Locating the Queen - Shake method | beekeeping

When new beekeepers find it difficult to locate a queen bee and they have exhausted all options and must locate her then try the shake method. We don’t do this method often but in an emergency we use it.
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[@hischild8899]

This helped so much! I had a poor queen and a short window to find her. She was on the second frame I shook. Grabbed her, put everything back together. Hope to requeen tomorrow. THANK YOU!

[@hischild8899]

Ps used brush because nurse bees held on tight on first shake

[@BohemiaBees]

That is awesome 👏🏻 glad it worked for you.

[@michaeldreyer3911]

I wonder what about the drones because they won't pass the queen excluder. How will you find the queen in a whole bunch of drones then?

[@BohemiaBees]

lol great question. Typical drone population is 10-15% of all other casts. Therefore it’s easier to spot a queen with a few drones then a queen with 1000s of workers.

[@437AlBig]

I was also taught to not shake frames with queen cells on them. Like you said you can use a brush. I"m also afraid of shaking the queen and damaging her. I understand you would only do this in an emergency. Nice video to show how it's done.

[@BohemiaBees]

Rob Alfred Yes you are correct we recognize using the brush would have been a better approach. This was only in the case of emergency. All splits made had what appeared to be healthy Virgin queens.

[@howardmcadams3852]

Thanks Sir

[@BohemiaBees]

You are welcome, thank you for the support!!

[@MikeChamplin]

How would you do this if this was a double deep hive? Same way only shaking all 20 frames (or until you spot her)? Or shake the top box first (add excluder) then shake the bottom the next day?

[@BohemiaBees]

Same method will work. Shake the brood frames first. There shouldn’t be 20 brood frames. But sometimes it’s tough and you will need to.

[@jmichaelsbees8857]

The slatted rack was something that I wasn't using.... interesting!

[@BohemiaBees]

We use them on all our colonies

[@rrussellco1176]

We shake bees and queens all the time to quickly be sure that she is in the bottom box before taking splits and returning to singles for catching the flow.. however, there are far easier ways that you may want to use if you are having troubles finding a queen, and in your case, isolating the queen from cells that you want to harvest.. simply get a second deep and shake all the bees into the lower deep with the frames that you wish to leave behind.. place an excluder over the lower deep and put the frames with cells in the upper deep.. close it up and come back later that evening or the next morning and take the top box away.. the nurses will move up to cover the brood and cells and your queen will be in the bottom..

[@rrussellco1176]

If you are just having troubles finding a queen, you can simply split the hive into a few nucs, wait an hour and then open each one to see which one is not fanning.. that's the one your queen is in.. then just combine them back once you've found her

[@BohemiaBees]

I agree there are many ways to locate a queen. This was more of an extreme way to do it fast. But thanks for the comments.

[@bradgoliphant]

Hey, tip here. If you going to use this method to find your queen, it's helpful to tape the top of the box with Duck tape, Yes DUCK TAPE, because bees can't crawl over it, so so bees, or your queen, crawl out of the box and defeat the purpose.

[@BohemiaBees]

not sure I follow? The bess fall through the extractor into the bottom box, and the queen does not. This is definitely not my preferred method of locating queens. In fact it is my least favorite, but its a dirty way to find a queen in a mass of bees.

[@bradgoliphant]

@@BohemiaBees I agree. Yet if you have to find her and cant, this is the way.

[@bradgoliphant]

Question. Why would you need to find your queen? Are you doing this because you don't see eggs? Or are you doing this to kill her and replace her?

[@BohemiaBees]

I am moving her to another colony. Again this is not my preferred way to locate queens. But I get this question from many new beekeepers who struggle to locate their queens, and ask me if there are any tips or tricks to finding her, if you really need too. Honestly, if I see eggs and brood in all stage, I am good I don't even need to see my queen.

[@bradgoliphant]

@@BohemiaBees I get all this. I only suggested this if you need to re-queen and can’t find her

[@johnwatson3913]

You should not shake frames that have cells on them. You likely will damage the queen development.

[@BohemiaBees]

John Watson thanks I’ll take that under consideration. I only do this in emergency and probably should use a brush.

[@BohemiaBees]

Follow-up on this concern raised by a viewer. All splits with queen cells emerged and look healthy. While I acknowledge the concern in this scenario it worked out.

[@Bobcagon]

How about smokin the bees to move them down faster?

[@BohemiaBees]

Definitely an option also. 👍🏻

[@Bobcagon]

@@BohemiaBees I liked your presentation. Other comments had some foresight as well. I saw the Duct Tape strategy somewhere on YT and have tried it. Believe it was a Richard Noel article that showed how effective it was. Good stuff.

[@BohemiaBees]

NOTE: we never claim to be an expert. We learn everyday from our bees. We publish this content to help and share with others our experiences. If you don’t like our approaches then scroll on, but leaving derogatory comments will not be tolerated. Please respect our right to produce content as we respect your right to have an absurd profile name. Carry on and happy beekeeping

[@bradgoliphant]

oh, i see

[@alrhon50]

Well that didn't work, we had bees everywhere, no queen was found

[@BohemiaBees]

Sorry to hear that. It's not a 100% full proof method, but works all the times we do it.

[@gregmf9427]

My only thing is, if you’re gonna wear a suit and record it you should probably clean it every now and then. It was white when you got it. Just sayin, its PAST unkept. Looks really dirty

[@BohemiaBees]

GregMF it’s a light brown suit.... lol ... not all bee suits are white. But thanks for your concerns.

[@RKalos]

There easier ways ro find a queen... a) Take a frame with open brood from an other hive and leave it in the center of the hive .In 2-3 minutes the queen will be on that frame b) take an other queen and cage her and put her on an empty frame in that hive.In a few minutes the other queen would be on that frame trying to kill the other.

[@BohemiaBees]

Another great technique. Ours was just an example of one way.