. WILLIAM G LORD wrote
>The only real trick is to figure out what time of year to requeen when
>it will cause the least disruption.  A lot of books advocate spring
>requeening but we have a May honey flow in North Carolina and spring
>requeening can be disasterous.  I wait until the flow is over and queens
>are cheaper to boot.
 
 
Your points are well taken, but as a queen breeder I would like to make a
couple of points,with our very short season we have devised a method which
really works. Buy young early queens, and set them up in small nucs either
on top of the hive to be requeened or off to one side. Ideally on top, as
they(if you organise a screened ventilated bottom board) recieve heat from
the bottom hive and can be very small nucs, for better queen acceptance.
When they are well established and with a good brood pattern, kill the old
queen 24hrs before uniting with the newspaper method.
        One or two other points. "Young queens" often in late season queen
breeders will queen bank(ie. put queens in cages, after mating) in queenless
hives. Not a good practice in my view. By using small nucs there is better
acceptance, plus it allows the queen to get up to speed without pressure
from a larger hive. Finally it does allow the keeper the option of uniting
at a time that is suitable, plus puts a young queen into the winter with a
bigger hive( better wintering).
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