CHAPTER FIVE
QUEEN PRODUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
All aspects of bee biology are critical, but the queen’s functions within the colony are particularly important in several ways. She serves as the egg producer and in warm months can produce up to 2,000 eggs per day and maybe a million eggs in her lifetime. In conjunction with the drones with which she has mated, the queen serves as the genetic reservoir for the colony. Various biological characteristics such as colony defensiveness, worker color, and hygienic behavior are determined by the genetic traits derived from the queen bee and the drone semen she has stored within her body.
An important part of queen management is assessing if and when a queen needs to be replaced. Some of the reasons why this might be necessary are covered in this chapter, along with related issues that might arise, such as temporary queen storage, and how to introduce a new queen to the colony successfully. Though she may be the biggest bee among her peers, that doesn’t mean the queen bee is always easy to find; tips for keeping track of the queen are given, as well as how to cage her once she has been found. Queen production is a broad topic in itself, and problems related to queen grafting and enforced in-colony production are also looked at here.
50 I need to store a replacement queen
CAUSE
Sometimes queens arrive from the producer when the beekeeper is not able to use them immediately. The weather is an important factor as to when a new queen can be introduced, or there might be a delay while the beekeeper searches for the old queen inside the hive.
SOLUTION
Mated honey bee queens can be stored from just a few days to as long as six months, though they should be released into colonies as soon as possible. There are many ways to store queens. A common method is to provide caged queens with a food source and cover the queens in a blanket of young nurse bees that will feed and warm the confined queens. The process occurs in a special box that is partially screened for ventilation. More young bees are added as needed and a water-soaked blotter is used to provide water to the bees and queens.
A single queen can be stored for a few days in the shipping cage in which she was mailed. She should be kept calm in a cool, dark location. If she has attendant bees confined with her, it would be helpful to remove any that have died. The queen should be given a single drop of water about once every day or two. If you realize that more time will be needed, the caged queen can be stored for a few more days near the brood nest in an active colony.
Queens are stored long-term (banked) in modified colonies. The primary storage colony requirements are that there is no free-ranging queen within the colony; that no worker attendants are within the stored queen cages; and about once week, the banking colony must be given brood and bees from other colonies to keep abundant nurse bees present (either as capped brood with no young larvae or newly emerged worker bees).
These queens in white plastic cages are being temporarily stored in a ventilated box. The orange bar supports and spaces the individual queen cages. The storage box has both water and sugar syrup available to the nurse bees. About every other day, new nurse bees are added that will accept the caged queens and feed them.
51 I don’t know where to look for the queen
CAUSE
The queen moves around the colony and could be absolutely anywhere—even on the inner cover.
SOLUTION
A methodical approach is required when searching for the queen in a hive. As beekeepers acquire experience, they develop a skill for seeing the queen in the midst of many other worker bees, but this is not a skill that works every time, and if the queen needs to be quickly located, it can be exasperating.
Open the colony quietly and search for brood frames with eggs and very young open brood. Scan the frame slowly and consistently on one side, then gently flip the frame to scan the other side. In the slot that results from one frame being removed, quickly check the exposed sides of the combs that are still in the colony. The queen will move away from the light and activity so she may just be staying one frame ahead.
When searching for the queen, it is helpful to break the hive into it component parts and search for the queen in each box. Don’t forget the hive box walls. If the hive is not disassembled, the queen will move from box to box and become even more difficult to find. Another method is to place queen excluders between hive components and wait three days before examining. The box containing eggs will obviously be the box housing the trapped queen. Finding the queen on demand is a challenge for beekeepers at all skill levels.
The queen seems to be able to hide in plain sight. While the eye is drawn to the bulk of the bees on the comb at the right side of the frame, the queen in the photo is at the far left.
52 The queen is not a good egg producer
CAUSE
Other than advanced age, there are several issues that can restrict the queen’s biological performance, such as low drone populations and poor weather for mating flight.
SOLUTION
If you bought your new queen from a reputable producer, the colony may be out of balance for other reasons. If possible, provide a frame or two of capped brood from a healthier colony and feed carbohydrate and protein to be sure that food is not the issue. Secondly, ensure that Varroa mites or other bee maladies are not the cause. Bad weather or pesticides may also be suppressing the colony’s growth. If indications strongly suggest the queen is to blame, replacement is the norm—provided it’s not too late in the season to be of benefit.
When replacing a queen, you have two options: to buy a replacement or produce your own. During late spring through late fall, queens can be shipped by mail or purchased at bee supply companies. Queens come without a guarantee so you should buy from dependable producers (the new beekeeper should consult more experienced beekeepers).
Colonies can produce their own queens, but it takes around fifty days, by which time much of the warm season will have passed. You can speed things along by modifying a colony to produce queens in four steps:
• De-queen the colony.
• Remove all eggs and very young larvae.
• Destroy any natural queen cells that have been started.
• Transfer a very young larva to an improvised queen cup and give this improvised queen cell to the queenless colony.
The first three requirements are simple, but transferring larvae (step 4) requires practice (see Problem 56).
Is this a poor queen or is this a colony that is having other bad luck? The presence of a queen cell is concerning. But the queen has produced both worker and drone brood. Combs are being slowly produced, indicating a lackluster nectar flow is underway. The beekeeper must decide if the problem lies with the queen or not.
53 Some cells have multiple eggs
CAUSE
When multiple eggs or larvae are spotted in one cell, the worst possibility is that the colony has become queenless, and laying workers are emerging. A lesser event is that the queen has deposited two or more eggs, resulting in the cell having too many developing larvae.
SOLUTION
If the queen mistakenly lays multiple eggs in the same cell, for a short while there will be multiple larvae in the cell. Nurse bees should not allow this to go uncorrected, for there is only room for one mature pupa in a single cell. The extra larvae will most likely by removed and eaten by nurse bees. Little involvement is required by the beekeeper, who may even have no idea that the issue even exists.
Things are much more serious if the problem occurs because the colony has become queenless and has no way to produce a new queen. Depending on the species of bees, workers that are no longer being suppressed by an active queen’s pheromones will develop enough egg-laying ability to produce a few unfertilized eggs. These worker-laid eggs will all develop into drones. While a drone population is necessary in a healthy colony, excessive numbers of drones are not beneficial. There are too few workers to carry out the colony’s tasks, and the colony withers. Such a depleted colony is difficult to requeen because the colony seems to consider itself queenright and will not readily accept a new one.
While a laying worker colony can be saved, its future is not good. The colony is severely weakened, and in most areas, there will not be enough warm season remaining for it to recover its health. Traditionally, a sheet of newspaper is placed on top of a neighboring colony, and the laying worker colony is placed above the newspaper. The two colonies combine.
When pictured, the typical photo of laying workers shows multiple eggs within single cells. This is an easy diagnosis. More rare is the photo of a single cell containing multiple larvae shown in the photo. In the lower left corner bottom row of cells is a cell containing three larvae. This over-occupied cell will need some nurse bee attention. There is only room for a single adult bee.
54 Finding the queen takes a long time
CAUSE
Finding a single insect among thousands of other similar insects is not easy. Additionally, the queen will actually hide or move to the other side of the comb. Since they look much like workers, finding a small virgin queen is even more difficult than finding a mated queen.
SOLUTION
Queen marking is a technique that has long been used by beekeepers to make it easier for them to pick her out of the crowd. When queens lived longer, beekeepers would clip the tip of a forewing just a bit. It was thought that a clipped queen would not fly far or high when leaving with a swarm. Also, so her age could be told, individual beekeepers worked out a personal system for clipping a left wing on odd years and the right wing on even years. Since the process was thought to encourage supersedure, that form of marking is no longer used.
Small spots of enamel paint are now the preferred way to mark a queen. At hobby stores, paint pencils are available with a paint-loaded tip that greatly eases the marking process. Small bottles of model-maker’s enamel paint, as well as fingernail polish, can be used as queen-marking paints. The problem with all of these above is that quite a few minutes are required for the paint to dry. Only a tiny mark should be applied directly on the queen’s thorax and not on the top of her head or smeared on her wings and abdomen. Marking drones is an easy way to practice this procedure. Lightly applying the mark in a circular fashion, rather than applying a dollop of paint, provides a thinner coat that dries quicker.
Happily, queens rarely sting when being held for marking so that threat should be reduced.
In the United States, the queen color code is: Year ending with 1 or 6—white, 2 or 7—yellow, 3 or 8—red, 4 or 9—green, and 0 or 5—blue. Beekeepers can use this system for determining when a queen was replaced or needs to be replaced.
55 The queen is difficult to cage
CAUSE
The entrance holes in most queen cages are barely 3/8in (1cm) in diameter. The queen is not eager to be put in a cage, and it is important not to harm her in the process. If the queen is dropped, she may take flight.
SOLUTION
Putting a queen in a queen cage does require practice and confidence, but a few suggestions may help. Make sure propolis and sticky wax has been removed from your hands before picking up a queen. It is sometimes helpful to work in front of a bright but closed window. If the queen does escape, she will head toward the glass, where you can retrieve her. Indeed, when marking the queen, some beekeepers let her fly on the glass until her paint is dry. Due to all the cracks and crevices, a technique that is a bit more risky is to attempt to cage the queen while sitting in a vehicle with the windows and doors closed. If the queen escapes, she will fly to the windows. Be sure all ventilation holes and vents are closed or the queen can get lost in the automobile’s air-handling system.
The queen’s thorax is surprisingly rigid. If possible, grasp her by both of her front wings and transfer her to your opposing hand and hold her with your thumb and forefinger. If you make an effort to grab her and miss, she will surely become skittish and begin to run about and use her wings as if preparing to fly. Stay calm and try again. Once you have her, she will be squirmy and do her best to escape. Make sure that your grip does not become too tight. Always focus on the thorax and not the head or abdomen.
56 Larvae won’t slide off the grafting tool
CAUSE
The larvae required for queen production are hardly the size of a honey bee egg. The process also requires that each tiny larva be moved to a different cell without injury and positioned on the side it was originally on. Practice and manual dexterity will be required.
SOLUTION
To help with this task, use a grafting tool with a thin, flexible tip. Such tools can be purchased from supply companies or can be simply made scraping a toothpick-sized piece of wood to a very thin-edged tip. Other materials commonly used are goose quills or very thin plastic strips.
Rather than attempting to move the entire larva onto the tool, approach the back of the C-shaped larva and leave both ends hanging from the edge of the grafting tool. When moved to the queen cup, these “dangling” ends will snag the cup bottom and pull the small larvae from the grafting tool. If the larva is completely on the tool edge, it will have to be pushed from the tool, which will most likely damage the larva. There are also devices available that do not require you to handle the small larva. But all devices used to produce queens require some finesse and attention to detail.
A surprising quantity of healthy bees will be required to produce and feed the huge amounts of royal jelly that the bars of queen larvae will require. When producing queens, most colony resources are directed to young bees and specialty hives for growing cells and mating the emerged queens.
This plump queen larva began life as a tiny egg. Trained beekeepers can transfer a larva no bigger than the original egg to specialized queen cups. Nurse bees are then encouraged to feed the queen larva for about five days as it undergoes spectacular growth.
57 Too few drones are available for queen mating
CAUSE
Due to its longer development time, the Varroa mite preferentially attacks drone brood. Even if a drone survives, the blood feast that Varroa mites take weakens it. Additionally, there are few beekeepers who intentionally provide drone brood space within the colony.
SOLUTION
Each successfully mated queen requires about 7–15 mature drones. In the past, beekeepers could depend on wild colonies to produce drones, but these colonies are now rare. You can supplement drone populations by providing drone brood foundation and allowing healthy colonies to produce these male bees. For identification purposes, commercial drone cell foundation is green. If the frame is a plastic frame/foundation combination, it too is all green. If green drone foundation is installed in wooden frames, green paint marks should be made across the top bars to indicate that it is a drone frame. Additionally, beekeepers can leave drone brood on frames or combs rather than systematically scraping it away.
Unfortunately, a conflict is at hand. While these green frames produce significant numbers of needed drones, if other Varroa controls are not used, the mite population will grow within that colony. In fact, a common method of suppressing Varroa populations is to use drone brood as a trap crop. Just as the drones are being capped, remove the frames and freeze them, thereby killing both drones and parasitic mites. The frame can then be returned to the colony, where bees will clear the frame of dead mites and drones and once again begin to raise drones.
Modern beekeepers need to encourage drones without increasing predacious mite populations. Monitor the colony’s mite population and employ control measures when needed. Otherwise, drones should be allowed to develop to maturity to assist with queen-mating procedures.
58 Some of my queen mating nucs have failed
CAUSE
Nucleus colonies are small colonies that have limited resources and are unable to rebound if hit with various hive maladies such as diseases and pesticides. All in all, small splits or nucs will need a lot of attention.
SOLUTION
For practical purposes, queens are mated in small—sometimes very small—colonies. In this way, many more queens can be mated using the same quantity of nurse bees. For instance, rather than using one large colony to produce a single queen, many smaller units, called mating nucleus colonies (nucs), can be made from the resources of the larger colony. Each of these small units requires a mature queen cell. If left to their own ways, few, if any, of these colonies can build enough resources to survive the next winter. Indeed, they are never intended to survive the winter. As the hot summer approaches, and robbing increasingly becomes an issue, these small units should be recombined into a larger colony.
In order to provide consistent food to the mating nuc, you will need to constantly feed syrup and pollen substitute. If it does not thrive, add bees and brood from other more successful colonies. In hot climates, mating nuclei (also called baby nucs) should be placed in the shade, while in cooler climates they should be in full sunlight. Vermin such as raccoons and skunks can be very hard on these small colonies, so place them on stands or provide protective enclosures.
59 My replacement queen was killed
CAUSE
Even if they have no hope of acquiring a queen on their own, older honey bees will readily kill any replacement queen that they suspect as a colony invader. If a new queen is released too soon, hostile bees will likely kill her. Foreign unmated queens are particularly unacceptable to older workers.
SOLUTION
To avoid losing a replacement queen to hostile bees, her introduction to the colony should be gradual. The colony ideally should be allowed to stay queenless for a day or so before a new queen is offered to the colony. If practical, you should remove any attendant workers that are in the cage, and place the newly caged queen as near to the brood nest as possible. The recommendation used to be that the queen could be released in a couple of days, but this advice is now largely disregarded. Generally, the queen should remain caged for about five days.
When the caged queen is presented to the bees, they will show an immediate interest in her. The bees will treat the cage as they would the queen if they could just get to her. If you see the bees massed and tightly clinging to the cage, the queen inside has not been accepted. If the bees use their scent glands and are easily brushed away from the cage, she can be released.
When working with queens and handling them, be calm and gentle. If a newly released queen becomes excited and runs, she will draw even more attention to her presence.
