> I am surprised that it took this long for anyone to point out one of the side benefits of keeping young queens in the box.

Hi all
I just did a presentation in Morrisville, NY on this very topic: the value of one year queens vs older queens. And while some people will tell you that generally any one year old queen is better than any older one, the data do not unequivocally support that contention. 

In fact, I was able to collect evidence for either case: 1) year old queens always outperform older queens vs 2) queens are fully capable in their second year. (References available on request). Of course, replacing a failing or underperforming queen with a tested new one, like Juanse Barros described, is the correct procedure. 

Pre-emptive requeening, while practiced by many large scale beekeepers, might not be cost effective if the increase in production is not great. The money and labor might be better spent some other way (eg, use the new queens to increase the number of colonies).

PLB

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