How about requeening each spring by moving a couple frames of brood, nurse bees, and some honey and pollen above the parent colony and above a double screen board? I've been thinking about doing that as soon as there is a decent drone population and then running the hive as a double queen colony through the honey season. The colony's resources would only be marginally minimized and then if the new queen mates early enough, there would be more 40 day bees (foragers) available when the main flow begins at the middle or end of March. BTW, located 1/2 way between Montgomery and Mobile and the bees are bringing in pollen and nectar as I post.
Mike in LA
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