A while ago there was some discussion on re-queening by running a newly-emerged virgin into the entrance of a hive with some smoke.  I believe that a success rate of around 70% was given.

I have tried the technique, but have not had such a high success rate - more like 25%.

Questions:

How does the new queen  behave when run in?  Does she immediately seek out and kill the resident queen, or does she mate first?  Does she always kill the resident queen, or do they sometimes co-exist for a time as in normal supersedure?
Is the method less likely to be successful if the colony is yellow and the virgin black?
Would the success rate be higher if the old queen was removed before running in the virgin?

Peter Edwards
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www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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