requeening in august

[joelsoo]

hi guys...

If dire, is August still an ok time to requeen? i understand best time for requeening would ideally be spring..

i have an old 2, maybe 3 year old queen which is from a swarm last year, and with her prolific laying this spring, plus me being a newbie and failing to notice she's running out of space, i then executed swarm control too late. The colony hence kept producing queen cells leaving me no choice but to remove this queen into another nuc, of which she was doing well, and i subsequently upgraded her palace into a full hive.

However upon an inspection of this hive with the old queen on sunday, this old highness's colony now show signs of patchy egg laying pattern, some brood frames no eggs etc, i spotted her on sunday, of which i will continue to keep an eye on this colony but thoughts are running in my head with doubts she may not survive past this season, and may be superceded by the colony after the summer flow...

unsure if it will be too late for colony to requeen then? if too late then then the answer maybe is to unite?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Late summer is the usual time that colonies supersede. The times I've opened up colonies the following spring to find the old, marked queen gone and a new unmarked one happily laying, is pretty high.

 

[Ian123]

Yes it’s a good time to requeen and even later the better not sure who told you spring time but there you go!!

 

[joelsoo]

thats good to hear! so i'd let nature take its course if the old queen is worn and went beyond the sell by date!

 

[Ian123]

Old and young queens can fail during the winter I quite like having a proven queen but maybe not as old as yours could be. Probably the largest portion of my winter losses in nucs is late mated queens that fail, those that have been up and running for a portion of the season cause less issues as they are over the early laying period that often shows up rejects. Your initial question was queen introduction and that’s probably better late season than any time in my experience.

 

[joelsoo]

Old and young queens can fail during the winter I quite like having a proven queen but maybe not as old as yours could be. Probably the largest portion of my winter losses in nucs is late mated queens that fail, those that have been up and running for a portion of the season cause less issues as they are over the early laying period that often shows up rejects. Your initial question was queen introduction and that’s probably better late season than any time in my experience.

ohh sorry i did not make it clear, i don't mean introduction of queen in late season. i meant if the queen dies or i remove her to nuc and let the colony raise a new queen cell again at that time in august. my only worry is there may not be enough drones then for mating. resulting in poorly mated queen or risk of creating a drone layer.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

ohh sorry i did not make it clear, i don't mean introduction of queen in late season. i meant if the queen dies or i remove her to nuc and let the colony raise a new queen cell again at that time in august. my only worry is there may not be enough drones then for mating. resulting in poorly mated queen or risk of creating a drone layer.

It's early July, plenty of time. I've actually got some nucs on the go wgere the queen is not due to emerge for another week.

 

[beeno]

Hi Joelsoo, The problem with late Aug supersedure is that there is often a problem getting mated due to lack of drones. Early to mid Aug very convenient though in my locale.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Drones late August.
It depends where you are
I guess there would be very few in northern Scotland but anywhere south if Watford Gap should be fine.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Drones late August.
It depends where you are
I guess there would be very few in northern Scotland but anywhere south if Watford Gap should be fine.

 

[beeno]

Drones late August.
It depends where you are
I guess there would be very few in northern Scotland but anywhere south if Watford Gap should be fine.

Very bad odds indeed I would say and I am in the SE.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd better shake out all the mating nucs I have with freshly capped QC's in then.
Seems I have been doing it wrong all these years.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As have my bees

 

[Ian123]

Very bad odds indeed I would say and I am in the SE.

Lol your kidding August and September are the best months for doing it as far as I’m concerned.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Very bad odds indeed I would say and I am in the SE.

Can I ask whether this is just personal experience or do you have some sort of collated results?
It’s just that I do my final checks around the end of September. I have found new queens in the spring quite frequently and according to my records I haven’t had a poorly mated one yet in 12 years.
Your observations seem to fly in the face of evidence from others.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think last season I had over a dozen late season supersedures - each and every one of them are now under multiple supers and going like trains.

 

[pargyle]

Well ... I'm not quite South East but here in the Costa del Fareham drones don't usually get kicked out until well into the autumn and there's loads about in August .. and still drone brood in the boxes.

 

[Mint Bee]

infallible BBKA dogma?

 

[Ian123]

In fairness last year was quite crap but that really was the exception, nucs didn’t build as well as normal due to the poor weather during the ivy flowering. I was rather grateful for the mild weather.

 

[beeno]

I'd better shake out all the mating nucs I have with freshly capped QC's in then.
Seems I have been doing it wrong all these years.

On 9th July, when we are talking end of Aug? Mine usually take 10 days from emergence to laying and then it is that old chestnut mated, but not laying!