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Date: | Sat, 5 Mar 1994 09:37:14 +0000 |
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Jane Power <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>I'm new at this soooo....if I have an ill-tempered monarch and requeen, and
>I get another ill-tempered monarch should I requeen again? It seems very
>disruptive, and yet, mean queens are undesirable. The season in Northern
>Ontario is short and I wonder if I put them in a frequent state of new
>queenhood, queening?, I worry for my honey or should I? Jane Power
This is just one beekeeper's opinion, (I'm sure other opinions abound!),
but here goes anyway - Requeening is not so disruptive as it seems -
you probably only loose about a week of brood production. The real
issue is how quickly are you able to determine if the new queen is
ill-tempered? You need to wait for a significant percentage of the
population to be the progeny of the new queen before you can make
that evaluation. So I would say a minimum of six weeks, and longer
would be better. Sooo, you *could* do it twice a season, if warranted -
once in the spring, and once in the fall. I dislike fall requeening
because you don't have much time to recover if the new queen
doesn't "take" for some reason. Then again, spring requeening can
impact your honey production slightly - life is a compromise....
Should Jane worry for her honey? I don't think so, as the "state
of new queenhood" will be relatively infrequent (from the bees
perspective).
Rick Hough, Hamilton, MA, USA
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