When to requeen?

[Kurt S]

Any rules of thumb on how often to requeen? Is there any consensus out there?
I know some requeen every year, some every two years, some only when the hive is problematic in production.

I'm happy with both of my queens, just thinking ahead. :)

(I searched and couldn't find good discussions of this, so excuse me cause this had to be discussed before.....)

[NasalSponge]

I let my hives decide when to replace her.

[RayMarler]

I only requeen if the queen is failing or if the workers keep trying to supercede her or if there is some other problematic issue in the hive that I feel requeening may help alleviate.

[Kurt S]

Wow. I've heard several presenters at various seminars say yearly or bi-yearly. Their point was the queen and her eggs were both getting old.

[Axtmann]

>>>queen and her eggs getting old<<<

Kurt I think your several presenters made a joke, like your money or have no idea about beekeeping.

A queen stores only sperm from mating with drones for there life. Here body produce eggs during the years (up to 4-5 years), she can running out of sperms.

It’s like woman’s, they are not born with a bucket full of eggs in there body for 20 to 30 years.

My oldest queen is in there 3 year and I have no reason to complain, will let her go and see what’s happen next year.
If a queen runs out of sperm the brood looks like a shotgun pattern. She mostly will not lay an unfertilized egg in a small cell, only in a drone cell.

[kwest]

thankyou guys for the good info. good thread! this has eased my mind also.

[peletier]

Like a lot of people, I consider the queen almost sacred. The last thing I want to do is snuff a queen. BUT...if requeening every year will slow down the swarming I have been experiencing, sorry queenie.:(

[Beeslave]

BUT...if requeening every year will slow down the swarming I have been experiencing, sorry queenie.:(

I would have to say this is a myth. For 3 yrs in FL I would requeen everything mid-late Feb. They would come back to WI in early may and they would be swarming buy mid June. Reducing broodnest congestion is the main thing to do to reduce swarming.

[D Coates]

Personally I try to requeen in the Fall every year if I can. I raise my own and it gives them a fresh queen for the following Spring (keeps swarming down to a minimum). It also really screws up the varroa reproduction cycle to boot. It takes a little while for the new queen to begin laying. During this time the varroa numbers drop nicely as there are no cells to reproduce in for a while. As they are now exposed, throw in weekly powdered sugar treatments during this time, August through early October, and your varroa numbers are low enough to handle winter in great form.