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Queen

87 bytes added, 09:26, 7 November 2016
'''Winter to Spring:'''
Bee colonies should not be left without a queen. If the queen is lost during winter or early spring, the colony has to be turned into a queenright colony as soon as possible. This can be done easily by introducing [[Introducing a queen|turning] the queenless colony into a queenright colony. At the beginning the two colonies should be separated by newspaper for example, so that they slowly become accustomed to one another. The newspaper should have a couple slits cut into it to help the bees remove the paper within a few days. Or if you have extra queens in a small nucleus in indoor wintering, you can unite one of them with the queenless colony.
'''Early Summer:'''
When the hive is managed without [[queen excluder]], the queen lays eggs into a wide area. If there is no nectar flow, the eggs can be found everywhere and there will be no brood in the lowest hive body. The queen should be kept in the lower boxes, as the Nordic brown bee is not suited for “queen in upper box” management where the queen is closed into the uppermost hive body with a queen excluder.
After the number of worker bees increases rapidly in June, the queen will be even harder to find. That's why it’s best to complete the procedures that will help in finding the queen (for instance, [[Marking queen|marking the queen]]) in spring, early summer, or late summer.
With ''A. m. mellifera'' bees, it can be difficult to establish two-queen bee hives with a separating queen excluder. Usually, the other queen is killed and only one queen is accepted per colony. Then again, this behavior can also be an advantage when the old queens are changed to new ones.
'''[[Check queen presence and egg laying|Searching for the queen]]: '''
* Work with care and keep in mind that some of the queens can hide outstandingly well.
* The queen usually goes to the empty built frames, which have been recently given to the hive and are also occupied by worker bees.