What to do when colonies get

Queenless
Natural queen replacement

A colony of bees in the wild, or in an
undisturbed domestic hive, will raise
queen bees for three reasons:

to replace a lost queen (Emergency)
to replace the queen when
swarming, and
to replace or supersede a failing
queen.
How do you know the
colony is queenless?
Symptoms of Queenlessness
Colony becomes extremely defensive
Bees buzz restlessly with Nasonov
gland exposed (luring behavior)
Presence of emergency queen cells
No more eggs or young larva (older) but
colonies remain calm
What can we do?
Re-queen the queenless colony
-Methods of Re-queening
1) Let the queen
emerge from its
cell
What can we do?
Re-queen the queenless colony
-Methods of Re-queening
2.) Introduce a new
queen cell after
destroying cells
build by the bees
What can we do?
Re-queen the queenless colony
-Methods of Re-queening
3.) Introduce a new
queen
How to introduce a queen in a new
colony?
1. Check and destroy all queen cells
Shake-Search-Destroy
2. Attach the queen cage with queen in the
brood nest
3. No disturbance for
the next 10-14 days
Indicator that
the queen is
accepted?
Field bees
forage for
POLLEN
Uniting
A B
C
X
Uniting
A
B
C
X
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