At 04:23 PM 6/17/96 +0000, you wrote:
>     Gentlepeople:
>     When I inspected a hive this past weekend I found it weak, with
>     little or not foraging activity.  Inside I found little worker
>     brood but an entire frame of solid drone brood.  It is obvious
>     that the queen is a drone layer and needs to be replaced.  A
>     replacement is on order and will arrive this week.
>
>     This is my first experience with replacing a drone layer.  How
>     should I proceed?
>
>     Should I remove the "old" queen several days before I install
>     the new one?  Should I add a frame or two of worker brood at
>     the time of installation?
>
>     Help?!
>
>     Mark Egloff
>     Dayton, Ohio
>
Hi Mark
 
Requeening a dronelaying hive is no different than requeening any other
time.  There are a number of good ways to requeen. I would normaly recomend
the nuc method this time of year because requeenine in summer can be a
problem.  In this case you need to get the remaining bees back to work ASAP.
So here is how I would do it:
 
1.  Find and remove the old queen.
2.  Close the hive for 8-9 hours.
3.  Put the new queen on top of the top bars screen side down and centered
over     an opening between bars.  Do not remove the plug from either end.
Some     breeders ship queens with candy end open.  In this case, tape a
small piece     of cardboard over the opening.  If available put in a frame
of eggs and     unsealed brood at the same time.
4.  Close the hive for 3-4 days then check the queen.  If the bees are ready
to     accept her, they will be feeding her through the screen and will in
general     be acting normal toward her.  At this point you cant release her
directly     into the hive or you can remove the plug on the candy end.
There won't be     much candy left so she will probably be released in a few
hours.  If they     are biting the wire and acting aggressive toward her,
close the hive and     wait about two more days to recheck.  They should be
ready to accept her at     this point.  If so release her into the hive and
close it for about a week.
 
When the old queen is removed the bees will realize that they are queenless
after a few hours.  This makes them more receptive to a new queen.  Once she
is in the hive and they realize they have a laying queen, they should start
back to work.  Some of the bees will never go back to work and will
eventualy be ejected by the house bees.
 
This method is by no means foolproof.  None are.  This happens to be one
that I'v had success with in the past.  However I have had bees that just
would not accept a new queen.  Those you just combine with another hive and
write them off.
 
Frank Humphrey
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Frank Humphrey
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