a snip of a question...
> Should success be seen as how many cells actually completed the supercedure or did the the hive stay strong and overwintered.
my comments...
The measure of success or failure would certainly be an individual's decision and I would suggest like much analysis in economics 'relative'. That is how did this success or failure compare to other methods of getting a new queen in the box. At least here I see great variation in queen acceptance (step one) and of the queen maintaining productivity over a bit longer time frame (step 2). For myself getting acceptable results for both steps definitely has a seasonal aspects... with late summer or early fall queens falling short of both steps 'relative' to queens born and mated in the spring of the year.
As to using queen cells to replace the queen in the hive I see no one here has mentioned the demaree method. Perhaps a manipulation that has fallen thru the cracks of beekeeping lore.... but I use a somewhat modified version of this to either replace or split hives in the late summer to early fall and with some success. Basically this requires a queen excluder, a strong hive and for me a top cover with an entry that I place on backward relative to the bottom entry. After the new queen begins to lay I either break apart the split or if the queen in the bottom box brood pattern looks weak I remove the queen excluder. I do not keep extensive records but 'relative' to other methods of getting a good young queen laying in a box.... especially in the late summer or early fall. Small population of bees (baby mating nucs or 3 frame queen castles) works fine in accomplishing this goal in the spring time but this success dwindles into almost absolute failure from the middle to the end of the queen rearing season.
Gene in central Texas
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