Swapping queens

[Michelleoscar]

Wanted general consensus as to what/how to swap Queens.

I have 1 hive with a 3 year old queen who I want to swap out with a 2023 buckfast I've recent bought and introduced into a nuc. Nuc and hive are next to each other...the nuc is a split from the hive last month. Both doing well. I don't want to kill the old queen as she's still producing edge to edge brood frames and they are of good temprement so want to try and breed her daughters soon.
Main hive is my crop hive so don't want to disturb it but want the buckfast in there. And the nuc is mainly. For donating brood etc as I only want 1 hive.
Any ideas how to do this?

 

[Ian123]

Why bother with the swap leave them to it…swapping now will have no bearing/benefit to your summer crop arriving soon! those bees are already in the hive/cells.

 

[ericbeaumont]

swapping now will have no bearing/benefit to your summer crop

Agree. There's a chart somewhere that shows that bees born after mid-May are of no benefit to the summer crop.

You might take out a frame of sealed every so often and give it to the crop colony: house bees are needed to process nectar.