How To Run A Queen Bank

Fortunately, we have been able to avoid the catastrophic failures where dozens of queens are killed, costing us hundreds or thousands of dollars. What has caused us the most trouble is the summer heat. We have found that a colony full of bees and queen cages may have trouble regulating its internal temperature.

The mass of bees and the lack of mobility of the queens on the banking frame can create an overheating situation in the colony. There are ways to mitigate this by shading the colony, providing water, and using insulated hives. So this is likely something we can solve, but that has been our largest issue so far.

There are a lot of tools that can be used in queen banking, and most of them are pretty standard.Queen excluders, double screen boards/Snelgrove boards,feeders,protein patties,varroa treatments,record-keeping tools, etc… are all very helpful. And most beekeepers are already using them. But there are some unique tools.Project Apis Mhas a lot of really great information on queen banking techniques.

The great part of queen banking is that it doesn’t necessarily require much-specialized equipment. The piece of equipment that is most unique is the queen banking frame, which is a custom, often DIY frame that is designed to hold queen cages. The queen banking frame you use is based on the type of queen cages you use.

We have only run a queen bank using JZBZ queen cages, and we modified frames to hold the JZBZ shipping bars in them. It is very similar to a grafting frame used by beekeepers, but it holds the shipping bar. 

The shipping bar keeps honey bees from getting to the fondant or candy plug in the queen cage, so there is no concern about the bees releasing the queen early.

A California Mini cage can fit into a JZBZ Cell bar. So you can use the same banking frame for both JZBZ and California Minis. 

As I mentioned earlier, there are several options on how to bank queens, and the strategy you use is based on the situation and how many queens you are banking. It’s possible to use multiple queen bank frames in the same bank.

The fundamentals of queen banking demand you have a strong colony with plenty of carbohydrates from honey or sugar, protein from pollen or a substitute, and bees to take care of the queens. 

The best bees for feeding queens are young nurse bees. A colony full of old, hungry forager bees won’t tend to the queens well. It also has to be without a laying queen as well, at least where the queen cannot access the bank.

• Healthy colony free of stress and disease
  
  
• 6+ frames of adult bees, with at least half being young, nurse bees
  
  
• 2+frames of capped, sealed brood
  
  
• Honey or sugar water
  
  
• Pollen or pollen substitute
  
  
• A steady supply of hatching brood

A queenless bank is the simplest option for banking queens and can either be done in a single box or 2 boxes. You will want the hive to be full of workers, especially young workers who can immediately start taking care of the caged queens.

Generally, the more queens you are banking, the more nurse bees, food, and resources they will need. It’s possibly bank several hundred queens in one hive, but they will just need extra resources. A good, compact queen bank with plenty of resources will have better success than a 2 box queen bank with sparse resources.

Before adding the caged queens, removing any laying queens from the colony is important. Removing her completely is better than caging her in the bank. Removing the queen for 15 minutes before adding the banking frame is sufficient. You can remove her for 24 hours, but longer than that is not advised.

The banking frame is placed directly in the middle of the brood nest with a frame of sealed brood on either side of it. The hatching bees will soon turn into nurse bees and quickly tend to the caged queen.

It’s important to check any of the frames of open brood for the development of queen cells. The last thing you want is for a queen to hatch out naturally and take over the queen bank.

A queen bank is only as successful as the resources it has. A healthy colony free from varroa and diseases that are well stocked with protein, carbohydrates, and nurse bees will care for its caged queens well. As days pass, without a steady supply of hatching bees, the amount of nurse bees will diminish.

This is why the best way to maintain a queen bank is through the introduction of frames of sealed brood. This can be done weekly with the addition of 1 or 2 frames rotated in and 1 or 2 frames rotated out.

As these frames of brood are added, it’s wise to keep checking for developing queen cells. Removing them as they are found.

• Keep queens in the bank that are roughly the same age. You don’t want year 2 queens mixed with year 1 queens.
  
  
• Provide a steady supply of syrup for the queen bank.
  
  
• Give nurse bees full access to queen cages so they can tend the queens easily.
  
  
• Inspect cages for dead queens so you can course correct if necessary.
  
  
• As you remove queens, remove them from the outside edges of the banking frame.
  
  
• Bank queens without honey bee attendants in the cage with the queen.
  
  
• If banking two frames, place them beside each other.
  
  
• Remove a frame from the box to allow nurse bees easy access to cages.
  
  
• Colony strength is paramount, don’t take it for granted.
  
  
• A good supply of syrup will boost the odds of success.
  
  
• FIFO: First In, First Out on queens.

Queen banking is a beekeeping technique where surplus queens are stored temporarily in a special hive setup called a queen bank until they are needed for colony expansion or replacement.

Queens can usually be banked for several weeks. However, for optimal health and vitality, it’s best to limit banking to the shortest time necessary. In specific situations, queens can be banked for months.

The ideal conditions include a strong host colony with plenty of young nurse bees, stable temperatures, sufficient food stores, and good ventilation.

Regular monitoring, proper nutrition, disease control, and ensuring the queens are well attended by worker bees are key to maintaining the health of banked queens.

Yes, the limit depends on the size of the honey beepopulation and their ability to adequately care for the banked queens without causing stress. Up to several hundred can be banked in one hive.

Introduce a banked queenby placing her cage between the frames in the new hive, allowing the worker bees to gradually accept her by eating through a candy plug.

The success rate can be very high if managed properly, with most banked queens successfully introduced to new hives. However, success rates can vary based on several factors, including duration of banking and colony conditions of new hive.

Banked queens are fed by the nurse bees, which are fed by the sugar syrup or honey and protein/pollen in their hive.

Queens can be marked with a small dot of non-toxic, queen-safe paint on their thorax, which can also be color-coded by year according to international standards. The queen marking procedure is the same as an unbanked queen.

Start with learning the basics of honey bee biology and queen care, then proceed with setting up a strong host colony and acquiring the necessary equipment for queen banking. It is possible to only bank a couple of queens by placing them on top bars near the brood nest.