Requeening Descriptive Transcript

Summary: Paul Kelly, research and apiary manager, shows how to requeen a honey bee colony.  

00:00 - 00:26
[The video opens with close-up footage of a queen bee cage. The text ÒRequeeningÓ fades in. The video transitions to a montage of seven shots showcasing honey bees and different elements of the research centre, ending with footage of a bee taking off from a yellow flower as the logo for the Honey Bee Research Centre fades in.] 

00:29 - 01:26
[Cut to medium shot of Paul Kelly speaking outdoors in the apiary.]

Paul Kelly: Alright so here we are we are going to requeen a colony. Requeening is done in two stages: first you have to remove the original queen. There is no point in introducing a queen unless you've actually removed a queen because they won't accept the new queen. So we've been into this this colony a day ahead. We were here yesterday and we removed the queen that was in here. She was getting older, she is still doing ok, but we have new queens and we wanted to replace that queen, so we went through, found the queen, pinched her and then we closed the hive back up again. It takes at least two hours before the bees start to sense their queenlessness and if we introduce a queen too quickly it lowers the chance that she will be accepted. Sometimes we introduce them on the same day if we're in an out yard or a distant location. I prefer to do it in a two-stage process like this.

01:27 - 01:53
[Camera zooms in on small, tubular, wooden queen cage with a mesh screen that Paul is holding in his hand.]

Paul: So we have our new queen here, she's inside this cage area here and she is surrounded by attendant bees. So there are about five young worker bees that are in there with her and they are keeping her warm, they are feeding her and cleaning her and so on.

01:48 - 02:34
[Paul turns cage to show one end with candy tube visible.]

Paul: At this end of the cage you can see a candy tube, so that candy is there for the worker bees to feed on, but it also provides a slow release mechanism for the queen. If we were to just put this queen in and let her go, the colony would kill the queen, so we don't want that to happen. If we put her in with the candy, it takes two or three days for the bees to chew through the candy and release the queen. In the meantime she has grown into their smell, she has picked up their smell and they have become accustomed to her smell as well, so it allows a slow, gradual transition.

02:36 - 03:04
[Paul turns cage again to show one side with a long yellow tag.]

Paul: We keep track of our queens using a tag and then we tack that tag on the front of the hive, so I'm going to go ahead and put that tag on the hive right now just to make sure we keep track of who is who. [Paul removes the yellow tag from the cage.] It is just held in place by a thumbtack right above the colony number, you can see here, [Paul attaches the tag just above the colony number, 408, on the side of the hive.] and that is how we are able to keep records of what we are doing with our hives.

03:04 - 03:47
Paul: So I'll just set the queen cage down for the moment, then we will open up the hive to install the queen. [Paul opens the hive and peels back the internal cover while puffing smoke inside.] Use just a little bit of smoke to keep the bees nice and calm, but not too much. Puff a bit of smoke there, lay the inner cover down at the entrance and then again we always take the second frame out first, so we'll pry that frame loose, pry this one up [Paul lifts the frame out of the hive.] and lean that frame against the far corner. [Paul places the frame on the ground leaning it up against the far corner of the hive.]

03:49 - 04:10

Paul: Now what we are looking for is a frame of brood. [Camera zooms in on open hive.] We want to introduce the queen next to a good solid frame of brood [Paul lifts another frame out of the hive.] because we know the bees are going to be clustered there all day and all night keeping this brood warm. [Paul turns the frame to face the camera. Camera zooms in on the frame.] So there is a really nice frame of brood, lots of capped pupa in this area here.

04:11 - 04:32
Paul: We know bees will always stay in this area so if we put the queen there she will get lots of attention and will be taken care of. So we will put that frame back into place [Paul returns frame back to hive.] and then we pick up the queen cage and we turn the screen down.

04:32 - 05:24
Paul: We'll then move that next to the brood frame and just wiggle it back and forth a bit to get the worker bees out of the way, and then we can gently push that into the comb so it is lodged into the surface of the comb there, and then what we do is move the next frame over and gradually wiggle that back and forth to get the bees out of the way and we push it up against the cage so that there is no chance that the cage can fall down and be abandoned by the bees. So it is firmly wedged into place in there and then we can just close the hive back up and reinstalling the frames, putting them back in their original position.

05:28 - 05:59
Paul: So I just get that frame in there gradually. Then we will puff some smoke on top of the frames to get the bees out of the way so we are not crushing any with the inner cover, [Paul places the inner cover on top of the hive.] and then just gradually lay that down on top giving the bees an opportunity to get out of the way and close the lid up.

06:00 - 06:29
Paul: I am now going to make a note on the lid at the back of the hive with the date, May 10th, queen introduced. That is going to make sure that I don't disturb this colony for a week. [Camera pans up to medium shot of Paul.] If we open up this hive in less than a weekÕs time we disturb the hive.

06:29 - 07:24
Paul: The queen is recently emerged from that cage, again it takes two or three days for her to get out through that candy, and if we interrupt the colony while they are gradually accepting that queen they will turn on her and kill her, so it's important to leave the colony for a week before you come back to see if the queen is laying. At that point all you are looking for is eggs inside the hive, you don't need to find the queen but you look for eggs and if there are eggs there then everything is normal and you can close the hive up and you know your queen introduction has been successful. If you don't find any eggs, you then may need to requeen the colony again, but in most cases this will work out and you've got new young queen, good genetic material in the hive and the hive can carry on and flourish.

07:24 - 07:44
Paul: So that's the basics of queen introduction and I would encourage you to be buying locally produced queens that are adapted to our environment and have been bred for disease resistance and support your local queen breeders. Thanks very much. See you next time.