This is my first year with bees.
 
Recently I got assistance in introducing a new docile type queen to replace
a 1995 queen. However, only three days after introducing the new queen, I
opened up the hive to retrieve the Butler Cage and had a bit of a look around.
 
Afterwards I was told by a beekeeper that I should have stayed away from the
hive for 6 days, otherwise the bees might reject the queen.
 
So now I just have to wait until I return from my vacation on 17Th October
to see have I a problem.
 
My question is this: Are the bees not behaving against their own interests
by killing the queen?
 
If the hive does not have young eggs. they have no means of raising a new
queen. They are thus faced with the prospect of laying workers which can
produce drones only. Are they not thus on their way to extinction?. Can
anybody give the rationale for their action (if that is what they have done).
 
One other question - should I have made the hive queenless some hours or
days  before I introduced the new queen?. I did not do this - I removed the
old queen just a few minutes before I inserted the new one.
 
Thanks for help
 
 
Sincerely
 
Tom Barrett
Computer Software Solutions Ltd
49 South Park
Foxrock
Dublin 18
Ireland
 
e mail: [log in to unmask]