Greetings everyone,

I was going through the archives regarding the matter of re-queening, trying
to learn all I can about it when a question popped into my head.  A lot of
the discussion revolves around whether to buy a mated queen, let the hive
raise a queen of their own, or insert a queen cell of your own choosing.  In
other words it boils down to installing a mated queen or installing, or
having the bees install, a virgin queen.  It occurred to me that requeening
which involves a virgin queen Is limited in a way that no one I have yet
read has mentioned, and that is by the conditions that are required for a
queen to get, uh, er... mated.  Around here, Western Washington, it might be
practically June before we see a really clear warm day which is what I
understand is required for a nuptial flight.  So if you tried to requeen in
April or May using a grafted cell, assuming you could find a queen cell, you
might have to wait extra long for that queen to start laying.  I think this
actually happened to me last year when my brand new hive swarmed on me at
the beginning of June.  I could not find evidence of a queen in the old hive
for a month.  All the brood had emerged and I was sure the hive was queen
less.  What I didn't realize was that they were just waiting for me to buy a
new queen and try to install her.  Anyway..... so what about this possible
delay due to weather preventing the nuptial flight? Would that interfere
with what you all might consider timely requeening using queen cells?  Or
does mating occur under a wider range of conditions than I am assuming,
making this approach more flexible than it seems.  Then too, perhaps it is
the case that the best time to requeen is just before a major honey flow,
after the warm weather has completely arrived.  I hope my question is clear
enough to narrow the discussion.  I am looking more fore insight into the
factors influencing how a virgin queen might be delayed in beginning egg
laying than I am for a wide ranging discussion of the pros and cons of
various requeening stratagies.  The archives cover this rather well.
The same weather factor might also come into play in the fall of course.
Here on Whidbey Island, though, the fall can be rather warm whereas the
springs tend to be sort of cool and blustery.
          Thanks to all for this great forum
              Steve Noble

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