Warning!  When you lose a queen from the queen cage as Jeff did, resist
running in circles or off to the house to think about buying another.  Put
the queen cage on the lid of the hive and stand aside.  If you have another
person with you, check each other's clothing for at least ten minutes
before leaving the apiary.  Often, the queen flies around and comes back to
the vicinity, or maybe to another hive's landing board.   I've seen them
land on the shoulder and hat of a fellow beekeeper.  If they land and are
not spotted at once I've seen a small cluster of workers gather around,
land and feed the queen.  Upon checking someone's back to brush off the
clinging bees prior to leaving the apiary, we spotted the queen.  We held a
comb from the hive we were going to requeen next to the small cluster.  The
bees climbed on and we placed it into a new brood nest, found the old
queen, crushed her on the comb in the vicinity of the new queen and put the
colony and hive back together.  Everything went fine from that point.
 
It pays to keep your eyes open when in an apiary.
 
Which brings to mind:  While I use a two queen system to introduce new
queens, I have many times replaced failing queens in smaller colonies by
finding the old queen and killing her by crushing her on the screen of the
new queen's cage.  Hang the cage in the center of the top of the cluster as
usual.  I think I can safely say that I've never lost a new queen by doing
this.  If mother and daughter are laying in the hive, of course the new
queen will perish.
 
Some beekeepers kill the old queen and toss her out of the hive, others
drop her into the colony, I prefer crushing her on the new queen cage.  I
theorize that the old queen's pheromones are transferred to the new queen
cage by doing this, perhaps heavily influencing the pheromonal environment
in the immediate vicinity of the new queen, thus increasing her acceptance.
 Beekeepers who have used my suggestion have noted increased acceptance
over throwing the old queen out of the hive or dropping her into the brood
nest.
 
Of course, feed the parent colony Fumidil-B (FB), and feed the new queen FB
and water for two days before introduction.  It is necessary to have
workers in the cage with her, or lots of workers in the queen cage
battery/shipping box.  Mix the FB with water at the same rate as you do
when using syrup (1 tsp.per gal.).  Feeding queens prior to introduction
have been known to increase queen acceptance rates from 50 to 95 percent.
 
James C. Bach
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