Howdy Guy's
I have alot of help since i found this forum and i want to thank you all now i have three hives two were package swarms and the third was a five frame nuc. Now my first hive is doing very well but my second hive lost their queen so i got a replacement one and put her in and she is now performing good lots of eggs and they are building comb like crazy now and bringing in lots of pollen while my first one is about ready for a super. But now my third hive is building up good but they seem to be a little lazy i have a new queen on order and she is going to be a NWC queen. If i put her in the third hive will she boost them to work alittle harder and catch up with the other weak colony which is booming or should i unite the two later and let the new queen run both hives and then split them next spring..
Tom
Requeen is not always the solution it is claimed. There are pretty good odds that the hive will preform the same way once the new queen in place until after the old bees from the previous queen have been replaced.
Even then there is no guarantee that the bees will be as productive as the other hives, but there's just as good of chance it will preform better.
To me re-queening is much over emphised. It's much more challenging to stimulate a weaker hive to better production as was done back in the days when I was first learning beekeeping in the 50's and 60's. But then my mentor started his beekeeping in the 19th century so I have a tendency to lean towards the old fashioned methods.
Hello
I agree i talked to a queen breeder yesterday and he told me that my third hive may have bad genetics thats why they are not working as good as they should. But as for requeening them they have a bad temper and tries to sting everything in the yard where my other two just go about their own way these bees have some of the weaver bees traits along with some italian traits which is not bad but the temper has to go i have a child that goes and sit at my two other hives.
Tom
If you're requeening for better temperment due to possible danger to your child by all means requeen. The child is much more important than any other consideration.