There are several reasons why a beekeeper is likely to requeen a colony, including the following:-
- The temper of the colony is unacceptable.
- The characteristics are not what the beekeeper requires. Bee
improvement is an important part of beekeeping.
- The queen is failing or showing signs of failure.
- The queen is getting "old". Regular requeening simply on age is often advised to keep a colony productive, or to reduce
the chance of swarming. This is only relevant to prolific or swarmy bees and something I don't do because with the kind
of bees I keep, regular requeening isn't necessary.
- A colony is showing susceptibility to disease.
- Replace a queen in a queen mating hive.
I think that beekeepers need to be careful when requeening colonies. I have seen some very good queens culled for poor
reasons. These can be simple things like not understanding that colonies with non-prolific queens can be more productive than
those that fill the hive with bees, or the brood pattern looks bad when there are other reasons for it.
Roger Patterson.
Page created 24/02/2015
Page updated 29/12/2022
