Beekeepers Blog

This is largely a question of preference. It doesn’t generally hurt a queen to get her marked, but it does cost extra, since beekeepers have to find a queen, pick her up, and mark her. It is far easier to...

This is frustrating, but fairly common. You introduced a queen to your hive properly, following all the steps in “How to requeen”, but she wasn’t accepted. If this happens to you, here is what to do:  Read “How to tell...

Also read:  How often should I requeen my hive?  How to tell if my hive is queenless  Requeening a hive with an existing hive is relatively simple. Deciding if they need to be requeened and finding the queen is a bit more...

Queens are readily available for purchase April-September. Thus, it is best to plan to requeen during those months. Hives most readily accept new queens when there is a natural honey and pollen flow, or you are feeding the hive. So,...

First, verify they are actually queenless. Depending on what part of the country you are from, queens either completely stop laying in the fall or at least dramatically reduce laying. If you are in an area that typically remains above...

First, does your hive have eggs or larva but no capped brood? If that’s the case, the hive amost likely has a newly installed, or reared queen, and the new queen is just getting started laying. If your hive has...