Last year I pick up 7 or 8 swarms. Some with queens and some without. The question is should I requeen all of them before fall. See they will be older queens. Or take my chance on them making it through the winter. I did no requeening last year lost all of the old swarm queens and a couple of other old hives out of 9 came through with 4. One lost was my fault. They all starved with honey in the hive or sugar storage in comb.
David
Requeening, for me, would depend on several factors.
The first of which is does the size of the bees indicate a feral origin?
After that would be size of the swarm (ranging from 5 gal bucket to baseball size).
Next would be time of the year (swarms up to 1 July if average to large in size would be doable).
What is the brood laying pattern of the queen (full frames would be a keeper, half or less or spotty would be a requeen)?
Lastly would be how many and of what intentsity are the remaining honey flows.
The later and smaller the swarm the more effort is required to boost it into a survivable condition, sometimes the odds are just to high and it's best to combine. One last thought, sometimes those late swarms have virgin or recently mated queens and a combine to a hive that is struggling brood wise (replacing the struggling queen) can be the deciding factor on survivability of the hive.
Quote from: my-smokepole on March 13, 2011, 11:38:23 AM
The question is should I requeen all of them before fall. See they will be older queens.
I wouldn't make a blanket decision. As Brian pointed out, you don't
know they are older queens, it may have been a secondary swarm with a virgin. I'd wait and see how they do this spring. I don't replace queens based on the calendar, I replace based on performance.
you are more apt to get survivor type stock with swarms. why destroy that? i don't requeen unless performance is not good. when i do, i do it from stock i have. part of the reason is that i am cheap :-D but the main reason is that i want those resistant bees and it's unlikely i'll get that from a queen i buy.
A lot of good points. I started the tread out of frustration of loosing so many hives. The ones that made it through the winter seamed to be with know newer queens.
David
look at your brood patterns and keep a close eye on that as you go toward the end of summer. you can requeen, pinch your queen and allow them to requeen, or combine and split in spring.
depends on what you want. to me, the genetics are the most important thing. that may not be as important to you :)
so Kathy, I've got a hive that just kicked hiney last year and I think I'd like to keep the genetics of that queen. Currently, she is laying on about 1/2 frame and kind of spotty. Much different than last year. So, I'm thinking of pinching her and letting them re-queen with her genetics.
Would now be the time, or would you wait until later in the summer?
I would do it when I see plenty of drones flying as well as during a good, strong flow. Not sure of your weather in Oregon right now though.