Hello Paul and welcome to the ranks of beekeepers.  I hope you will enjoy
working your bees as much as I do.  In the beekeeping schools we give, we
recommend requeening only every other year.  If this is your first year, your
queens should be good for another honey season.  There are pros and cons to
both fall and spring requeening.  I have between 15 and 20 hives, and I
usually requeen in the fall.  The prices are better now (the breeders are
trying to get rid of their stock) and it gives you a strong queen to enter
the winter with.  This past year, our winter was so mild, that my bees were
cranking it up in January.  You would not be able to get a new queen that
early.  Seasons are different from one year to the next, so we always hope
for a better honey flow than last year.  Good luck!!     Steve Genta
  President-Piedmont Beekeepers Association
                                                    Greenville,  SC
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