> >>The absolute best way to requeen if you can't find the old queen is a > ready to hatch sell placed in the honey supers. The average is about 85% > success in superseding the old queen, and >>no swarms. > This if often repeated as a successful method of re-queening, but whenever I ask how they determined the success rate, the answer more often than not is that there was no follow up check done (usually for the same reason this method was selected - lack of time). For those that have actually checked it turns out the results usually aren't good at all. Simon Lalonde, president of the Saskatchewan beekeepers association, spoke at the OBA spring meeting about a month ago. They requeen half of their 3000 hive operation every year and keep very good records. For years they would sometimes use the cells in super method when they had surplus cells and assumed reasonable success until they actually followed up. I can't remember the exact numbers, but the success rate was below 10%. They are back to find the old queen and killing her before introducing the new queen in every hive. Adam Barrie, ON *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html