Reasons to Requeen

1 . What are some reasons to requeen a colony?

• The queen died or left with a swarm

• Decreased performance

• Disease control - colonies that demonstrate signs of disease or high mite levels benefit from requeening, especially if you can requeen from hygienic stock. The break in the brood cycle and requeening are effective for EFB and varroa treatment.

• Excessive defensiveness - requeen from calmer stock

• Swarming tendency - swarming is more common with older queens and can be decreased by requeening with young queens

• Productivity - new queens have the greatest productivity because they lay the greatest number of eggs in their first season. Egg laying decreases each successive year

• Pheromones - as the old queen ages, her pheromone production deceases both in quantity and chemical quality. New queens produce higher pheromone levels that are better in quality and quantity thus providing a healthier, more assuring environment in the colony.

• Spotty brood or Shotgun brood - spotty brood pattern with the old queen indicates that she is failing or running out of sperm, or she was not properly mated.

• Excessive drone cells - colony has excessive number of drone cells- queen running out of sperm- requeen!!!

• Decrease swarming in spring the following year - requeening in the fall after the nectar flow (August, September) may reduce the likelihood of swarming the following spring.

• Commercial beekeepers do it every year!!! For all the reasons above, commercial beekeepers requeen every year.