The Introduction of Queens

if you prefer, translate here!	[ Return to Biblio ] [ Original auf deutsch ] [ Nederlandse versie ] [ Lietuvių vertimas ] [ Adaptation en français ]	Article by Brother Adam, O. S. B., (1898 - 1996) © Erik Österlund picture St. Mary’s Abbey, Buckfast, South Devon, England. English adaptation : P.S. Milne
Extract of The Bee World, 32(1), 1951, p 7-8 The German original article : Das Zusetzen von Königinnen, published in Schweiz. Bienenztg. 73 1950 (6):267-273, & (7):314-316 with their permission.

Methods of queen introduction hitherto practised result in losses which many authorities estimate at 50 %.   Direct losses occur, also indirect losses due either to supersedure (often unobserved by the beekeeper) of queens which are injured, or to the toleration by the colony of a queen which, through faulty introduction, never prospers.

Queen introduction is the pivotal operation round which the Buckfast system of beekeeping revolves.   The object is not only to get every queen accepted, but also to establish each one in her permanent home in full possession of all her vigour and fecundity.   Previous methods have been based on the supposition that before a queen is accepted she must acquire the same odour as that of the colony to which she is introduced.   No good evidence has, however, ever been produced in proof of the assumption that each colony possesses a characteristic odour of its own.   There is a “hive odour” derived from the combs, propolis, honey, brood, etc., which varies in intensity and character according to the season, temperature, nature of nectar flow and other factors, but the theory of individual “colony odour” can be regarded only as a convenient and plausible hypothesis put forward to account for otherwise unexplained phenomena.

Experience at Buckfast shows that, whatever the method of introduction, the factor on which the success of the operation — depends is the behaviour of the queen, this in turn depending on her condition at the time she is liberated.   The condition of the colony and the disposition of the bees is of importance only when newly mated queens are introduced before they have reached maturity.   A newly mated queen is a delicate creature, nervous and easily frightened, and very susceptible to injury when caged at this stage of her development.   But as she attains maturity, usually after laying for not less than four weeks, a change in her behaviour occurs : she becomes more sedate, less nervous, and will proceed with her normal routine when the colony is manipulated.   She will not, however, reach her prime until the following year.

The system now adopted at Buckfast is to winter young queens in their mating nuclei and to transfer them to honey producing colonies at the end of March.   Queens not required then are left in reserve for colonies whose queens are found to be below standard later in the season, any surplus queens beyond these requirements being given to honey-producing colonies early in October.   Colonies are requeened, therefore, mainly in the spring or occasionally in the late autumn.   Nevertheless, queens can be replaced at any time of the season, the essential point being that the process is always one of immediate substitution — the old queen being replaced by a fully mature queen in laying condition — rather than one of introduction, the new queen proceeding with her activities regardless of her new surroundings.   All queens are clipped.   The whole operation is reduced to an absolute certainty and there are no losses.

If it is essential to introduce a newly mated queen raised in the same apiary (or one which has arrived by post) to a full-sized queenright or queenless colony, the 3-comb nucleus method is recommended.   First, the nucleus in which the queen has been reared (or the nucleus formed in advance for the liberation of the queen from a postal cage), and in which (in either case) the queen has been laying for at least a week, is opened and the bees exposed to the light.   Next, the old queen, if one is present, is removed from the colony, and then three combs from the brood chamber.   In their place are quietly inserted the three combs from the nucleus, together with the new queen surrounded by her own bees.   The brood chamber must be left open to the light for 5-10 min, when the supers are replaced and the hive closed.   A full description of this method is given.