Mated Queen Bees From Black Mountain Honey
Do you want to discover what it's like to get mated queen bees from Black Mountain Honey and introduce them into your beehive? This blog post will detail the full process on how to order, receive and get your queens into your hive from start to finish.
Ordering Process
It could not be simpler! Just follow the link below, with BMH's new website the process of ordering the queens that you require is so simple, with multiple strains of queens available through out the season. I'm sure BMH can supply what you are looking for!
Delivery date vs Dispatch Date
Make sure you note that the date that you are choosing is the date of dispatch, not the date of delivery! I only point this out as that is exactly what I did, but with a quick email to Laurence my order was put right.
Early Season Availability
I am a Buckfast man and as those of you that have been following my blogs this year will know that I am on a year of growth, so with several hives on double brood early splits was definitely part of the plan. Due to the fact that getting queens to mate this early in the year successfully would probably lead to disaster, I made the choice to buy mated queens in.
This will also mean that if I wanted to build these colonies up and then split them later in the season and let them mate naturally, we would only have diluted the genetics by 50% not by 75% (this is a whole other topic of conversation). So the availability of early season queen bees for sale from a reliable source has given me the ability to get underway much earlier in the season that if I was to rely on UK mated queens.
Delivery
I received an email from BMH and Royal mail to let me know that the queens were on there way, now all I needed was the British weather to sort itself out! The queens were delivered on time and well packaged.
QR Code Instructions
On the outside of the envelope there is this great little feature, a QR code that you can scan that takes straight to the information that you need to introduce your queens. This is the page it directs you which gives you all the information you need to requeen a beehive:
Arrival and Care
The queens arrive in a postal introduction cage, this has fondant at one end for two reasons, to supply the queen and her attendants with a food supply and to allow slow release of the queen. Do remember that your queens have been in the post over night as a little drop of water dripped on the outside of the cage will be gratefully received by the bees.
Marking
You should be able to clearly see the queen in the cage as she will be marked on her back with a bright spot. The colour of the mark will denote the year of the queen.
Size of Queen
The other observation that I have noticed is just how much she will shrink when they are caged. Having introduced queens last year I can assure you that she will grow in size very quickly, within two weeks she will almost double in size.
Introducing your new queen
There is a golden rule when it comes to requeening a colony, it needs to be hopelessly queenless. Within beekeeping you can not always plan your splits, therefore you wont always have the queen in hand to place into the split on day 0.
If you are inspecting a hive and you find uncapped charged queen cells but your queen is still there, you don't just do nothing and order a queen, you make your split there and then taking the queen with a split to a new location. You can then order the your new queen to arrive on for day 8 of this process to ensure you introduce your queen only once all of the emergency queen cells have been formed AND removed, thus leaving the colony hopelessly queenless.
The other side to splits, are planned splits. In this situation you can have your queens arrive on day 0. With your new queens in hand you can make your splits up with the queen in the Nuc from the off. But make sure that you do not remove the tabs at the end with the fondant in until you reach day 8 of the process, to ensure you achieve good acceptance for your mated queen bees.
A Quick Guide to Introduction
Preparation: Before introducing the new queen, it's essential to ensure that the hive is hopelessly queenless. This is achieved by removing the old queen from the hive or by making up a new split from an existing colony. This is day 0 as it helps to track the time frame for successful introduction.
Destruction: After 8 days (day 8) go into the colony and remove all of the emergency cells the bees have created to try and requeen themselves naturally. Do not miss any cell. A single cell that has been missed can cause the new queen to be rejected. If you did not have a queen when you made your split this is when you would add her in, but with the tabs still in place.
Isolation: To prevent rejection or aggression from the resident bees, the new queen should be isolated in a queen cage for a period of time. This allows the worker bees to become accustomed to her pheromones without direct contact. 24 hrs if sufficient for acclimatisation.
Introduction: After 24hr of isolation, the queen can be introduced into the hive by placing the queen cage between the frames. It's crucial to monitor the hive closely during this time to ensure that the queen is accepted by the colony. We place the queen into the colony in between two frames of brood on day 8, just after removing the emergency queen cells.
Release: 24 hours later, return to the hive and remove the two fondant tab to give the worker bees access to the queen. It can take 24-48 hrs for the workers to burrow through fondant to release her.
Going Forward: Do not go back into the have for 5-7 days, as tempting as it may be. From this point on stick to your seven day cycle of inspections. Early inspection can lead to queen balling and failure at this point, so be patient.
Conclusion
Easy to order, easy receive and if you follow the advise given from BMH you should have an successful introduction. If you have further questions the Team at BMH will respond. I don't think there is a lot more you can ask for as a customer.
I will follow this blog up in a few weeks time with photos and further observations of how these mated queen bees perform as the season goes forward.
Comments