Apiculture (0+1)

Queen Management

Qualities of a good queen:

• Good young mated queen (Fig. 12.5), has a gently tapering large abdomen full along the sides as compared to failing old queen (Fig. 12.6). Unmated queen is small in size (Fig. 12.7)
• Evenly coloured and large thorax
• Good egg laying capacity; lays single egg in the exact centre of the cell bottom which are slanted in the same direction (Fig. 12.8). In failing queen, there is uncontrolled egg laying and resultant brood is patchy (Fig. 12.9). Laying workers on the other hand lay many eggs in each cell (Fig. 12.10)
• Eggs are laid symmetrically, starting above the centre of combs and spreading out in all directions
• Combs are well occupied with concentric circle of brood of identical age.




Queen can also be judged from the behaviour of its progeny:

• Good honey producer.
• Less swarming instinct of the colony.
• Workers gentle in temperament.




When to replace the queen? Replace the poor queen whenever it is found (not on yearly basis), if reserve queens are available. Otherwise replace poor queen either during early spring or during fall.
Re-queening/Queen introduction:

• To introduce a queen in a queen less colony, it is caged along with 5-10 attendant workers in a queen cage and is suspended in between the frames. The queen is released after one day.
• Young queens can easily be introduced during a nectar flow in spring or late in fall when egg laying is minimum.
• It is advised that a beekeeper should have some queens in the nucleus hives as reserve queens for replacing as and when need arises ( at least 10 queens per 100 bee colonies).