Re-queening advice.

[lilybetbee]

Got my first bees 2 years ago and now have three hives.

Hive 1: original queen who now seems to be failing as brood is becoming increasingly drone. Superceedure cell seen 2 weeks ago so left to get on with it.

Hive 2: daughter of original queen, but with characteristics of hive 3 ie propolise very heavily. Not as friendly, very 'pingy' in inspections and tendency to follow a good distance but a strong colony, gave a decent amount of honey in their first season and looking good again this year.

Hive 3: Propolise everything very heavily, had some chalk brood last summer, intended to re-queen this year but seem clear this season.

I was intending to buy in one good queen, possibly 2 as a point to work from and hopefully breed my own from then, where possible.

Would you recommend still requeening hive 3 to remove the chalkbrood tendency from the gene pool?
(I am concerned that I could see this in hive 1, if mating occurs with hive 3 drones, or does it not work like that?)

What breed would you recommend?
It tends to be cool and frequently wet where I live and my current bees seem to fly well in low temperatures. They tend to be quite dark bees in colour.

Local mongrel?
Carnie?
Buckfast type ?
Or something else?

 

[BeeJayBee]

I won't comment about requeening and buying in queens, but chalkbrood and damp conditions tend to go hand in hand. You might reduce it by having taller hive stands so there's cleaner air moving beneath the hive.

 

[lilybetbee]

I bought no. 3 last year as a nuc from someone on here, and trusted them it was ok, but it had bad chalk brood. ( My error, I know, they had sold for a few seasons and said the mod on here was a friend and would vouch for them.) it's improved as the colony has grown and in my location but thought that the advice was to requeen?

 

[Alabamaeee]

Re-queening a chalkbrood hive is the best way to deal with it, provided the Queen is from a strain not known for have chalk brood.

 

[lilybetbee]

Any advice on which type of queen appreciated, to clear chalk brood and be suitable for breeding in the longer term. Thanks

 

[Moggs]

Chalk brood is caused by fungal spores. Your best bet is to reduce the spore count (shook swarm). Re queening with a young productive queen may help but clean comb, dry conditions and a strong colony is your first line of defence.


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