need to requeen

[mrbees2]

Hi. I had coffee this morning with two elderly beekeepers, this is always a mistake - 1, as I always end up paying for the coffee, and 2 they both like to help me with advice. This ALWAYS conflicts. Mentioned my 2 queens were two years old and I felt I should do something about it. Would like to know what the forum members would reccommend. Shall I just leave the hives alone, make sure there is plenty of space for laying and storage, and leave well alone. The bees wll sort everything out for themselves, and produce a new queen sometime soon, if needed. OR should I do something else ? I do not want to buy in new queens. Both hives are busy and healthy -both queens are alive and laying. Unfortunatly at this moment in time I am short of time, space and money. All advice very welcome what would you consider my easiest option.

 

[Alabamaeee]

If you haven't got the time, space or money your answer is leave them and they will supersede when necessary. If you had some time and some spare equipment then you could rear a new queen(s) from your own hives.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Most likely one stock or another will produce queencells.

 

[Stiffy]

Hi. I had coffee this morning with two elderly beekeepers, this is always a mistake - 1, as I always end up paying for the coffee, and 2 they both like to help me with advice. This ALWAYS conflicts. Mentioned my 2 queens were two years old and I felt I should do something about it. Would like to know what the forum members would reccommend. Shall I just leave the hives alone, make sure there is plenty of space for laying and storage, and leave well alone. The bees wll sort everything out for themselves, and produce a new queen sometime soon, if needed. OR should I do something else ? I do not want to buy in new queens. Both hives are busy and healthy -both queens are alive and laying. Unfortunatly at this moment in time I am short of time, space and money. All advice very welcome what would you consider my easiest option.

If you like the bees you have then I would look at splitting them to form a Nuc and if she then decides to swarm and you miss it you would be able to combine. If she carries on and doesn't look to swarm, then either take the new colony through the winter as insurance or combine at the end of the year and look to repeat the following year.
S