Storage Methods and Technical Key Points for Queen Bees

Beekeeping operations store some spare queen bees, so that aging or injured queens can be replaced at any time, and lost queens can be replenished at any time. Queen storage methods include in-colony storage and out-of-hive storage.

(1) In-colony storage Storing queen bees in mating colonies is the most convenient. When the new queen in a mating colony has been laying eggs for about one week, confine her in a rectangular iron wire queen cell cage and insert it into the brood comb of the mating colony. At the same time, introduce a mature queen cell into that colony. A similar method can also be used to store queen bees in the supers of strong colonies. Restrict the colony's queen to the brood box with a queen excluder, then insert the iron wire queen cage containing the laying queen into the comb near the center of the super. During the active season of @#@255@#@, one strong colony can store more than 10 laying queen bees.

(2) Out-of-hive queen storage Use 10 mm thick thin wooden boards to make a mini super with an inner dimension of 70 mm square and a height of 70 mm. Place two small frames inside it, one small frame fitted with honeycomb and one small frame fitted with sealed brood comb. Use two 90 mm square wooden boards to make the bottom and lid respectively. Shake 50-100 young bees into the mini super, place the queen bee, secure the bottom and lid with two rubber bands, and put it in a dark, ventilated cupboard. Replace the young bees every 20-30 days. The replacement method is to take a mini super equipped with one small honeycomb and one small brood comb, add young bees to it, place it on top of the small super storing the queen bee, and move the lid to the top. Before long, the queen bee climbs into the upper small super, and then the lower super can be removed.