I don't requeen every colony every year. Why requeen a colony with
an apparently good queen. Young queens are better, true, but... not
every queen you buy or raise is good. So, I requeen colonies tha need
it. How does one know? Pull a frame of brood. Beautiful...comb is full
and capped. Good queen, right? Maybe not! You should be looking at
uncapped brood. Every cell should have a larvae. Oldest larvae should be
in the center, with progressively younger larvae to the outside. Larvae
age shouldn't be random. Say 30% of the queens eggs are duds, or the
queen fails to lay in 30% of the cells on the first time around. She'll
go back over the comb in a few days, and lay in the empty cells. Again -
30% skips. Goes over it again, etc. Eventually the comb is mostly capped
brood. Before it begins to hatch, it looks pretty good. So, look at the
larvae. Compare it to a really good one. You'll see what I mean
immediately