[betrbekepn]

I'm regressing my Buckfasts using the shakedown method this spring and would like to requeen the little devils with Donald Kuchenmeisters "fat/beeman" Russians. My question is, if I kill the Buckfasts queen, then shake the bees into a foundationless framed deep, then insert a caged Russian queen, are they going to release and accept my Russian queen?

 

[Michael Bush]

"You just never know with bees" --Winnie the Pooh

I'm not sure whey you want to do a shakedown. It's hard to say what they will do. As I understand Don's queens have a lot of Russian blood in them. They may not take well to that. A shakedown demoralized them a lot to start with, which actually can work either way for you. It might make them abscond and it might make them more accepting of the new queen. If I was going to do it, I'd shake them into a box and then dump them into a well screened box without the queen and put them in a dark place overnight. Then put the caged queen in and watch their response. If they seem to be trying to kill her, I'd pull the cage out, shake them off and let them stew another day. Then try it again.