# re-queening strong hives



## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

I know some people do it that way, but my only concern would be knowing if they actually requeend or not, assuming none of your queens are marked.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>This year I'm thinking of rather than looking for the old queen, I will just put queen cells in the top brood box, thinking that she will hatch out and kill the old queen and become the new queen. 

If I were trying to requeen them, that is what I would do.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

I tried about 10 last year with about 50% success using makeshift foil cell protectors. I am not sure my protectors were that great. They tore down about half of them. I am going to try again this year with commercial protectors. Last year I put them in them between the top bars in the center of the brood nest. I thought this year I might also try putting them between frame 1 and 2 or 9 and 10 instead.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Formic Acid?


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## Markt (Feb 8, 2012)

zhiv9 said:


> I tried about 10 last year with about 50% success using makeshift foil cell protectors. I am not sure my protectors were that great. They tore down about half of them. I am going to try again this year with commercial protectors. Last year I put them in them between the top bars in the center of the brood nest. I thought this year I might also try putting them between frame 1 and 2 or 9 and 10 instead.


Is that to say you had 100% success on the ones that didn't tear your cells down? Did you have a marked queen in the beginning and an unmarked one a few weeks later?


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Markt said:


> Is that to say you had 100% success on the ones that didn't tear your cells down? Did you have a marked queen in the beginning and an unmarked one a few weeks later?


Yes, I believe so. I hadn't really intended for it to be a formal study. I had more queen cells then nucs, and rather than waste them I tried putting them into some hives with older queens or queens I was unhappy with for one reason or another. I know none of the hives ended up queenless. I am planning on trying this on a larger scale this season with cell protectors.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Honey-4-All said:


> Formic Acid?



Are you asking if I was treating with formic during cell introduction? the answer is no.


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## Heintz88 (Feb 26, 2012)

Honey-4-All said:


> Formic Acid?


 Treat with formic? Queen prolly won't last and put a cell in? Two birds with one stone? Yes! Lol


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

90% formic will take care of most queens.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Leaving out the formic acid, if this is done in spring success will be fairly low. If it's done in fall when bees are naturally superseding success will be higher.

However the exact success cannot be stated cos it depends on so many things. But in spring, you may get something around 20% take, in fall, maybe 50%.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

zhiv9 said:


> I tried about 10 last year with about 50% success using makeshift foil cell protectors. I am not sure my protectors were that great. They tore down about half of them.


Was there a nectar flow on at the time? If not, the acceptance goes way down. And, the cells should be placed in the supers, not in the broodnest.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Michael Palmer said:


> Was there a nectar flow on at the time? If not, the acceptance goes way down. And, the cells should be placed in the supers, not in the broodnest.


It was at the tail end of our main flow. I use excluders, so in the supers wasn't really an option. I wondered if on an outside frame wouldn't achieve the same thing or at least be better than in the centre of the brood nest. I often find supercedure cells inbetween frames 1&2 or 9&10.


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## RAK (May 2, 2010)

I have placed cells on the last frame in brood nest with good success. The cell is hidden in the honey.


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## beekeeper032000 (Apr 25, 2009)

RAK, I think I'm going to try your method of re-queening. With about 40 hives in the beeyard, and having to go through several yards, there is a lot of time involved looking for the queen, especially when you have quite abit of queen cells to put in, and your running out of time. Thanks for your imput. Best of wishes to you.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

I've done it ...... I have basically the same acceptance rate as cells hatched and queens mated from a mating nuc.... approx 80-85% The problem you'll need to check is that when the new hatched virgin kills the old queen, goes out for her mating flight then does not make it back to the hive........ so you'll need to check later (approx 2 weeks) to see that they are queen right.


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