Re:  Requeening
 
I wouldn't be confused at all about requeening if I were you.  If your
bees are in your backyard and you check them daily and you don't have
very high expectations of them then you can let them requeen themselves.
However, I consider requeening to be the most valuable management
practice available to the beekeeper because if you requeen regularly you
will get rid of much of the variability in your bees.  By variability I
mean unexplained colony deaths (winter in particular), excessive swarming
(every year after the second year of a queens life the colony is twice as
likely to swarm), variable colony strengths, variable colony behavior, the list goes on and on.
The only real trick is to figure out what time of year to requeen when
it will cause the least disruption.  A lot of books advocate spring
requeening but we have a May honey flow in North Carolina and spring
requeening can be disasterous.  I wait until the flow is over and queens
are cheaper to boot.
 
Bill Lord
Louisburg, N.C
 
 -- WILLIAM G
LORD E-Mail  : wglord@franklin Internet: [log in to unmask]
Phone   : 9194963344