Requeening a Hive: Why, When, and How

The queen is the engine of the colony. She is the only fully developed female that lays eggs, and her pheromones hold the whole hive together. When she falters, everything else follows. Learning to recognize a failing queen and replace her is one of the most valuable skills a beekeeper can develop.

Why Requeen

There are several good reasons to install a new queen:

• Age and decline. Queens are most productive in their first year or two. As she ages, her laying slows and her pheromone output drops, and the colony grows weaker.
• Poor brood pattern. A spotty, scattered brood pattern with many empty cells often signals a queen who is failing or poorly mated.
• Temperament. If a colony becomes excessively defensive, requeening with gentle stock can transform its behavior within a brood cycle or two.
• Queenlessness. A colony that has lost its queen and cannot raise a new one needs your help before it dwindles.
• Genetics. Many keepers requeen deliberately to introduce traits like mite resistance, productivity, or gentleness.

Confirm the Problem First

Before ordering a queen, make sure you actually have a queen problem. Look for eggs and young larvae. If you see freshly laid eggs standing upright in the cells, a queen was present within the last few days. A colony with no eggs, no young larvae, and no capped queen cells may be truly queenless.

Beware of laying workers, which appear when a hive has been queenless too long. The telltale sign is multiple eggs per cell and eggs laid on cell walls, producing only drones. A colony this far gone is hard to requeen and may need to be combined with a strong queenright hive instead.

The Best Timing

Requeen when the colony can support a new queen and when queens are available. Late spring through summer is ideal, with plenty of nectar and drones around for good mating if you let the bees raise their own. Avoid requeening in a dearth or late in fall if you can help it, since colonies are more likely to reject a new queen when resources are scarce. Aim for a warm day and a calm colony.

How to Introduce a New Queen

Introducing a mated queen is a careful process because the colony will treat a strange queen as an intruder unless she is introduced slowly. The standard approach uses a candy-plugged cage:

1. Remove the old queen. You cannot introduce a new queen while the old one is present. Find and remove the failing queen first. Leaving the colony queenless for several hours to a day makes them more receptive.
2. Hang the cage. Suspend the new queen's cage between two brood frames, candy end positioned so the bees can eat through it. The screen lets the colony smell and feed her without direct contact.
3. Let them acclimate. Over the next several days, the workers eat through the candy plug and release the queen. By then her scent has become familiar and they are far more likely to accept her.
4. Check gently after about a week. Confirm she has been released and is laying. Avoid disturbing the colony too soon, which can trigger rejection.

Watch for Rejection

Signs of a rejected queen include a cluster of workers biting or balling the cage, and no eggs a week or more after release. If the introduction fails, you may need to try again with a fresh queen and an even slower introduction. Patience improves your odds every time.

Let the Colony Do the Work

Sometimes the simplest option is to let a strong, queenless colony raise its own queen from young larvae, as long as it has the eggs and resources to do so. The result is a locally adapted queen at no cost, though it takes a month or more before she is laying, and you have less control over her genetics.

The Payoff

A vigorous young queen revitalizes a colony almost immediately. Within weeks you will see a tighter brood pattern, a more populous hive, and often a calmer temperament. Requeening feels daunting the first time, but it quickly becomes one of the most reliable tools you have for keeping strong, productive colonies year after year.