bee-keeperThe queen is the heart of every colony: her quality sets how many bees you'll have, their temper, and how much honey you'll harvest. As long as she lays well, leave her alone. But every queen eventually fades, and some fail sooner than you'd expect — and then requeening (replacing the queen) is one of the most powerful moves a beekeeper has. This guide helps you recognise the right moment and introduce a new queen without losing the colony.
Why requeen at all
You don't requeen because she is “old in years” — you requeen because something is wrong. The most common reasons are:
- Failing brood — fewer eggs, and a spotty, patchy pattern as she runs out of sperm
- A drone-layer — only unfertilised eggs (raised, bullet-shaped caps in worker cells), which she can't fix
- An aggressive or swarmy colony — temper and the urge to swarm are inherited from the queen
- Poor performance — the colony lags behind others on the same flow and site
Many beekeepers also requeen on a plan every one to two years, because a young queen lays stronger, swarms less, and overwinters better.
How to read the signs
Before you decide, open the colony and look only at the brood — it tells you everything. Solid, wall-to-wall brood with eggs centred in the cells means the queen is doing her job. The warning signs are spotty, patchy brood (gaps between capped cells), lots of drone brood in worker comb, or no eggs across several inspections. Before you blame the queen, rule out varroa, brood disease and starvation — they can paint a similar picture.
Where to source a new queen
You have three routes. The safest is to buy a marked, mated queen from a trusted breeder — you get known genetics (calm, productive lines) and you know her age. The second is to raise one yourself from larvae of your best colony. The third is to give the colony a frame of eggs and young brood and let it raise its own, but then you don't choose the genetics and you lose a few weeks. Whatever you pick, choose a line that is gentle and winters well in your climate.
Introducing a queen safely
Bees readily reject and kill a strange queen, so never release a new queen loose among them. The procedure goes like this:
- First find and remove the old queen — a queenless colony is far more ready to accept a new one
- Wait a few hours (ideally 6–24 h) so the colony “feels” it has gone queenless
- Place the queen cage between brood frames, candy plug (sugar fondant) facing out so the bees must chew through it
- As they chew, they get used to her scent and release her slowly, over two to three days
Don't open the hive every day “to check” — disturbance is a common cause of rejection.
A newspaper unite as an alternative
If the queenless colony is weak, it's often safer to unite it with a strong colony that already has a good queen than to introduce a new one. Lay a sheet of newspaper (pricked with a few holes) between the two boxes and let the bees chew through it over a few days. Slowly mingling the scents through the paper prevents fighting, and you end up with one strong colony under a single — better — queen.
Timing through the season
A queen is accepted most easily during a flow and full build-up, from spring through late summer, when there are plenty of young bees and food. Late summer and early autumn are excellent because you head into winter with a young queen. Avoid cold or wet weather, and late autumn when a colony accepts poorly. If there's no flow, light feeding with syrup raises your odds.
Acceptance checks and common mistakes
After seven to ten days, gently open the colony and look for eggs and fresh uncapped brood — proof the new queen is laying. Only then remove the cage, if the bees haven't already freed her.
The most common mistakes are: a second (old) queen left behind that you missed, opening the cage too early, introducing while the colony is building its own queen cells, and over-smoking and over-handling. Patience is your best tool.
Once you've introduced a new queen, log it in the bee-keeper app along with her mark-year and origin — so over the years you know exactly how old each queen is and which lines work best for you.