# Requeening, when?



## bjerm2 (Jun 9, 2004)

I requeen when the old queen is no longer doing well. If I have to I would do it in spring. I have more options since if you screw up in fall you have lost the colony. If this happens in spring no problem just pop another one in. I just like to leave them alone and use my nucs that winter over to replace any of the old queens that are not pushing out the brood.
Dan


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I used to try to requeen every two years and I usually did it in the fall. Again, I ended up where Bjerm is. I requeen when they aren't doing as well. I've had awesome queens that were still awesome when they were three years old, so why should I replace them?


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## cmq (Aug 12, 2003)

I requeen in the fall. Last year I requeened About 1/2 of my hives (36 total). This spring all 20 of the fall queens were alive, strong and well. No swarmng from them. Of the remainder I lost 2 hives and had to make several splits to keep them from swarming. I'm convinced that annual fall requeening is the way to go. Plus there are an abundant number of drones in the area at that time. This "pheremone thing" is for real!


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## Rob Mountain (Dec 8, 2003)

Beesurv - Way to go !!!!

This is good to hear, more people need to hear good reports like this.

Thanks,Rob


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## Gregg (Dec 22, 2003)

Problems with Fall requeening (for me anyway), and why I requeen in the Spring: huge bee populations make it a daunting and time-consuming task to find and kill the old queen, and I am also so busy pulling and extracting honey that finding time to do it for even part of 400 hives would be almost impossible. So I requeen a percentage of hives in the Spring when I am making up nucs and getting queens for them anyway.

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Gregg Stewart


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## Rob Mountain (Dec 8, 2003)

Greg, I have just walked down the passage, and been talking to Dr. Tom Webster. Yes, a large population is certainly one of the major draw backs with late summer requeening. One thing that helped me in CA when I would requeen our entire drone hive setup in late summer was to get extra help. Young eyes make all the difference.

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If a job is worth doing - Then do it well


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## Gregg (Dec 22, 2003)

Good point, Rob. However, since I'm on my own (3 daughters & 1 wife with no interest in beekeeping), "extra help" is not an option for me. I'm not discouraging anyone from trying Fall requeening, just stating why it doesn't work for me.

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Gregg Stewart


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## bjerm2 (Jun 9, 2004)

Rob same here. I just don't like the umteen million bees that I have to look thru while also doing the honey thing and checking brood, stores etc. In the spring I find it much easier with a small population of bees to look for her and it also lets me see how she is starting to set up her brood pattern. 

Really beekeeping is better described with what works for you.

Dan


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## Hook (Jun 2, 2002)

In northeastern PA, I was always told to requeen by August 1. Reason being, that is when we get a two week lull in flows, between clover and goldenrod. Tried it last year on a few hives, and it really did not make a difference. The idea was to put a new queen with lots of eggs for the beginning of the next flow. Also treat for mites if levels are high. Makes sense, but in the past I always waited til fall.


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