Shook Swarm/Re-Queening

[F.Woodside]

Hi, I was wondering if it's at all possible to do a shook swarm for comb honey, as described by Richard Taylor, and add a new Queen at the same time. I neglected to re-queen this past summer, and have already used the colony for comb honey, using the shook swarm method, last season. My concern is in getting a new queen(already ordered) installed at the same time I shake them out. All my queens come at once, and I was going to use the full, shaken combs for nucs. Thanks

[Beeslave]

Yes you can. Install the queen(in cage) in your bottom/brood super. Then do your shook swarm. Do not leave the old queen near the hive or you may have issues with your shook swarm going in.

I would suggest not doing the requeen at that time though. The proper timing with the shook swarm includes "at the start of a good flow". You may decrease the productivity of your hive. I would requeen a few weeks before doing the shook swarm or after the old queen has layed brood and that is starting to be capped. The larger the colony the harder it is to have them accept a new queen.

[F.Woodside]

Thanks. It works even if installing on bare foundation?

[Beeslave]

foundation?

The queen lays the eggs. The workers draw the foundation

If I had the time here's what I would do:

Wait till a week before the first main flow after dandelion bloom-locust,blackberry,honeysuckle bush,etc

Until then manage the colony for high population with out swarming(tedious)

Shook swarm with old queen shaking out all bees-the extra brood will be given to other colonies(early splits made in spring).

Now you have a very strong comb honey producer with a queen they already had so not much of a worry there. If you install a queen and she is not accepted, depending on your area and length of summer flows, you will loose overall production

2-3 wks before you anticipate the end of the summer flow use a screen cage, one that you push into the comb that contains the queen to a small area but the nurse bees can feed her well, to contain the queen.

now you stopped the brood rearing so all the incoming nectar goes to the beek and not into bees.

At the end of the summer flow remove your abundant crop- place your weakest colony on top of the shook swarm shallow/medium brood super with newspaper(with a few small slits) between them. Before doing this determine which queen is better and kill the bad, or now you can kill both and introduce a new young queen to be used next year doing the shook swarm.

Happy Beekeeping