Earlier this year I attended a talk at Kew Gardens by Professor Ratnieks, Professor of Apiculture at the University of Surrey (blog post – Bee foraging on garden plants: Sussex University research). This got me interested in his work, and while reading about his research on the University of Sussex website I discovered this information:
“One of the common procedures carried out by beekeepers is queen introduction: a queen is taken from one colony and introduced into another. Queen introduction is needed when dividing hives, to replace a failing or poor quality queen, and sometimes in queen rearing when virgin queens are introduced into queen mating hives. The most common method used is the introduction cage. A queen is placed in a wire mesh cage that is then placed into a queenless colony. After a few days the queen is released. The success rate of this method is acceptable but is not 100 per cent.
LASI research has shown that there is a much better method for introducing queens that is both quicker and gives higher acceptance rates, even 100 per cent. A queen can be directly introduced, that is without a cage, into a hive that has been queenless for several days if the receiving hive is smoked heavily. Why is this better method not more used, especially as it is mentioned in some beekeeping books? The probable reason is that beekeepers accept the losses associated with the cage method. It also seems to make sense as the cage should protect the queen and allow her to acquire colony odour before release.”
Whilst reading Gretchen Bee Ranch, a great beekeeping blog I follow by Thiên and Mark, (a husband and wife team who do commercial beekeeping in Texas), I noticed that Mark was carrying out queen introductions, and left a comment linking to Professor Ratniek’s suggestion. I then forgot all about it.
Until a while later I received a lovely email, here’s an extract from it which I hope Mark doesn’t mind me sharing:
“I want to thank you for sending me the information about direct introduction of queens. I have tried it about 8 or 10 times and it was successful all but once. The one instance of failure was because I missed a second queen that was in the hive. I emailed Dr. Francis Ratnieks, the professor who participated in this research on this at the University of Sussex (Laboratory of Apiculture and Insects) to ask for more details and for a citation to any published research on this method of queen introduction. He kindly provided both. I was leaving the hive queenless for two days, but he recommended a longer period – 3 to 7 days. He also clarified some other points that I will implement.
I am excited to learn about this new, time-saving method for queen introduction. It will definitely save time and resources compared to the traditional method, which I have used for many years. I plan to keep a journal of my next 20 or so queen introductions using this new method and we will post the results. I will also share this with my colleagues and with my students in beekeeping class.”
It makes me very happy that the method works. Especially as one of our hives may be queenless at the moment and it would be very convenient to transport a queen over to it and add her in without having to go back a couple of days later to release her.
An abstract for Professor Ratniek’s research can be found here (the full paper costs £5 to purchase): Direct introduction of mated and virgin queens using smoke: a method that gives almost 100% acceptance when hives have been queenless for 2 days or more.
Here are photos on Mark and Thiên’s blog of Mark carrying out the cageless queen introduction method: Cageless Queen Introduction – A new approach. I recommend following their blog for photos of the beautiful wild flowers of Texas and an insight into the world of commercial beekeeping. They make lots of pretty candles and other beeswax products which they sell at local markets and also via their website store.
Putting a queen into a nucleus – the traditional way
Adventuresinbeeland's Blog 
Thanks Emily, informative and beautifully written as ever. We were concerned that we might have to introduce a new queen into one of the recently captured swarms – but a check at the weekend confirmed the presence of a queen and good brood evidence that she it up to the job.
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Ah, great news! It’s always a relief when a new queen starts laying.
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Hello, Emily! Thank you so much for sharing your own experiences with us – see what we learned from you? 🙂 And thanks also for inclusion in your post. We saw quite a jump in blog views and on our Facebook page. Have a wonderful rest of the week.
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Ah good, glad people had a look at your lovely site! Wishing you a happy week too.
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I’ve tried both, and have had near perfect success with either method. I like the smoking method better because it is simpler. I’m all about simple!
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How long did you smoke yours for? I’ve yet to try the method out…
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You know, I don’t know that I did length as much as just heavy. I always worry about choking them out, so I blew smoke in until I felt like it was fully smoked. I use screened bottom boards, so that helps get the smoke all the way through the hive. I should also mention I’ve only done this a handful of times total (only a few hives after all).
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Ah thanks, good to know that I don’t need to stand there smoking for ages.
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What a lovely example of how connecting through the blogs can be so helpful.
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It’s really nice being able to talk to beekeepers around the world, amazing really! So many opportunities to share discoveries and tips.
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Really interesting post, Emily. I never knew the queen was caged in introduction to a hive. The smoking working seems like a better method. What does it do, mask the odor of the new queen?
I have a bee question on my current post on bees and Salvia and need a bee expert to answer. I posted a photo of a bee urinating. I was unsure what the bee was actually doing, so I Googled the question and got an answer from Yahoo, but I need and expert to look at my image and tell me what is going on. It looks like one bee is peeing on another. I would not ask you, but a reader questioned what I was showing, and I really have no idea, except what it looks like.
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Yes, I should have said that the smoking masks her pheromones and makes all the bees smell the same, so that they accept her as part of the hive.
I’m not an expert but I’ll have a look and try my best to work out what’s happening!
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Thank you.
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Good job the bees don’t read our blogs and find out all our crafty beekeeping secrets… Or do they? Great post Emily! x
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I’m sure the bees know much more than they let on!
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I may have to give this a try the next time I requeen. I guess you have to be really sure though your hive is not queen right.
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Yes, you would have to be. Though that would also apply to releasing the queen from her cage a couple of days later?
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I have tried a similar method, rather than using smoke i used a fine spray of sugar water that was infused with essential oils. You could use a commercial additive (Honey-B-Healthy) as well. I gave the bees a good misting on the frames adjacent to where the queen was left and then on the queen before releasing her. I suppose it has the same affect of suppressing the pheromones.
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Interesting. The bees might prefer this method as they get some sugar to lick.
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