How to make a honeybee nucleus colony using a queen cell?
Forming bee colonies
As usual, we create colonies using queen cells. A frame of brood from the main colony, along with a feeding frame, is taken from the main colony and placed into the new hive, along with the bees being shaken off. This is how we did it in previous years. This year, we decided to slightly modify the method and create colonies using four frames at a time.
Fortunately, the weather conditions and the strength of the bee colonies are favorable for forming such strengthened colonies. Alder and willow, the first spring pollen plants, bloomed at the end of March—2-3 weeks earlier than usual, meaning many colonies have already reached their peak development. This can lead to colonies swarming. We have absolutely no time to combat swarming, much less catch swarms, so we decided to weaken the main hives a little more than in previous years. Ten days ago, we grafted the colonies, formed nurse colonies, and set them up with grafting frames to feed the larvae in bowls. We covered this in detail in previous videos. Six nurse colonies were given 180 bowls of larvae. The result was exactly what we wanted. The plan was to create 114 colonies, meaning 114 queen cells were needed, but the bees accepted, raised, and built 118. There's a small reserve, so the result is excellent!
The first grafting frame contains nine queen cells. The bees have built large comb tongues and even managed to fill them with fresh nectar. This is a good sign—it means there was a bountiful nectar flow during the queen cell construction process, and the queen larvae were well supplied with the highest quality royal jelly. We carefully select the queen cells, being careful not to shake them to avoid damaging the queen pupa inside. Although the most dangerous period for the pupa's life has already passed—it's now possible to even transport the queen cells and move them between apiaries—it's still best to handle them carefully.
Two grafting frames are standing next to each other because we took a frame of brood from this nurse colony the day before to form a colony.
The second grafting frame has even longer combs. It also has more queen cells—11. This means this nurse colony has fostered and built 20 queen cells. This is a typical result.
Two hours have passed since the colonies were formed. During this time, almost all the adult flying bees have flown off, and the remaining young hive bees have become orphaned—the ideal time to give them a barren queen or a queen cell "on the way out." We place the queen cell directly on the comb containing the sealed brood. The bees warm this brood well and maintain a stable microclimate around it, which is ideal for queen pupae in the queen cells.
The remaining young bees in the hive will accept the queen emerging from the queen cell as their own. At the same time, the presence of brood of varying ages ensures that the young queen will be cared for and fed exclusively by young bees for the next month, meaning those at the ideal age for this work. This ensures the highest quality queens, and therefore the colonies for sale.
May 16, 2026. Apiary region: Sverdlovsk Oblast.
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