A New Queen for Hive 04

You may recall that during our last bee yard visit on January 9, we reported bad news with the absence of our Buckfast queen in hive 04.  It was a big letdown. (Click on photos to enlarge).

Hive 04 needing a replacement queen.

We stood a very small chance of saving this hive because it is difficult to find a beekeeper with a replacement queen in the middle of winter.  And even if we had a new queen, it would be an uphill battle to introduce her into the colony in these very cold temperatures.  But, we went for it anyway.

Mark and I were lucky to find queen bees available in Hawaii at Big Island Queens.  We placed an order online for an Italian queen and received her via UPS on January 11.  Whew!  We were on our way to saving hive 04.  Because this year ends with the number 8 (2018), red is the color that is placed on her thorax so that she can be easily noticed in a crowd of bees.  

Notice the queen in the upper left of the cage.
She is a bit longer than her attendant bees and she has a red dot.

We had a bit of a delay in introducing her because of a terrible cold spell in our part of Texas, which included an unbelievable ice storm.  We couldn’t put our new queen into the hive unless the weather improved.  Having a queen stay in her queen cage for more than just a few days puts a lot of stress on her and we worried she may not last long enough to see a warm, sunny day for introduction.  Finally on January 20, our temperatures reached 73 degrees and we were able to introduce her to the colony. 

The bees immediately pick up on her pheromones.
She is likely communicating many messages of instruction to them.
In just a few days, she will be able to leave her cage and join her new colony. 

The last leg of our journey is for her to make it just a few more days inside her queen cage, which is now positioned between two frames in hive 04.  Hopefully, the worker bees will accept her and help her to eat up the fondant that is blocking the exit from her cage.  We will visit the hive again soon (with our fingers crossed) with hopes that our replacement queen is happy in her new home.