How to Raise a New Queen Bee in a Hive

February 18, 2025

One of the most basic skills for beekeepers is raising a bee queen. Whether you face replacing an old queen, managing a queenless hive or expanding your apiary, knowing how to successfully rear a new queen ensures the health and longevity of your colony. Step-by-step guide to raising a new queen bee from when you notice you need a new queen to the point that she’s successfully introduced to your hive.

What Does a Queen Bee Actually Do?

She is the hive's queen bee, the one who lays the eggs and continuously keeps the colony stable. A fit queen can lay as much as 2,000 eggs a day during peak seasons which has direct effect on the hive’s population, temperament and productivity. The moment a hive loses its queen, it must replace her at the speed of light lest the colony goes down the drain.

When to Rear a New Queen

Why a new queen may need to be raised

1. Queenless Hive: If the hive loses its queen and there is no replacement, the colony will die out.

2. The Old or Failing Queen: Queens live usually 2-3 years. They are past their prime egg-laying years.

3. Swarm Prevention: Colonys often rear new queens if they are preparing to swarm. By raising your own queen, you can avoid losing bees to swarming.

4. Colony Expansion: Beekeepers raising new colonies require new queens to make splits or nucleus colonies (nucs).

5. Genetic improvement : Some beekeepers select breeding queens to highlight or minimize certain genetically inherited traits related to disease resistance, honey production, or gentleness.

Starting a New Queen Bee with Different Methods

There are three main methods to produce a queen in a hive:

1. Natural Queen Rearing

Bees naturally rear replacement queens when necessary. Worker bees can build emergency queen cells from fertilized eggs or young larvae if the hive is queenless. This technique involves minimal intervention but relies on the skill of the colony to rear a strong queen.

Natural Queen Rearing Steps:

Keep hive with either fertilized eggs or young larvae (max 3 days old).
Keep an eye out for queen cells developing on the sides or middle of the comb.
Let the bees do it in their own time.
After the new queen has emerged from her pupa, she will kill off any remaining rival queens and start mating.

2. How to Divide a Hive to Breed a New Queen

This technique splits a vigorous colony into two weaker hives, letting the one half rear a new queen.

Steps for Hive Splitting:

Choose a vigorous colony with significant worker population, brood, and food stores.
Split the hive to two boxes with brood, pollen and honey.
Do so with fertilized eggs or young larvae in one of the splits.
Worker bees will detect the empiness of a queen, they can rear a new queen.
A day 16 later, a queen emerges and goes on a mating flight.
Check the hive in 3-4 weeks for eggs from the new queen.

3. Bringing In A Purchased Queen Bee Making A Mated Queen Bee

To produce a mated queen more quickly and precisely, beekeepers can buy a mated queen from a reputable breeder.

Introducing a Queen Process:

The new queen should be introduced and the old, if any, should be removed.
Put the new queen in a cage with a candy plug of sugar.
Place the cage between brood frames, allowing bees to nurse her out over 3-5 days.
Monitor hive behavior to make sure they will accept her.
When they are released, check back in about 1-2 weeks and see if they have laid some eggs.

Timelines – Development Cycle of Queen Bee

Monitoring the queen’s progress is helped by an understanding of her life cycle:

Day 1-3: Lay a fertilized egg.
Day 4-8: Larva grows and is fed royal jelly.
Day 9-16: The queen cell is capped and the larva pups.
Day 16: New queen emerges.
Day 20-25: Queen takes mating flights (The mating process is very fast but you can keep observing for days)
Day 26+: The queen begins laying eggs.

Before a new queen can even be introduced, steps must be taken to ensure her successful introduction.

Inspect for Queen Cells Prior to Introduction

The presence of queen cells in the hive can cause bees to reject a newly introduced queen. Before you introduce her, remove all the queen cells.

Use the Slow Introduction Method

A queen cage with a sugar plug allows the bees to get accustomed to her scent prior to releasing her. That minimizes the risk of aggression or rejection.

Monitor for Acceptance

Evidence of successful queen acceptance includes:

Bees delicately feeding the queen through the cage.
No rough biting, no balling the cage.
Freshly laid eggs were seen shortly after release.

Common Problems and Solutions in Rearing a Queen Bee

Queen Rejection

Reasons worker bees reject and eradicate a new queen include:
Evidence of a poor queen or competing queen cells.
The bees are not fully queenless prior to introduction.

Solution:

Add them only if the hive has been queenless for a full 24 hours prior to introduction.
Use a queen cage with a slow release method.

Queen Never Comes Back from Mating Flight

Queens do aerial mating with 10-20 drones. In some cases, they never come back because of predators or poor weather.

Solution:

If the queen doesn't return in 2 weeks, you might add a mated queen.

Delayed Egg Laying

A recently mated queen can take a few days to start laying eggs. If she isn’t laying eggs quickly, look for signs of a healthy, active queen.

Solution:

Make her wait a week before you intervene.
Make sure workers have enough food and support.

Conclusion

Requeening is an extremely satisfying task that creates a healthy and sustainable beehive. Bees raised their own queen, a split from a hive, a mated queen begged with a newcomer, with each method offering advantages and challenges.

With following best practices, monitoring queen development, and ensuring proper introduction, beekeepers can raise a strong, productive queen to maintain their hive health.

However, a patient and careful eye can help you successfully breed queen bees for the success of your beekeeping career.