How to Introduce a New Queen to a UK Hive

Introducing a new queen to a hive is one of those tasks that separates the confident beekeeper from the anxious one. Get it right and your colony bounces back with vigour; get it wrong and you might end up with a dead queen, a demoralised colony, and a lot of head-scratching. Whether you are requeening after losing your original queen, replacing an underperforming one, or introducing a mated queen from a reputable breeder, the principles are the same — patience, timing, and a good understanding of how your bees think.

This guide is written with British beekeepers in mind. That means we will be talking about British Black Bees, Buckfast bees, British Standards hive types like the National and the WBC, the seasonal rhythms of the UK climate, and guidance that aligns with the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) approach to good husbandry.

Why Requeening Matters

A colony is only as good as its queen. She is the sole reproductive female in the hive, laying anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs per day at peak season. Her genetics shape the temperament, productivity, disease resistance, and wintering ability of every bee in the colony. In the UK, where summers are short and winters are long, a queen that produces bees with poor wintering traits or a tendency towards high varroa build-up can make life very difficult indeed.

There are several reasons you might need to introduce a new queen:

Your existing queen has died unexpectedly, leaving the colony queenless
The colony has become excessively defensive or aggressive
Egg-laying has become patchy or the queen is failing
You want to improve the genetics of your apiary — perhaps moving towards locally adapted stock
You have carried out a shook swarm or a Bailey comb change and need to introduce a known-quality queen
Your colony has a drone-laying queen or laying workers have taken over

Whatever the reason, the method of introduction follows a similar set of steps, though the details vary depending on the situation.

Understanding Why Bees Reject a New Queen

Before you open that travelling cage, it helps to understand what you are working against. Bees are not blindly loyal to the queen as an individual — they are loyal to the queen’s pheromone signature. A new queen smells different. Her mandibular pheromones (the queen substance) are unfamiliar, and to a colony of worker bees that are primed to protect their own, a strange-smelling queen is an intruder. They will ball her — surround her in a tight, hot cluster — which will kill her within minutes if you allow it to happen.

The goal of any introduction method is to slow down that initial encounter long enough for the bees to become accustomed to the new queen’s scent. By the time they actually make contact with her, she should smell familiar enough that the workers accept her rather than attack her.

The likelihood of rejection increases if:

The colony still has queen cells, a virgin queen, or laying workers
The colony is very large and has been queenless for only a short time
The new queen is a very different genetic type from the existing colony
The introduction is rushed
The weather is bad — cold, rainy weather makes bees more defensive

Before You Begin: Preparation is Everything

Confirm the Colony is Truly Queenless

This sounds obvious, but it is the step most commonly skipped. Before introducing any queen, you need to be absolutely certain there is no existing queen, no viable queen cells, and no virgin queen running around the hive. Go through the frames methodically. If you see eggs, the colony has a laying queen somewhere. If you see capped queen cells, the bees already have plans of their own and will not thank you for interfering.

If you find queen cells, you have a choice: destroy every single one (a task that requires extreme thoroughness — one missed cell hidden in the corner of a frame will undo all your work) or wait until the colony has resolved its own situation before introducing your purchased queen.

Allow the Colony to Become Aware of Its Queenlessness

A colony that has just lost its queen in the past few hours may not yet have recognised the fact. The residual queen substance from the recently lost queen can linger for several hours. Bees that do not yet know they are queenless tend to be unsettled and are actually quite likely to reject a new queen aggressively. Waiting 24 hours after confirming queenlessness before introduction gives the colony time to calm down and become genuinely receptive.

Some beekeepers wait up to 48 hours. In the UK summer, this is usually fine. Do not wait much longer than four or five days, however, as workers may begin developing laying ovaries, which creates an entirely different problem.

Source a Quality Queen

In the UK, there are a number of reputable queen breeders producing stock suited to our climate. The Native Honey Bee Society works to preserve and promote Apis mellifera mellifera — the British Black Bee — which is particularly well suited to UK conditions, being frugal on stores, hardy through winter, and well adapted to foraging in our often cool and wet summers. Buckfast bees, bred from Brother Adam’s original programme at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, remain extremely popular and are known for their docility and productivity.

The BBKA does not endorse specific breeders but recommends sourcing from members who follow good breeding practices. Local beekeeping associations across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland often maintain lists of reputable local breeders. Buying locally adapted stock is always preferable to importing queens from warmer European climates, as imported queens can struggle with UK winters and may introduce unfamiliar disease strains.

Ensure your new queen has been properly mated and that the supplier has confirmed she is laying. A virgin queen introduction is possible but carries higher risks and requires a different approach.

Equipment You Will Need

A mated, caged queen in a travelling cage (typically a Butler cage or a JZ-BZ cage)
Your full beekeeping kit: suit, gloves, smoker, hive tool
A matchstick or small twig (for the candy plug, if needed)
A marking pen if you wish to mark the new queen for easy future identification
Patience — genuinely, this is the most important item on the list

The Introduction Process Step by Step

Step 1: Handle the Travelling Cage Carefully

When your new queen arrives — whether by post or collected from a breeder — treat her gently. Keep her warm but not hot. Do not leave the cage in direct sunlight or in a cold shed overnight. The attendant workers in the cage (there are usually three to eight of them) are her carers during transit. Do not remove them before introduction.

Check that the candy plug at one end of the cage is intact. This is the slow-release mechanism that forms the heart of the indirect introduction method. The bees on both sides of the cage will eat through the candy from their respective ends, and by the time they break through, they will have exchanged enough pheromones that the queen stands a good chance of being accepted.

Step 2: Inspect the Hive Thoroughly

On introduction day, do a final inspection. Confirm once more that:

There is no laying queen
There are no viable queen cells (capped or uncapped)
The colony is calm and the bees are walking steadily on the frames without clustering in alarm

Use minimal smoke. A heavily smoked colony is a stressed colony, and stressed bees are more likely to be aggressive towards a new queen. A couple of gentle puffs at the entrance and under the crown board is sufficient.

Step 3: Place the Cage Between the Frames

Find the frame with the most nurse bees — usually the frames immediately flanking the brood area. These nurse bees are young, gentle, and highly attuned to queen pheromones. They are your best allies.

Hang the cage between two brood frames so that the mesh side faces outward and the bees inside the cage are visible and accessible to the nurse bees. The candy plug end should be facing upward, or at least not downward — a downward-facing candy plug can get blocked by the bodies of dead attendants, which would prevent the bees from releasing the queen.

On a National hive — which is the most common hive type in England and Wales — the cage fits neatly between the Hoffman-spaced frames. On a WBC, the same principle applies in the inner boxes. On a Langstroth or Commercial hive, you have more space to work with.

Some beekeepers use a small matchstick to prop the candy plug end of the cage very slightly open, creating a tiny gap that allows pheromone exchange to begin more quickly. This is a matter of personal preference and experience — it can speed up acceptance, but it also reduces the safety margin if the colony is not as settled as you think.

Step 4: Close Up and Walk Away

This is where many beekeepers stumble. Once the cage is in place, close the hive back up properly and leave it alone for at least 48 hours — ideally 72. The temptation to check is enormous, but every time you open the hive you cause disruption that can upset the introduction process.

The bees need time to investigate the cage, exchange pheromones with the queen through the mesh, feed her, and gradually come to accept her scent as part of the colony. This cannot be rushed.

Step 5: Check for Release

After 48 to 72 hours, open the hive gently and check the cage. If the bees have eaten through the candy and the queen has been released, carefully remove the empty cage. Now look for the queen on the surrounding frames. She may be difficult to spot at first if she has not yet been marked.

Moving Forward

Once you have the fundamentals in place, the possibilities open up considerably. The UK offers fantastic opportunities for anyone interested in this hobby, and with the right foundation you will be well placed to make the most of them.