Subject: Re: Requeening by putting in queen cell?

From: [email-masked] (Rick Hough)
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 12:45:02 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
(Owen Watson) wrote:

> Has anyone tried the method of requeening by putting an-almost-ready queen
> cell on the frames, and letting supersedure take place?

I don't think this will work in a queen-right hive. I would think that the
existing queen would kill the queen in the cell before she ever emerges
(this is the way it works when a colony raises emergency queens to replace
a "lost" queen - the first queen to emerge runs around & chews holes in the
sides of all the other queen cells - the workers then finish the job by
pulling the pupa out of the cell and discarding it outside the hive).

This would be a good way to requeen a colony if you first eliminated the
old
queen, although you may want to place more than one queen cell, just in
case
you damage one "installing" it.

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* Rick Hough             * email: [email-masked] *
* TASC                   * Phone: (617) 942-2000   *
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The above is my opinion, and not my employer's or anyone else's.

---

From: [email-masked] (Kumar)
Date: 2 Aug 1994 12:11:29 GMT

Rick Hough ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
: (Owen Watson) wrote:

: > Has anyone tried the method of requeening by putting an-almost-ready queen
: > cell on the frames, and letting supersedure take place?

: I don't think this will work in a queen-right hive. I would think that the
: existing queen would kill the queen in the cell before she ever emerges
: (this is the way it works when a colony raises emergency queens to replace
: a "lost" queen - the first queen to emerge runs around & chews holes in the
: sides of all the other queen cells - the workers then finish the job by
: pulling the pupa out of the cell and discarding it outside the hive).

: This would be a good way to requeen a colony if you first eliminated the
: old
: queen, although you may want to place more than one queen cell, just in
: case
: you damage one "installing" it.

This method of requeening is quite frequently used by commercial
beekeepers in New Zealand, with claims of a 70-80% success rate. The
cells are protected on the sides with tape, ensuring that the pupa
inside has a chance to at least emerge. The cell does not need to be
placed in the brood chamber - often it is placed in a super (with no
excluder being used). 

It is an attractive idea from a labour-saving, "leave-it-alone" point of
view, but I don't know how accurate the success rate really is, or
whether anyone has ever done a controlled experiment. My only attempt
with this method resulted in a swarm in the last month of Summer...

Kumar