Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: drmwarden on February 17, 2005, 06:41:26 pm
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My two hives are about to start their third year. On warm days I've seen lots of activity; I've even seen workers returning with pollen, although I have no idea where they're getting it in February in Maryland. I am wondering if I need to requeen this year, and if so when is a good time to do it. I've never done this before, and wonder if I should wait until a little later in the spring when the queen might be a little larger and easier to locate.
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I would say YES, re-queen. Many beekeepers do this every year, but I can't remember why. I don't think she's old and wore out. I'm sure someone else will write and say why. :)
The queen won't get any "bigger" and "easier to see". She's the same all year round. You'll have to wait till queens are available though. But if I were you, I'd go ahead and get one on order. When you order, you should be able to find out when they'll deliver her. That way you can make your plans (mostly according to weather) as to when to take the old queen out. I would take the old queen out at least 2 or 3 days before putting in the new queen.
Beth
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I would plan on requeening this spring. There are a couple of reasons to do it. To help control swarming, and queens getting up wards of 3 years are becoming suspect. Nothing worse than checking a hive that was booming 6 weeks ago, to find it dwindling miserably at the start of the flow because of queen failure. With the use of chemical mite treatments, spring or fall requeening is probably a good practice to follow. I used to keep the queens in booming colonys in place as long as they were productive, but they don't seem to last as long any more.
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I would definately plan on requeening this year.
I would bet that at least one of your hives, if not both have supercede your original queen without you even knowing it.
I strongly recommend replacing with marked queens so that you will know when supercedure/swarming has taken place.
If both queens are still performing satisfactorially (good brood pattern), I would wait until mid-summer or fall to requeen. Better queens are produced then and are cheaper too.
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if it was me I would wait until this fall to requeen unless I see a hive that is not up to par when the brood rearing takes off. like Robo said your bee's might have superseded with out you knowing it and you might have a young queen in the hive already. they could have swarmed with out you knowing it and the queens could be younger than you think. sometimes its a judgement call.
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The queen won't get any "bigger" and "easier to see". She's the same all year round.
Beth
Actually Beth, queens do shrink down a bit in the winter when they are not laying. :D
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You can order new queens delivered over night from Hawaii. I ordered mine from www.hawaiihoneybees.com They are itallian.