George Imirie's PINK PAGES
Queen Introduction Problems
It is quite apparent from the questions seen on E-mail and the questions asked
at bee association meetings that many Beekeepers need an understanding of favorable or
unfavorable conditions when trying to requeen a colony.
Two PRIME problems quickly come to mind:
- YOUNG bees, just a few days old accept a new queen quite readily, whereas an OLD
foraging age bee of 3-4 weeks of age doesn't care very much for this new STEPMOTHER.
Hence, it is ALWAYS better to introduce a new queen among young bees in a nuc, get her
accepted and laying, and then unite that small nuc with the larger QUEEN LESS colony.
The important KEY here is YOUNG bees accept a new queen much better than OLD bees!
- If there is just a small nectar flow on, or worse, a dearth of nectar, the bees
are "mad at the world" and don't want the aggravation of "getting to know" a new
STEPMOTHER. 1:1 sugar syrup is an artificial nectar and it should always be fed during
any queen introduction procedure. This statement surely sound ANTHROPOMORPHIC, but it
helps your thinking, I use it. A source of food makes the bees "happy", and being
"happy" makes queen introduction much more successful.
All of my followers know that I much prefer FALL REQUEENING over "screwing-up"
my early spring honey crop by trying to requeen in the spring. Further, fall bred queens
are usually better mated because of more drones available; and the queen introduced
in September is "rearing" to go laying lots of early spring eggs and she has not used up
much of her queen PHEROMONE, that "glue" that holds a large population of adult worker
bees together as a functioning unit rather than dividing by swarming.
George Imirie
Certified EAS Master Beekeeper
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