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Elements and Performance Criteria

1. Identify requirement to re-queen a colony
   • Assess the vigour of the current queen
   • Monitor colony for signs that indicate queen replacement is necessary
2. Prepare to re-queen a colony
   • Check personal protective equipment (PPE) for serviceability and use and wear correctly
   • Identify work health and safety hazards associated with task and take action to deal with them effectively
   • Obtain replacement queen that meet enterprise criteria from a commercial supplier or from own breeding stock
   • Store replacement queen and any escort worker bees in appropriate conditions and monitor until re-queening is undertaken
   • Monitor hive to ensure re-queening occurs under optimum conditions
   • Confirm replacement queen as being healthy and free from pests and diseases
3. Introduce replacement queen bee
   • Find old queen bee in the hive and remove
   • If replacing queen bee with a nucleus colony, place nucleus colony on top of colony to be re-queened with the two colonies separated by a single layer of paper
   • If replacing the queen bee with a caged queen bee, remove cork from candy end (if in place) and introduce into the hive using a suitable, proven introduction method
   • Leave hive undisturbed for a period of ten days
4. Monitor progress of a replacement queen bee
   • After ten days, monitor the hive for acceptance of replacement queen bee by colony
   • Monitor replacement queen bee for evidence of egg laying and adequate levels of hatching

Range Statement

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Performance Evidence

The candidate must be assessed on their ability to integrate and apply the performance requirements of this unit in a workplace setting. Performance must be demonstrated consistently over time and in a suitable range of contexts.

The candidate must provide evidence that they can:

wear suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) correctly

identify hazards and implement safe work practices

identify the need to re-queen

assess suitability of conditions for re-queening

identify disease status of parent colonies

install replacement queen bee

monitor activity of new queen bee and the threat of competition.

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Knowledge Evidence

The candidate must demonstrate knowledge of:

principles and practices of re-queening

conditions required for re-queening

factors that may affect brood production

factors to consider when identifying and removing old queen and introducing new queen

queen bee behaviour and brood pattern

selection criteria for new queen bee

storage requirements of queen bees before being introduced into the colony.

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