CHESHIRE BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

Apes curamus et nos curant (We look after bees and they look after us)
Founded 1899
Registered Charity No. 227494
We've been buzzing over 100 years 1899-2013

First, find the queen!

Why do I need to find her? There are many reasons: to list a few be helpful to beginners.

Establishing the queen’s age,

For record-keeping and evaluation,

Routine management for both honey production and swarm prevention,

Swarm control (different from prevention).

It is important to me to know the age of my queens. Usually queens are at their best in their first full breeding season. This depends on the effectiveness of their mating, as well-mated queens last longer. These days, queens may be replaced even in their first season, if they are either undernourished as larvae or poorly mated. Therefore, don’t assume your bees are all right just because you have a new queen. Recently, even bought queens are either swarming or being replaced by their adoptive colony soon after introduction. My best queens are my own selectively bred ones.

Record-keeping and evaluation are based on the queen. She is your constant marker, around which the colony revolves over several years. Monitor honey-potential, docility, wintering ability, ease of manipulation etc. and pick your best over several years to be a breeder queen. (Breeding is another subject!) It is critical, therefore, to mark her, so that you know her. Have a purpose in mind when looking into her domain and ask yourself if the colony is desirable. Do you enjoy inspecting these bees? Remember, most of us have bees for pleasure, so we want good, docile bees.

This leads naturally on to management and swarm prevention. Healthy bees will build up and fill their available space. If they are managed, they should produce a crop (weather permitting). Bees that swarm as soon as they are covering 8 frames are a waste of space and time, so don’t keep them. Breed from less-swarming bees. However, if you mismanage the colony, it may be induced to swarm because you have failed to anticipate space requirements. Remember - each forager needs two housekeepers to take the nectar and to process it. Therefore, if you have 20,000 foragers you need 40,000 processors. The foragers don’t make the honey - they collect the nectar and pollen. If you mismanage, you will have to control swarming, and this is more difficult. Once the bees have decided to swarm you must be able to separate three things: queen, flying bees, and brood. If you remove one from the other two, then you can control swarming.

Tips for finding her majesty.

Start by smoking the hive and waiting two minutes or so. If you have a double brood-chamber, split the 2 brood-boxes and move the top box to one side, placing it over an inverted roof. The queen is usually in this box having run up because of the smoke. Start with the frame furthest away from you and check both sides of the comb. When you are happy she is not there, place this frame to one side (not on the ground). Now check each comb, looking on the side that was in the dark (i.e. the unexposed side of the comb), as you may easily see her as she dashes down to get into the dark again. When found, mark her. If you can’t find her, then check the bottom box. I usually do not go back through the colony if she is not found, but put a queen-excluder between the two brood chambers and check five days later to establish which box she is in. Eggs tell me! I then proceed as before, but use very little (if any) smoke. Once found, I mark and clip and record giving each queen a number.

If you can’t find her in a single brood chamber, then remove two or three frames (ideally end frames without brood) in order to make space, then group the remaining combs in pairs with a gap between each pair to let in light. The queen can usually be found in the dark between two combs.

Good luck with the search!

David Buckley

©2005 Cheshire Beekeepers' Association

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