I have read many places that requeening annually or bi-annually is necessary to prevent swarming yet I read posts here that seem contradict that advice. Is annual requeening necessary? Which is the best season, fall or spring?
Many thanks
Requeening does not gurantee that your hive will not swarm. I like to requeen in the fall, I get a better deal on the prices then I do in the spring. I would not think requeening yearly is something a backyard beekeeper should have to worry about.
>Is annual requeening necessary?
No.
> Which is the best season, fall or spring?
Fall. Or whenever she is failing.
Thanks for the replies. I'll not plan on requeening this fall since this is a colony that was established from a nuc late last May. My first, hence the elementary questions. Mr. bush you mentioned that it's not necessary to requeen unless she is failing, what are the signs of that?
well I'm not Mr. Bush but I will give my 2cents. If you start seeing spotty brood patterns, a lot of drone cells or if the queen is present but eggs are lacking should be some signs. Unless you get a bad queen, the first year she should not give you any problems.
Assuming no other cause (getting ready to swarm, honey bound brood nest, chilled brood etc.) a spotty brood pattern is generally the sign she is failing. So are supersedure cells. Many times I've seen supersedure cells and put them in a split only to have what was a really good laying queen quit laying altogether. Obviously the bees saw it coming and I didn't.
oh yeah..the last statement sure is true. they superceded her, i moved her to another hive (she was doing great) luckily she layed a few batches of eggs in the new hive so...today i saw at least 10 emergency cells but not her majesty, neither any eggs.
if fall is the best time for re-queening, then i'm not totally whacked for knocking off my crappy queen yesterday? i know it's not fall, but it will be that much closer when they are done re-queening themselves (if they do).
Kathy, hah!!! I get such a kick out of your comments. I am going knock off a crappy queen too, but I am going to requeen with an already mated one, that gives me 30 days extra time for rearing brood for the wintertime. I think it is worth the $22 that we pay for a mated queen. Have a wonderful day, beautiful life. Cindi
In FL, they are now starting to encourage requeening at least yearly to ensure that your hive does not become Africanized unless you have a marked queen from a breeder and you continue to find the marked queen.