Ron,

Much has been said within the BEE-L Archives about requeening, Bob
Harrison recently talked about the difficulty of introduction and
requeening Russians, http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?
A2=ind0310C&L=bee-l&D=1&O=D&P=956, http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-
bin/wa?A2=ind0404D&L=bee-l&P=R1712&D=1&O=D, and
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0205C&L=bee-
l&P=R204&D=1&O=D.

Think about it! Requeening is an unnatural thing that the beekeeper does
in order to assure that the continuity, productivity, and genetic
characteristics of a hive are maintained in a manner consistent to the
beekeepers own particular requirements.

When I do splits I requeen at the same time as taking away the old queen
with the split by opening the candy side of the queen cage and place the
cage with the candy-part higher or physically "up" in the honey riming the
top part of the middle of the brood nest. This works well and is about 90-
95% effective since the candy is the factor that allows the delay in the
release�FThe harder the candy the longer the release. This is only for the
same race from the same queen breeder! When making a lot of splits such
procedure is often necessary, versus a physical release.

When a queen is missing from a hive by searching and with the additional
indications of lacking any uncapped brood or eggs I will usually release
by hand after 5 days of introduction with a careful watch of the activity
surrounding the cage placed on top of te brood nest frames prior to
release. If there is aggressive behavior to the queen in the cage I just
will not release her and will wait two days or longer and then repeat the
procedure by placing the queen cage on top of the frames and observing.

Requeening within the same race after introducing the new queen over a 3
day period is IMO not of a sufficient time; I look to 5 days minimum
before a manual release. When requeening and introducing a different race
or hybrid it is my recommendation for a longer introduction period around
7 days minimum. That means not uncorking the queen cage upon introduction,
it also is suggested to release during the midday when the major force of
workers are out foraging.

When checking the activity of surrounding bees while the new queen is
caged you can fairly well predict in advance whether or not the new queen
will go to the ball, or will she be just another Cinderella and have to
work hard the rest of her life carrying on the responsibility for the
success or failure of the hive.

Chuck Norton
Reidsville, NC

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