Requeening in late September

[karu]

At this point I am sure that I have to requeen, is it too late in NY upstate ?
If I let bees to raise a new queen at this point - mid September and remove an old queen - too late ? :o
Thanks for any suggestions !

[RayMarler]

I can't say about upstate NY, but here in sunny California, it might be possible... maybe. You can greatly increase your chances by introducing a purchased queen. Saves 21 days or so of no egglaying. 21 days of no egglaying would equate to 20 thousand bees or so huh? for this time of year? plus the normal dying off of older bees also. Plus, a new virgin queen might take a full 3 week broodcycle to really kick into gear sometimes. I now look for ways to increase my populations as much as possible for stronger hives going into winter, so if I needed a queen right now, I would be looking for a quality queen to purchase.

[rainesridgefarm]

go ahead and order a queen. They need one and they know it.

[bleta12]

At this point I am sure that I have to requeen, is it too late in NY upstate ?
If I let bees to raise a new queen at this point - mid September and remove an old queen - too late ? :o
Thanks for any suggestions !
It may not be late to requeen is you do some feeding and the weather keeps good.
I would not recommend to let the hive raise its own queen
(emergency queens), even earlier in the season. raise your own queens or get one from a breeder.

Gilman

[seamuswildhoney]

I moved a hive to a friends house 6 weeks ago that had no brood and a queen that was not laying (robbing). Within A WEEK it had brood. Now it has a lot of brood but no queen. Today I opened that hive to find 9 capped queen cells four uncapped queen cells and one emerging queen, and lots of capped honey that was not there two weeks ago! This hive is rocking! So I split off the frame with the emerging queen in a new hive and tomorrow I will take some of those q cells to help in some of my weaker hives. The down side to all this is My bees have friends in low places. Thats right Garth Brooks, my bees go drinking at the DUMP! All those soda and beer cans, they cant resist! As matter of fact I do like my women a little on the trashy side, but what about my pristine reputation in the bee keep community. What if this gets out. Seriously how much will this affect the quality of my honey. All those healthy bees and I am so weak!

[CSbees]

Honey is honey. However, I would be leery of selling this honey made from coke products as there are some people who are allergic to high fructose corn syrup.