Introducing an Instrumentally Inseminated Breeder Queen (Steven’s Method)

These are the methods that we have found great success using. These instructions were coped from the Stevens Bee Company website. We are not trying to take credit from Cory in any way. There is no need to change up a successfully proven method.

Method 1- The push in cage method is a popular option, which we occasionally use. With this method a queenless nuc is made up just as with the virgin queen intro and the queen placed under a hardware cloth square cage with a few attendants. The cage is pushed deep into the comb over emerging worker brood. Be sure you push the cage deep into the comb as the bees often tunnel under it and release her prematurely. Check on them periodically and make sure they are not digging under it, and to verify they are not making queen cells. If they are, you will not want her to be released. Remove the cells and keep an eye on how they are treating her. Once they are not making emergency queen cells, and are being friendly towards her, she can be manually released.

Method 2- This is similar to the method of manual release from her shipping cage. Make up a nice nucleus colony a week in advance of intro. Same as with the virgin queen intro. Move the colony and feed it thin syrup. Cut all queen cells on day 7-8. This eliminates any eggs or young larvae that will tempt them to try and make their own queen. Add the shipping cage with the II'd breeder to the hopelessly queenless colony, and tape or cap over the candy tube to prevent release. Wait 4 days after adding the shipping cage. Check thoroughly for any missed queen cells and manually release the queen onto the frames. If the bees are happy to see her and start grooming her, close them up. If they attack her by biting or attempting to sting, put her back in the shipping cage and wait a few more days to repeat the process.