Requeening - Does She Have To Be Squished?

[JazzJPH]

I've been reading a bit on the forums about requeening. I'm getting the impression that generally one would squish her on site.

Is there a reason for it? Ie does the hive smell her guts and realise she's no longer in charge?

Would it be possible to 'retire' the Queen into an off-site mini nuc or take her far away and release into the wild?

Personally I'm not bothered either way, but after chatting with some who are concerned about such things I would find the answers interesting.

 

[Ian123]

Place her in a small nuc with a couple of frames of bees until you are sure the introduction is a success, then squish her if you wish or keep as reserve. Particularly if you only have 1 colony. Even better to introduce new queen to a nuc of young bees and then bleed off frames of sealed brood from the old hive as they expand. And no released into the wild is not an option��

 

[Beagle23]

If she's a decent queen just drop her in a nuc with a frame of brood and some stores, shake in some bees and you've got a new colony. I did this last year with a year old queen, gave her to a fellow forum member and I'm told she's doing great things.

I'm not a squisher if I have another option

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Would it be possible to 'retire' the Queen into an off-site mini nuc or take her far away and release into the wild?

If a good queen, you could keep her in a nuc to raise other queens from.
Release into the wild!!? so she can slowly starve and die of either hunger or cold?

 

[JazzJPH]

If a good queen, you could keep her in a nuc to raise other queens from.
Release into the wild!!? so she can slowly starve and die of either hunger or cold?

Yeah well that's what I thought, I can't imagine release into the wild will end well for the retired queen.

It all stems from me asking a vegan relative if they would eat any honey from my hives. The answer was yes in the first season as I won't have deliberately killed anything yet.

So that was one side to my question. The other was whether the bees smell or sense anything when a queen is killed in their midst and if they behave differently if she's killed there and then or taken away.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It all stems from me asking a vegan relative if they would eat any honey from my hives. The answer was yes in the first season as I won't have deliberately killed anything yet.

You could always accidentally step on her (queen, or vegan, doesn't matter which - both are now of no use )

So that was one side to my question. The other was whether the bees smell or sense anything when a queen is killed in their midst and if they behave differently if she's killed there and then or taken away.

, they know she's gone

The bees know within minutes the queen has been removed, they sense the drop in pheromone, doesn't matter where she's killed

 

[JazzJPH]

You could always accidentally step on her (queen, or vegan, doesn't matter which - both are now of no use )

, they know she's gone

The bees know within minutes the queen has been removed, they sense the drop in pheromone, doesn't matter where she's killed

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[blackcloud]

You could always accidentally step on her (queen, or vegan, doesn't matter which - both are now of no use )

 

[Walrus]

I saw somebody's talk a few years ago who said that he always squished the queen on the same fence post. He said that if any of his bees swarmed they'd always start off by hanging on that particular fence post & were easy to collect. I don't know if that works or not.

One option is shake bees from strong colonies, maybe after a flow is over, into a box and take it away to another apiary. Then shake into a newly made up hive with lots of foundation & add queen in a cage with candy. Feed and watch them draw out nice new combs

 

[Millet]

If a good queen, you could keep her in a nuc to raise other queens from.
Release into the wild!!? so she can slowly starve and die of either hunger or cold?

I'm curious..if she is a good Queen why not leave her to it let alone splat her..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm curious..if she is a good Queen why not leave her to it let alone splat her..

An older queen may slow down her laying rate, have an adverse effect on honey production. Keeping her in a full size colony could either finish her off, or the workers will supersede, putting her in a nuc will mean she can just keep ticking along with you taking out the occasional frame of eggs to make up walkaway nucs, they may even supersede anyway and give you a nice nuc to overwinter.
depends whether you want to be a beekeeper, or just keep bees as pets.

 

[Ian123]

I saw somebody's talk a few years ago who said that he always squished the queen on the same fence post. He said that if any of his bees swarmed they'd always start off by hanging on that particular fence post & were easy to collect. I don't know if that works or not.

Seen some making a swarm lure with collected dead queens and alcohol so yes could well have worked

 

[steve1958]

The only time i choose to squish a queen is if i am requeening an angry colony.

 

[Bakerbee]

At what age do you decide a queen is old? Or is it age plus hive observations and her performsnce when deciding she is too old?

 

[For want of a better word]

I'm curious..if she is a good Queen why not leave her to it let alone splat her..

Seems to be a BBKA regulation that is taught.. requeen every second season!

 

[masterBK]

More sarcasm based on myth ! In my apiary a queen needs replacing when you have something better to replace it with and you hold on to those with good genetics for as long as it is possible (in a nucleus as mentioned by JBM) for breeding.

 

[For want of a better word]

More sarcasm based on myth ! In my apiary a queen needs replacing when you have something better to replace it with and you hold on to those with good genetics for as long as it is possible (in a nucleus as mentioned by JBM) for breeding.

More sarcasm based on myth !

I am receiving calls from second year beekeepers asking me if I have any queens as they need to requeen their colonies..... who is teaching this?

First batch of grafted queens crept this morning... beginning of June before ready to go?

 

[madasafish]

I had a queen who lived till 5 years old After her second year honey yields fell right off - even allowing for weather. By the end she was limping and barely laying.. I bred from her and she was superceded last year.

I let her survive as the hive was good natured and I was interested to see what would happen.