in your
colonies anyway, why not introduce them directly as virgins?  If I
understand right, the virgin queen emerges from the cell into a cage. (in a
cell-finisher colony).  You remove the cage with the new queen and approach
the hive to be re-queened.  (You mark the queen.)  You smoke the hive
heavily through the bottom entrance, open it up and let the virgin queen
out of the cage.  The heavy smoking fouls the bees sense of smell so that
the old queen and the workers accept the new virgin.  She mates and takes
up her motherly duties.  There is no down time as the new queen gets
started.

Dee, is that correct?  I know you have written about this in the past.
Could you give us the URL reference?  What is the success rate?  How can we
fail?  I imagine you lose a few new queens on their mating flights.  Thank
you for sharing this technique with us.

Kyle

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