How to Requeen with a Mated Queen
Requeening is a deliberate replacement of an old or failing queen with a new one. Most beginner beekeepers don’t need to do this in their first year or two — queens are typically most productive in their first one to two years, but a colony may go longer before problems appear. Requeening becomes necessary when a queen stops laying well, dies unexpectedly, or when you want to improve your colony’s genetics or temperament. A mated queen bee with cage is the safest, most reliable way for a beginner to introduce a new queen without the colony rejecting her.
Step 1: Remove the Old Queen
Before you can introduce a new queen, the old one must go. Find her on the frames — she’s longer than workers and moves deliberately — and gently brush her into a small container or cage. You can kill her by freezing or crushing, or give her away to another beekeeper if she’s still healthy. Don’t rush this step; take your time looking through all the frames.
If you can’t find the old queen after a thorough search, wait a few days and check again. A hidden queen will prevent acceptance of the new one. Alternatively, some beekeepers use a queen excluder (a plastic or metal grid that lets workers through but not the queen) to trap the old queen on one side of the hive, making removal easier.
Step 2: Wait Before Introducing the New Queen
Don’t introduce the new queen immediately after removing the old one. Wait at least 24 hours, ideally 2–3 days. This delay allows the colony to fully register that they are queenless — they detect her absence through the fading of her pheromones on the comb — and to become receptive to a new queen’s scent. If you introduce a new queen while the colony is still committed to raising their own emergency queen cells (larvae the bees are raising to make a new queen on their own), they may kill your new queen in favor of their homegrown one.
During this waiting period, check the hive once to look for emergency queen cells — elongated cells typically hanging from the face or bottom edge of a comb. If you find them, carefully remove any you can locate before introducing the new queen, and consider waiting another day or two to make sure no more are being started.
Step 3: Use a Release Cage
A purchased mated queen arrives already inside a small wooden or plastic cage, about the size of a matchbox, with a screen on one side and a small hole plugged with candy (usually fondant or a sugar-based paste). She will typically have a few attendant bees in the cage with her. Position the cage on the comb between two frames, screen-side facing out so bees can touch and smell the queen without harming her.
Over 3–5 days, the colony bees will eat through the candy plug from the outside, gradually releasing the queen. This slow introduction lets the bees acclimate to her pheromones and accept her as their own. Do not open the cage manually; let the candy do the work. Once the queen has been released and you see her walking freely on the comb, you’re done — remove the empty cage.
A mated queen bee with cage is the standard tool for safe requeening and comes with the queen already mated and ready to lay, plus a small release cage and usually a few attendant bees to help her during introduction. This is the most beginner-friendly method because the cage removes guesswork and dramatically reduces the risk of the colony killing the new queen.
Step 4: Confirming Acceptance
After the queen is released from the cage, give her another week before you inspect the hive. Look for eggs in the cells — this is the clearest sign the queen has been accepted and is laying. Eggs appear as tiny white specks standing upright at the bottom of cells. If you see eggs, the requeening was successful.
If you find the queen dead on the hive floor or see no eggs after two weeks, the colony rejected her. This can happen if the colony was already raising their own queen cells or if the queen was damaged in transit. If rejection occurs, you can try again with a new queen, but wait until the colony is truly queenless — no capped queen cells, no emergency cells being built — before introducing her.