Re-queening question?

[Bonnie Botkins]

Hey All,

First year beekeepers here with a question about re-queening. I read alot of posts here and see that re-queening is sometimes necessary. Since my hives are small natural cell, if it ever became necessary for me to re-queen, would it be possible for me to re-queen with a queen that is not from an apiary that follows small cell philosophies? Would she adapt? The closest apiary to me that keeps bees on small cell is about 200 miles away. There is another apiary about 20 miles that raises quality hygenic queens, but the bees are on large cell foundation.

Bonnie

ps I do not need to re-queen, just asking a question

[David LaFerney]

You can requeen with any queen you want.

[Jon F]

Move the queen to another hive and they will make a new queen themselves

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

[QUOTE=Bonnie Botkins;781066]Hey All,

Since my hives are small natural cell, if it ever became necessary for me to re-queen, would it be possible for me to re-queen with a queen that is not from an apiary that follows small cell philosophies? Would she adapt?

Bonnie
She would adapt, but why buy when the hive can requeen themselves when/if the time arrives?

[Bonnie Botkins]

Thanks everyone, It was just a hypothetical question, I did my first split about a week ago, knowing that the split "should" raise it's own new queen, I was very careful about giving the new hive all the resources it should need to do this, but since I'm a beginner all the what if's start going through my mind.Can someone tell me if it's okay to check and see if I have a queen cell or is it best to just leave them bee?

[Solomon Parker]

You want to check at certain times, but not at others due to fragility of the queens. You do not want to disturb them on the 10-12 days from the laying of the egg. Before or after that is fine.

I built a queen calender which you can use to keep track of the dates, you can download it for free at http://parkerfarms.biz/queens.html#Queen_Calendar