👑 Introducing a New Queen Without Losing Her

About this simulation

A newly mated or purchased queen cannot simply be dropped into an established colony — workers recognise her as a stranger by her pheromone signature and, if released too soon, will often ball her: mob and cluster around her until she overheats or is stung to death. Beekeepers instead suspend the queen inside a small cage between two frames, sealed behind a plug of queen candy that the colony must chew through over several days. By the time the plug is eaten and the queen walks free, her scent has diffused through the hive and workers have had time to reduce their aggression.

How it works

• Days since caging — as time passes the candy plug is slowly eaten away, and the colony has more time to become accustomed to the queen's pheromone through the mesh.
• Queen pheromone quality — a well-mated, healthy queen produces a stronger, more convincing "queen substance" (mainly 9-ODA) that calms workers faster; a stressed or poorly mated queen signals weaker acceptance cues.
• Colony aggression baseline — some receiving colonies are naturally calmer (long queenless, gentle stock) while others are more defensive (recently queenright, robbing pressure, hot genetics), shifting how hostile workers start out.
• Acceptance score combines these three factors; below roughly 50% a premature release risks a visible balling event.

Controls

• Days since caging — advance the introduction period (0–4 days).
• Queen pheromone quality — how strong and convincing the queen's chemical signal is.
• Colony aggression baseline — how hostile the receiving workers start out.
• Cage type — candy-plug cages release gradually; push-in screen cages are removed manually once accepted.
• 🚪 Release queen now — force an early release to see what happens at the current acceptance score.
• ↺ Reset introduction — restarts the caging clock. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.

Did you know?

The standard slow-release candy plug takes workers roughly 2–4 days to chew through — just long enough, in most cases, for a colony to reliably accept a new queen without a direct, risky release.