Queens

[Do224]

Do queens generally perform similarly throughout their life before ‘tailing’ off in their final season?

Is their first season their best or do they peak somewhere in the middle of their life? In terms of laying pattern and speed/quantity of laying I suppose…

Are there other things to consider? Do they become less settled and more likely to swarm as they get older?

When do people replace their queens or do you always wait for them to become a problem?

My favourite queen arrived in a swarm to my bait hive in 2023. She was unmarked. No idea how old she is. She laid like a train and this colony was my strongest by far coming into this spring. She tried to swarm and was nuc’d on 1st May. Nuc was combined with another hive and again she tried to swarm and was nuc’d again. Nuc was combined back with original hive which had tried to swarm again with her daughter a few weeks earlier and then failed to requeen during the cold weather. So, now she’s back in her original hive again and once again laying like a train almost completely filling frames with wall to wall brood. A couple of weeks ago there was a single charged cell and I knocked it down without thinking. I guess they were trying to supersede her although I don’t know why given how well she’s laying. No more cells in the last two weeks though so they seem to have given up. She’s my most prolific queen by far and also produces the friendliest bees I’ve ever worked with. Her daughter and granddaughter are now heading up two of my other colonies. They’re doing alright but I’m not seeing the huge slabs of brood that she produces. Will they likely get into their stride and start performing like their mother/grandmother, perhaps next year?

 

[Antipodes]

A couple of weeks ago there was a single charged cell and I knocked it down without thinking. I guess they were trying to supersede her although I don’t know why given how well she’s laying. No more cells in the last two weeks though so they seem to have given up.

I did a similar thing on a couple of colonies here last season - but it was much later in the season for me. It was well into autumn. I was disappointed that they failed to produce more queen cells but they are still doing ok now.
As to one of your other questions, I did read (to the best of my recollection) in a study somewhere, that they (generally) peak at egg laying at about a year old.

 

[Swarm]

Depends on a load of different things, I've heard much generalising about performance tailing off, vibrant, young queens and such but I've always found some queens are good and some are not. We have some four year old queens who are out performing one year olds. Some who make no attempt to swarm for years who suddenly go into swarm mode, others who prepare to swarm at a year old who then make no further attempts. We've had queens who were happy in a single national who then filled a double brood two seasons later.
One of my 2021 queens produced large colonies of gentle bees until mid summer this year when their mood changed completely. They were nice to work in 21, 22 and 23 so the change this year was quite a surprise.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Do they become less settled and more likely to swarm as they get older?

queens have no influence whatsoever on the colony's decision to swarm, it's all down to the 'flying' bees.
I've had colonies who have piled up brood and swarmed/prepared to swarm in an overwintered queen's first season, I have had colonies filling all eleven brood frames wall to wall with brood and making no effort to swarm, with the queen going on and on for years, not even making QCs during a Demaree, the only way I could make increase from them was to pinch a frame and transfer it to a neighbouring Demaree. You have to look at the makeup of the whole colony not just the queen, who is nothing more than an egg laying organism controlled by the workers. They will replace her if faulty, or running out of steam, or swarm when they decide to - not her.
I had one colony which swarmed at the drop of a hat, it wasn't 'that particular queen' as, out of curiosity I kept the line going for three or four generations (swarming on very little brood, time after time) I finally put an end to it when they swarmed one spring on two (maybe three) meagre frames of brood.

 

[Do224]

I had one colony which swarmed at the drop of a hat, it wasn't 'that particular queen' as, out of curiosity I kept the line going for three or four generations (swarming on very little brood, time after time) I finally put an end to it when they swarmed one spring on two (maybe three) meagre frames of brood.

So the genetics were ‘swarmy’ then. As you say, I guess that means the queen doesn’t choose when to swarm, but her genetics mean the workers have an inbuilt inclination to swarm more than is usual