Requeening

Requeening (replacing the queen) means removing an old, unproductive or otherwise undesirable queen from a colony and giving it a new queen of the beekeeper's choosing. Because it changes the colony's genetics, temper, swarming tendency and productivity in a single operation, it is one of the beekeeper's most powerful management tools; the key to success is getting the new queen accepted.

When should a colony be requeened?

A queen can live for several years, but her laying capacity and pheromone output usually decline after her second year. Many beekeepers routinely replace their queens every one or two years. Apart from that, the following situations call for requeening:

• Age: The swarming tendency rises markedly in colonies whose queen is more than two years old.
• Poor brood pattern: Gappy, scattered brood; drone brood with domed cappings in worker cells (a drone-laying queen).
• Bad temper: Overly defensive bees, bees that run off the comb or boil out of the hive during inspection are a problem for both the beekeeper and the surroundings.
• Disease susceptibility: Persistently recurring chalkbrood, weak hygienic behaviour, rapidly rising varroa.
• Low productivity: A colony that consistently lags behind others under the same conditions.
• Queenlessness: A colony that has lost its queen and cannot raise its own.

Ways of requeening

Method	How	Pros / cons
Mated queen (in a cage)	A laying queen, bought or reared yourself, is introduced in a cage	The fastest method; acceptance is not always guaranteed
Ripe queen cell	A capped cell about to emerge is placed in a queenless colony	Cheap and easy; mating depends on the weather and the broodless period is longer
Requeening via a nucleus	The new queen is first given to a small nucleus, which is then united with the old colony	The safest acceptance; takes more work
Letting the colony raise its own	A colony left queenless raises a queen from young larvae	Little work; no genetic selection and takes a long time

Factors that determine acceptance

A colony does not readily accept a strange queen; it may attack her until her scent becomes familiar. The main factors that increase or reduce acceptance are:

• Queenlessness: There must be no other queen or queen cells in the colony. The old queen must be found and removed.
• Nectar flow: Acceptance is easy when there is forage; it is hard during a dearth and when robbing is going on. Light feeding helps during a dearth.
• Age structure of the colony: Colonies with many young bees and small nuclei accept a new queen more readily.
• Slow introduction: Protecting the queen in a cage for a while, so that her scent can spread, is the basis of acceptance.
• Laying workers: A colony with laying workers accepts a new queen only with great difficulty; in this case uniting is a better solution.

Introducing a queen in a cage: step by step

1. Find and remove the old queen: Inspect calmly; the queen is usually on frames with fresh eggs. A marked queen makes the search much easier.
2. Wait: Many beekeepers introduce the new queen a few hours to a day later, so the colony realises it is queenless.
3. Place the cage: Hang or wedge the queen cage in the brood area between two brood frames, with its mesh side open to the bees.
4. Open the candy plug: Remove the protective cap from the candy plug at the exit end of the cage. The bees eat through the candy and slowly release the queen within one to three days.
5. Attendant bees: Some beekeepers remove the attendant workers that come with a queen in a mailing cage before introducing her, to help acceptance; this is optional.
6. Close the hive and wait.

How can you tell whether the queen has been accepted?

One or two days after placing the cage, you can briefly lift the lid and look at how the bees are behaving on the cage:

• Positive: The bees are calm and loosely spread over the cage, touching the queen with their antennae and feeding her.
• Negative: The bees are clamped tightly onto the cage, clustered in a ball, biting the mesh and not easily coming away from the cage. In this case release should be postponed.

After the queen has been released, don't open the hive for about a week. An early or frequent inspection can lead to the bees balling and killing the new queen. Seeing fresh eggs at the check a week later is the surest sign of acceptance. If the colony has built queen cells, the queen may not have been accepted or may have been lost.

Requeening with a ripe queen cell

A capped cell that you have reared yourself or taken from a strong colony, one or two days from emergence, can be given to a queenless colony or a nucleus. The cell is placed carefully between two frames in the brood area, tip pointing down, and must not be squashed, chilled or turned over.

With this method it takes a few weeks for the new queen to make her mating flights and start laying. Bad weather during the mating period and a shortage of drones in the area reduce success.

Queen marking colours

A small coloured dot on the queen's thorax both makes her easier to find and tells you her age. The international colour sequence follows the last digit of the year:

Last digit of the year	Colour
1 or 6	White
2 or 7	Yellow
3 or 8	Red
4 or 9	Green
5 or 0	Blue

What requeening gives you

• Less swarming: A young queen's strong pheromone markedly reduces the urge to swarm.
• Calmer bees: A defensive colony calms down within a few weeks as the new queen's offspring replace the old bees.
• Broodless period: The short break in brood during requeening opens a favourable window for varroa control.
• Genetic improvement: Traits such as hygienic behaviour, gentleness and productivity can be selected and brought into the apiary.

Common mistakes

• Introducing a new queen without finding the old one: The new queen is usually killed.
• Opening the hive too early: An inspection straight after release disrupts the acceptance process.
• Requeening during a dearth: Acceptance is harder when there is no flow; feed lightly if necessary.
• Not checking for queen cells: A queen introduced while there are cells in the colony is usually not accepted.
• Giving a queen to a laying-worker colony: The chance of success is low; uniting is a better route.