# Requeening Steps for my TBHs



## kthoneybee (Jan 10, 2015)

I need help on how to requeen my 3 TBH. All 3 hives have queens and I want to replace them. I'd really appreciate if someone could go through the steps. 
Much thanks,
kt


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## Thucar (Mar 11, 2017)

Out of curiosity - what is the reason why you want to requeen all 3 of your hives?


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## Kalteisen (Mar 17, 2017)

Thucar said:


> Out of curiosity - what is the reason why you want to requeen all 3 of your hives?


This.


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## kthoneybee (Jan 10, 2015)

Thucar - can you describe how to requeen a top bar hive?
The reason is irrelevant. 
Thanks!


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

A TBH is requeened in the exact same way as a langstroth. So there is not just one way there are many ways.

But I'm assuming you will be purchasing mated queens? If so, open the top bar hive and find the old queen and remove her. She can either be killed, or put aside on a couple of combs of bees to keep her alive incase the bees reject the new queen.

The cage the new queen comes in will have a candy auto release, ie, the cage is put in the hive and it takes the bees around 2 days to chew through the candy which allows the queen to get out. By this time her and the other bees should have exchanged pheremones and she should be accepted by them. The cage may arrive with the candy covered from the outside by a cork or something else, if that is the case remove the cover so the hive bees have access to the candy. If the queens arrive with any written instructions, follow those.

The cage should be set so that the part of the cage that allows contact between the hive bees and the queen is exposed to the bees, ie, the hive bees and the queen can contact each other through the gaps and exchange pheremones. To achieve this it is sometimes necessary to prise 2 combs somewhat apart and have a bigger gap than normal between those two combs, they can be pushed back together when the queen cage is removed. In a TBH, it is also a good idea to hang the cage by a piece of nylon or some non chewable string, with a nail or toothpick at the top to ensure the cage will not fall down and land on the bottom of the hive. The cage should be placed between two brood combs.

The first check should be done not less than 5 days after the queen cage was put into the hive, 7 or more days is safer. An earlier check can cause the bees to kill the queen as they are not fully used to her yet. The first check should be very non disruptive, use smoke to keep things calm and don't do much more than remove the cage and push combs back together. Do not go searching for the queen at this stage but it is OK to look for eggs in a comb or two but don't do too much. In another week you can have a more thorough look through the hive, but again, just look for eggs to confirm she is there, don't spend too much time searching for the queen.

If the bees you are requeening are extremely aggressive or africanised, they may be a lot more likely to kill the new queen. If this is the case let's know, I can throw in a few more ideas for requeening difficult hives.


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## Thucar (Mar 11, 2017)

kthoneybee said:


> Thucar - can you describe how to requeen a top bar hive?
> The reason is irrelevant.
> Thanks!


I'm sorry if I was out of line. I'm a newbie beekeeper and as I said, the question was purely out of curiosity, in hopes of learning something.


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## kthoneybee (Jan 10, 2015)

We're requeening because our Carniolans are too aggressive. We're worried that our neighbors will be effected and its really hard to work with the hives. Last year we had Italians that were gentle and easy to work with. We found a supplier that has Italian queens. I know it will take a few months for the bee turn over but its better than getting ride of the hives.


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## kthoneybee (Jan 10, 2015)

They are aggressive. Should we keep the queen in there for longer? Or give the hives a few days without a queen?


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## Arbol (Apr 28, 2017)

it will be next season before you see any difference in your colonies. sad you think they are to hot, they are better honey bees than italians ime.
only reason they are hot now is end of summer dearth, which is the norm for all honey bees. are they actively stinging at every moment, or just bumping hard?
there is a dif between types of defensive behavior in bees.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

If you want to give them a queenless period before introducing the new queen, just make it one day queenless. More, you get some other problems such as them building queen cells. Even one day queenless they will start queen cells, but should stop feeding them once they have accepted the new queen. But you don't want those queen cells too advanced by the time the queen is released from her cage.

Just a thought, have you checked varroa mite levels? It is as bees are going into winter that mites begin to be a problem or even a bit later kill the hive, would be a shame to do all the work of requeening etc and then have the hives fall over due to mites.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

If I have a hive that I think will kill a newly introduced queen, I dequeen then, wait only 24 hrs and then put the queen cage in there, but do not expose the candy. That way, they shouldn't start their own queen cells.


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## jlw35 (Jul 26, 2015)

I'm surprised that your Carnolians are aggressive. I'm new this year, we have 2 TBH's of Carnolians and they are as gentle as I can imagine any hive to be.
Just posting as a thought, not trying to hijack your thread.
jeff


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Here this all the time locally. "I have x type bee and they are aggressive / not aggressive".

If the person has a bit of experience they are usually correct about the aggression level, but can be mistaken about the bee type. Just that they are dark does not make them pure carniolan. They may or may not be carniolan, and who knows what they are crossed with.

EOD if someone wants to get rid of aggressive bees, he should.


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## trishbookworm (Jun 25, 2016)

Yikes, no one wants an aggressive hive. Kudos to the OP for tackling head on. 

I have had some success with "finding" the queen by moving bars one by one, checking for her royal pain in the butt, then moving the last 2 together. Then I moved those 2 bars to another nearby hive, and waited to see eggs. I have yet to see a queen this season at all in my 6 hives. 

Have you considered culling most of the capped brood, or at least half - ideally with an uncapping fork so the comb can be laid in - to speed along the turnover of new bees?

couple things to consider about managing aggressive bees:
First, even gentle Italians get more aggressive when they are constantly fighting off robbers or yellow jackets. Double check there are no places where non-hive bees are getting in to rob. If robbing is an issue, you'll see live bees being dragged out at the entrance. This is not a solution to hot bees, but is something you can address (if it's happening) that will reduce the stress level of the hive. I don't know if this is WA's dearth period too... not a lot you can do about that. No incoming nectar means no comb building, no nectar dehydrating into honey, no feeding larvae... you get the picture! Feeding can help provide "work", and is something you will want to do for the new queen to get her staff able to raise the new bees. But you want to simulate a nectar flow with near-constant availability of 1:1 or else the bees may instead backfill existing comb and make there be less room for the new queen to lay (once she's out). And I highly warn against having the sugar syrup anywhere other than the back of the hive - any open feeding, or near-entrance feeding triggers not-neighbor friendly bee behaviors.

Second, if you can split the hives, even temporarily, so more bees have to "go to work" instead of hanging around to guard, it may be easier to carry out the requeening chores. Even putting a bee-tight divider between the existing hives should help with this. 

Hope some of these thoughts lead you on the path to happy bee-watching and not dreading inspections. Good luck...keep us posted, I am always learning from people like yourself who take the time to share their experiences.


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