Sacha wrote:
But the bees gang up and kill them. I watched my bees do it and very
Hitchcock it was. Of course, the trouble is, the bees die, too. ;-(

Nick lost his queen before CHristmas to a wasp attack. He was given a new
one just after Christmas, but the hive didn't take to her, and 2 days later
she was dead too. :-(

I'm trying to remember my bee-keeping days and what the experts said
about that. I never experienced it myself but IIRC, it's better to take
the new queen with a small number of worker bees to form a new colony.

She was given to him with a small set of attendants.

I *think* the old colony will then produce queen cells of its own and
it's up to the apiarist to reduce those to one cell. I'm sure there
must be a bee keeping society in your area though.

It was the bee society people who gave him the new queen. Apparently it's
just "try your luck, they may take to her, they may not".