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JDI
05-11-2005, 01:37 PM
I just replaced several queens with what I hope will be great new queens. One of them appears to have a laying pattern better than any I have had (less than one empty cell per 100). But regardless, the bees don't seem to like her and I have to destroy supercedure cells about once every 7 days or so. They only build 5 or 6 each time and usually all on the same frame. The queen was added about 3 weeks ago. I am in the middle of a honey flow, the hive is not overly congested and the new queen is a tremendous improvement over the previous queen, who was laying drone eggs everywhere. Do the attempts at replacement eventually stop? Do the bees give up? Is there something else I should try? I would love to have recommendations to prevent this in the future. Thanks,
James

Michael Bush
05-11-2005, 04:25 PM
Try pulling the queen out and put her and a frame of open brood and honey in a nuc. The bees will finish raising a new queen, raise less brood on the flow (a good thing) and you end up with the daughter of a great queen.

If the bees insist on a supercedure, I assume they know what they are doing. Besides, as you've already figured out, you can't stop them anyway.