After the formic acid treatment in september I had decided to change the queen in the hive. She is marked yellow which means that she from 2012. Last year the hive behaved great, but this year she had several times started to make swarm cells, i.e. cells for new queens.
If these are not removed, half the hive will swarm with either queen to a new location - typically a tree close by. This happened several time in "school hives" of the bee association that I am member of and it is quite an awesome thing to see - and to take down again.
The new queen bee that I bought is from this year 2014 and is labeled with a green mark.
Changing queen is remarkably simple.
1. Remove the old queen and leave the hive without queen for a day. I caught one extra working bee with her which I could not get rid of.
2. Add the new queen in a place where the other bees cannot get to her and sting her to death. Leave the hive for half a day for the bees to get use to her pheromones.
3. Insert the new queen in the hive and let the bees work for her by digging her out and feeding her.
And the hive now has a new "monarch". Can you find her........ :o)
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