Queen Rearing

Queen rearing is the raising of good-quality queens from the young larvae of a selected breeder colony, at the time and in the numbers the beekeeper chooses. Success depends on three things: larvae of the right age, strong and well-fed rearing colonies, and a suitable mating period with plenty of drones. This page summarises the whole process; each stage is covered in detail on its own subpage.

Why rear your own queens?

Every honey bee colony can raise its own queen when it loses its queen or prepares to swarm. But the timing, number and genetics of naturally raised queens are out of the beekeeper's hands. Planned rearing brings these three variables under control.

• Requeening: Colonies with young queens swarm less, lay more consistently and go into winter stronger. Many beekeepers replace their queens every one or two years.
• Splits and increase: A ready, mated queen for each new split puts the colony several weeks ahead.
• Breeding (selection): Multiplying gentle, productive lines that are resistant to diseases and to Varroa destructor is only possible through planned rearing.
• Keeping spares: Giving a queen straight away to a colony that has lost its own avoids a gap that would last for weeks.

What makes a queen different from a worker?

Queens and workers develop from the same kind of fertilised egg. The difference is nutrition: a larva destined to become a queen is fed abundant royal jelly (queen jelly) throughout its development, while a worker larva switches after the first days to a plainer diet containing pollen and honey. So if a young worker larva is moved into a queen cell and fed plenty of jelly, it will develop into a queen.

Every rearing method rests on this fact: the beekeeper places selected larvae in vertical queen cells (cell cups, queen cups) and prepares a colony that will feed them as queens.

Why is larval age the most critical factor?

The most important variable determining queen quality is the age of the larva placed in the cup. The target is a freshly hatched larva less than 24 hours old. As a larva grows it starts developing in the worker direction; a queen reared from an older larva has fewer ovarioles and a smaller sperm storage organ (spermatheca). Such queens lay less and are soon replaced by supersedure.

What are the methods of queen rearing?

What are the stages of queen rearing?

Planned rearing consists of five consecutive stages. Each stage has its own type of colony and its own management rules.

1. Selecting the breeder: The queen that will supply the larvae (breeder queen, breeder colony) is chosen from a colony observed for at least one season that is gentle, productive, shows no signs of disease and has a low swarming tendency.
2. Acceptance (starting): The grafted cups are given to a queenless, very crowded starter colony rich in young bees. Queenlessness makes the bees adopt the cells.
3. Finishing: The accepted cells are fed by a strong finisher colony until they are capped and mature. The finisher is usually queenright, with the queen kept apart by an excluder.
4. Distribution: Mature cells are distributed to mating nucs or splits before the queens emerge.
5. Mating and evaluation: The young queen makes her mating flights and starts laying; her brood pattern is checked and she is either used or culled.

What is the queen development timeline?

A queen emerges about 16 days after the egg is laid: 3 days as an egg, about 5.5 days as an open larva and about 7.5 days sealed. Since grafting uses one-day-old larvae, the practical timeline counting the grafting day as day zero is as follows:

The statement often found in older sources that "the cell is capped eight days after grafting" is wrong: counted from the egg, capping falls on day 8–9, but counted from grafting it is around day 5. Not mixing up these two ways of counting is a prerequisite for calculating the distribution day correctly.

What matters for good-quality queens?

• Larval age: The youngest larva possible; even half a day makes a difference.
• Density of young bees: The cells are fed by nurse bees 1–2 weeks old whose jelly glands are active. They must be plentiful in the starter and finisher colonies.
• Food flow: If no nectar and pollen are coming in naturally, support with syrup and pollen (or a pollen substitute). Hunger directly lowers acceptance and cell size.
• Temperature: Do not let cells get chilled while carrying or checking them, and do not leave them in the sun.
• Limit the number: Giving a colony more cells than it can feed leaves all of them weak.
• Health: Colonies with a high varroa load or signs of disease are used neither as breeders nor as rearing colonies.

Why are drones as important as queens?

On her mating flights a queen usually mates with around 10–20 drones and uses the sperm she collects for the rest of her life. Half the genetics of the colony's workers comes from these drones. That is why a beekeeper doing serious queen rearing plans not only the queen line but also the drone source.

• A drone emerges 24 days after the egg is laid and needs roughly another two weeks to become sexually mature. So drone rearing must start 5–6 weeks before the queens are due to fly.
• Selected colonies with good traits are given drone comb or drone foundation so that they produce plenty of drones.
• No rearing is done when drones are absent or scarce (early spring, late summer when forage stops, autumn).

Mating and evaluating the result

A ripe cell is given to a split of a few frames or to a small mating nuc. After emerging, the queen matures for a few days, goes on mating flights in suitable weather and starts laying a few days after mating.

The most reliable way to evaluate a queen is her brood pattern: one egg per cell and a solid, evenly capped brood area are a good start. If you see a patchy pattern, domed drone cappings on worker cells or very slow laying, cull the queen.

Common mistakes for beginners

• Not writing down dates: If the grafting date is unknown, the distribution day is missed and the first queen to emerge kills the others.
• Rearing from a weak colony: A starter that doesn't look crowded may accept the cells, but it will produce small, weak queens.
• Starting too early: Queens that emerge when there are no mature drones cannot mate, or mate poorly.
• Not culling: Short, crooked, thin-walled cells and irregularly laying queens should be culled without mercy.
• Not keeping records: If you don't know which breeder gave which result, breeding makes no progress.