Requeening in spring instead of fall ??????/

[oldwalt]

Do you think that springtime would be a better time to requeen then fall ?? 1. more queens avalable, 2. Queen easier to find because of fewer bees in the hive. What are the advantages of fall requeening over spring requeening ??

[tom]

Hello

  I like to requeen in the fall it can be a little hard for the bees to accept her but they will take a new queen probaly better in the spring when there is a flow going on. I have been out of this for some time but now i have three hives and i am going to requeen my second hive with a young queen and it is hard to get a queen this time of year but not impossible if you look but if you do this in the fall then you will have time for her to lay a few eggs before winter hit and the spring your colony will be headed up by a young queen and you get off to a good start.

Tom

[ian michael davison]

Hi Walt

I do not think there are any fixed rules here, but don't forget that a young Queen will lay latter into the Autunm and start earlier in the Spring as well as standing less chance of failing over Winter. This gives a stronger hive with a higher proportion of young bees-essential for over-wintering.

It should also be said that Autunm is a vey good time to requeen in regards of queen aceptance.

Regards Ian

[Brian D. Bray]

Years ago it was the tradition to requeen in the spring and, in fact, trying to find a queen after the 1st of June was harder then than finding one after Mid-August is today.  Queen producers ran their whole operatiions on producing queens for 2 months of the year--April & May.  They then changed course and concentrated on honey or pollination.

I do not see that today.  Now one can get queens as late as September (and maybe later if Hawaii and Australia are taken into account).  The advantages of requeening in the fall are numerous. the beekeeper has had a opportunity to evaluate the hive during the spring and summer and also from the honey harvest of each hive.  Post harvest is actually the best time to evaluate the need for queens.  Re-queening immediately saves carrying over a poor or marginal queen therby giving the hive advantage when the new season begins and would also act as a vauable swarm management tool as new queens are less likely to swarm than older queens.  Meaning that of 2 hives requeened the same year--one in the spring and one in the fall--the spring queen will probably swarm the next season whereas the fall queen will not.

Now that I've found that queens are available so late in the year I'm changing my practices to reflect that.

[Michael Bush]

>Do you think that springtime would be a better time to requeen then fall ??

No.

>1. more queens avalable,

But theyare are NOT more queens available.  Spring queens are expensive and hard to find.  If you want norhtern queens, you really can't get any until the end of June.

> 2. Queen easier to find because of fewer bees in the hive.

Find them and mark them in the spring so you can find them in the fall.  :)

> What are the advantages of fall requeening over spring requeening ??

Better mated queens (more drones available), more queens available, cheaper prices on queens, availability of Northern queens.

[oldwalt]

Thanks for the advise.........Question : How late in the fall can a person requeen here in Wisconsin ???

[Finsky]

It is very difficult to change the queen in Autumn. BUT if you feed hive 3 days for winter and then you give the new queen results are good. In autumn bees are very aware against strange odours because robber bees are in action.

The most easy to give the new queen is feed bees, then let then cap emergency queen cells and then give queen and destroy queen cells. Often bees do not accept new queen until cells are capped. It takes 5 days. To fight with bees 2-3 days and 5 days are gone.

I change half of my queens during winter feeding.

BUT it is important to check that when you give the queen next day, bees have destroyed their queen cells.  If not, you will have unmated queen for winter.

[TwT]

Good post Finsky, that make a lot of sence, have to remember that one but I usually dont change out queens but if I do I'll have to try that....

[Finsky]

In fall you are able to get local  resistant stocks for your climate but in spring they are from south and often they are not able to over winter properly.

[Michael Bush]

Right now would be a good time to requeen so you still have time to see that she's laying and they've accepted her.  In a month or so there will be no more brood in the hive and it will be much more difficult.

[oldwalt]

Where can I get Northern Queens ????

[Brian D. Bray]

Check with MB, I think he may still have a few available.

[danno1800]

I put one of MB's feral queens in a hive a week or so ago and got good acceptance. -Danno

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueens.htm