From Queen Cell to Queen Cage
Requeening a hive is a standard beekeeping practice that replaces an old queen with a newly-mated one. An “introduction cage” containing the queen and several worker bees is the most common method, with a direct release of Her Majesty into a queenless hive being less frequently used.
Queen replacements are done every 1-2 years during the spring and summer to take advantage of the new queen’s vigor, whereas early-to-mid autumn requeening is done to provide colonies with a strong queen for overwintering. The colony may choose to requeen without beekeeper intervention, as in swarming, supersedure and emergency queen rearing. The former two are a natural colony process. The latter an unplanned queen replacement due to her absence from the hive, such as accidental death during hive inspection.
There’s a shirt that goes with this article, designed & printed by yours truly:
Methods of Installing a New Queen
I present my ways for caged and direct introductions respectively. Elaborations on the steps are provided further down.
Installing the Queen Cage for Indirect Release
- Prepare the hive for queen introduction by locating the old queen and “removing” her from the hive (hope she’s marked!).
- Place the queen cage in the brood frames. For most commercial hives, this is in between the top bars. Exact placement is unimportant, so long as she is somewhere around the middle of the hive.
- The honey bee colony will chew through the candy plug over a few days and release the queen.
Direct Introduction of a New Queen
- Confirm your hive queenless. Are you sure there are no new eggs and larvae in the brood box and honey supers?
- Place the queen directly onto the top bars.
- If she is in a cage, you can remove the wire mesh for immediate release.
- If she is on a brood frame (i.e. from a nuc), then place the frame directly into the hive, and do not linger or she will jump off somewhere else. Trust me on this one.
- Inspect the hive 1 or 2 weeks later for new larvae or capped brood, respectively.
Notes on the Requeening Methods
The ideal time to introduce a new queen is in the warmer months when the hive is active. As with regular hive inspections, requeening should be avoided during times of extreme heat or cold. With heat you risk damaging the wax comb structure, whereas in extreme cold you risk chilling the brood. Also, more bees will be at the hive during weather extremes, and the inexperienced beekeeper is sure to be attacked in large numbers.
Notes on Caged introduction
- “Removing” the queen can be done by placing her into a cage, another colony, or squashing her, depending on your plan.
- I utilize the “squashing” method and place the corpse back into the hive. That way, the bees can sense the decline in queen pheromones and prepare themselves to accept a new queen.
- When placing the cage, ensure that the recipient colony can access the meshed surface to interact with and feed the queen.
- Place it so that the candy plug is either horizontal or upward facing, and not vertically downwards. This ensures any dead workers are removed by the cage companions and do not obstruct the entrance (oh gravity…).
- Some beekeepers wait until the next day to introduce the queen. I am not a fan of this as the bees will start exhibiting aggressive behaviours associated with queenlessness, which is a nuisance to your neighbours.
- Inspect the queen cage. Is she moving and in good health? Are most of the worker bees alive?
- This gives the bees time to adjust with the new queen’s pheromones, and accept her as their own queen.
- For more on queen pheromones, refer to this article.
Notes on Direct Introduction
The success of this method depends on absolute confirmation that a hive is queenless. Negligence on the part of the beekeeper will lead the rejection of the queen by the hive, and subsequent heat-balling to death. Once you’re certain, go ahead and release her into hive; the colony will benefit from an immediately laying queen instead of awaiting her release.
A personal example: I had skipped spring inspections on a hive for several weeks. When I finally opened it, I found the brood area to be… full of nectar! Sometime during my last inspection, the old queen was removed from the hive, and for reasons unknown to yours truly, the colony was unable to produce an emergency queen from the existing brood. If had a newly-mated queen in that moment, I would have directly placed her onto the frames to commence egg laying. Instead, I took two brood frames out of another colony (after confirming that it contained eggs), and placed them into the queenless hive for the worker bees to raise an emergency queen.
Queen Cage Contents
The typical queen cage contains a newly-mated queen with a few attendant bees that feed and care for her as she awaits placement to her new hive. A hard candy made from powdered sugar and honey is used to “plug” the cage. This is a time-release mechanism for the queen’s introduction, as the worker bees consume this candy to free the young queen.
The cage is made of wood or plastic with a mesh screen for ventilation. The candy plug is protected by a removable cover until it’s time for introduction. Such a structure enables the cage to be sent by mail, as it:
- Provides a secure environment for transporting the queen (however she can still be injured).
- A steady food supply from the candy plug.
- Ventilation from the mesh screen.
- Stress reduction by the presence of attendant bees who care for the queen’s needs.
Research from Bigio & colleagues (2012) found the presence of a few attendants to significantly increases caged queen survival (18% without vs 53% with workers). Another factor, cage structure (plastic vs wood) showed that wood was superior to plastic when honey was used in the candy tube (perhaps a nod towards the preference of bees for trees?).
Marking the Queen
Marking queens is not mandatory, it just makes spotting her easier. Her Majesty can be marked during a hive inspection, or while she’s still in the queen cage.
Marking a Queen on Frame:
- Inspect the brood frames to locate the queen. You may need several attempts across the entire brood box.
- Capture the queen. If you’re confident, this can be done by gently gripping her muscular thorax. Otherwise consider a commercial queen marking cage (image below).
- Use a non-toxic marking pen to place a small dot on the queen’s thorax. Let the paint a dry for a few moments.
- Carefully place the queen back into the hive
Marking Queens in a Cage
Depending on how many attendants are packed into the cage by the queen breeder, this job can be difficult (as in the image above). However the principle is the same. Locate the queen, use the non-toxic marker pen and dabble it onto her thorax.
A regular marker pen may have toxic compounds that are absorbed into her body and affect her long-term performance. The colour of the marker often corresponds to the year the queen was introduced, following an internationally recognized colour code system (just ask any commercial operator). For those hobbyists with a few hives, this is is unimportant, so pick whatever colour you fancy.
Common Reasons for Queen Replacement
Two perspectives are examined: beekeeper- and colony-mediated queen replacements.
Why do Beekeepers Replace the Queen?
Beekeepers replace an old queen because her productivity declines with age, usually after two years (although some beekeepers choose yearly replacements). The older queen’s egg laying rate diminishes, leading to a decrease in colony population and vitality.
This poor performance is reflected in a mismatched poor brood pattern (although this can be a sign of diseases like American foulbrood), low worker population, and subsequently reduced honey production. Beekeepers might also replace a queen to improve genetic traits, such as gentleness and disease resistance. Like any living thing, a queen’s behaviour can be modified by the environment. Even the gentlest queens may develop a ferocious temperament if continually mistreated by the beekeeper.
The queen herself may become physically injured or infected with disease, causing her egg-laying productivity to decrease, or result in infected eggs that retard the adult bee’s growth. This is common in cases of Israeli Acute bee paralysis virus (Amiri et al., 2020) Nosema disease. As such, beekeeper may preemptively replace her to prevent further decline of the hive’s health.
Differences Between Queen Cells
Three types of queen cells are identified: the swarm cells for swarming, the supersedure cells for replacing an aging queen, and the emergency cells, for in case of emergencies.
The colony may sense the weakening pheromone signal of an aging queen, which can trigger the workers to raise new queen cells in preparation for supersedure. Worker bees also detect when their queen is diseased or injured. The supersedure process begins before the current queen’s condition visibly affects the entire hive.
Swarm, Supersedure and Emergency cells
A summary table is presented here. For more on queen cells, consider the article on raising bee queens.
| Feature | Swarm Cells | Supersedure Cells | Emergency Queen Cells |
| Location on Frame | Found on the edges or bottom of the brood frames. | Located in the central areas of the brood comb, along the vertical midline of the frame. | Found on the face of the brood comb, where they are made from existing worker cells. |
| Number of Cells on frame | Numerous, up to a dozen or more as the colony prepares to swarm. | The fewest, from one to a handful, as it is a controlled replacement by the colony. | Variable, can be few to many, depending on how suddenly the queen was lost. |
| Reason for Creation | Made in preparation for swarming, the natural method of colony reproduction. | Constructed when the colony decides to replace an aging or failing queen, while she remains present in the hive. | Created in response to the sudden loss of a queen, with the colony urgently needing replacement |
| Beekeeper Action | Evaluate for potential swarm prevention measures: splitting the hive or adding supers for more space. | Monitor the process and consider whether to allow the bees to replace the queen naturally or to intervene with a new queen. | Assess the overall health of the colony and ensure they have the resources to successfully rear a new queen. |
| Notable Characteristics | Cells are large, peanut-shaped, and hang vertically. The colony is often very populous | Cells are well-formed and reflect a more deliberate process by the bees. The colony may be calm as the old queen is still laying. | The cells are quickly constructed and may be less uniform in shape. The colony may be stressed and aggressive. |
Queens and their Behavioural Characteristics
Apis mellifera subspecies have been classified based on their geographical origin and behavioural characteristics. Worldwide, most beekeepers select the subspecies ligustica & carnica, which are gentle, highly adaptable and possess strong brood rearing abilities. These traits benefit both commercial and recreational beekeepers, and most queen breeders commonly provide such subspecies.
On the Africanised Honey Bee Apis mellifera scutellata hybrid
A tangent: Should one obtain an Africanised queen, they will find their colony to be highly defensive and aggressive, making it a challenge for beekeepers and the public.
They are rapid breeders and can quickly populate a hive. Being more effective foragers than other subspecies, they can survive in tropical and subtropical environments, but not the cooler conditions. In North America, their control efforts have been largely unsuccessful, no doubt aided by their high swarming rate compared to A. mellifera ligustica & A. mellifera carnica.
Further reading is on Africanised Bees is available in Collins et al., (1982), Schneider et al., (2004) & Yours Truly, (2024).
How Often Should I Requeen?
Short answer: Once every two years. Other beekeepers may tell you “once per year”, “let the colony decide when its time to requeen” or better yet: “I don’t need to requeen, I’ll just let the bees swarm and get a new queen naturally”. The last point was sarcastic.
Requeening is done to replace an old or failing queen, to improve the hive’s temperament (your residential beekeeping hobby will not last long with aggressive bees), to increase productivity (not all honey production is equal), or as a preventive measure against pests and diseases. I recommend picking queens from A. mellifera ligustica or A. mellifera carnica subspecies to make the harvest bountiful and the experience pleasant.
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