Hello Beeks, a question for you more experienced beekeepers.. I'm wanting to make a hive queenless for a few days to get some queen cells made. After harvesting them i want to put her back in the original hive. Do i need to reintroduce her in a queen cage or on a frame of brood or what.
I have never tried this. I BELIEVE the queen or the workers will destroy the larva in the queen cups. 1) You go try your idea, only wait until the queen cells are capped: 8+ days 2) You could pull a frame of eggs, a frame of capped brood and some bees a start a nuc. 3) You could read up on OTS Queen rearing and go that route
Agree with Ray. I'd suggest #2 or #3. #1 requires you to get into the colony multiple times in a short time frame.
Or you could use an excluder and put the frames with the cells above it and put the queen down below. Nurse bees will come up to care for the cells. But don't leave empty gaps or you'll have lots of burr comb
