Why Requeen in the Summer?
There can be many signs and reasons to requeen a hive. In general, it’s a good idea to proactively requeen each hive every year before they begin to show signs of needing to be requeened. It’s important to note that what may look like a failing queen is often the result of other factors.
Signs a Hive Needs Requeening
- Your hive is consistently aggressive. If several bees are following you post-inspection for several minutes, even as you walk away, and they behave this way consistently, it’s a good idea to requeen for your own comfort’s sake.
- The brood pattern is “spotty” throughout the hive.
Many things can cause a spotty brood pattern. Such as:
A failing queen – As queens age, they begin running out of sperm and start laying a more “spotty” pattern mixed with drone brood. A spotty pattern as a result of a failing queen will appear across all frames of brood, not just one to two frames.
Spottiness only on some frames often occurs as the queen lays around cells of honey and pollen, giving a spotty appearance. Keep in mind that a failing queen does typically create a spotty brood pattern, but it should be seen throughout the hive. If it has been a year since you’ve requeened, it is most likely time to requeen.
Varroa mite infestation: As a hive becomes increasingly infested with Varroa, bees will begin pulling infected larvae and pupae from their cells, causing a spotty brood pattern. Treating for Varroa is critical if it gets to this point.
Chalkbrood: Brood infected by the fungal disease chalkbrood will die, causing a spotty brood pattern. It’s typically found in the spring months and is best treated with probiotics and warmer, drier weather.
European foulbrood: This disease affects larvae and causes developing brood to look yellow and “melted.” It is also commonly found during the spring. Probiotics, warmer weather, requeening, and feeding can help.
Time of year: During the summer months, queens often slow down egg laying as pollen and nectar become scarce. As a result, brood can often look spottier during the heat of summer. It will generally improve once pollen returns and temperatures cool.
Poor nutrition: If a hive is nutritionally starved, bees may begin to cannibalize brood, causing it to appear spotty.
Rapid growth and laying around resources: When the queen is laying faster than bees can move honey or pollen out of her way, she will often lay around them, causing a spotty pattern. However, this is typically only seen on a few frames of brood, while the rest of the brood remains normal and compact.
- Dwindling population or not growing when it should be. Between February and July, a hive’s population should be steadily increasing. If a hive has been consistently well-fed, has no mite issues or brood disease, yet has not been growing or is dwindling over several months, you should requeen.
- Drone brood is mixed in with worker brood. A queen running out of sperm will result in unfertilized drone brood being mixed with worker brood. This will appear as random, larger, bumpy cells of capped brood mixed with the more even, flat worker brood. This should be visible throughout the hive, with hundreds of these larger cells mixed in. Drone brood isolated to certain areas of frames is normal and expected, rather than scattered throughout worker brood.
- There are no eggs, larvae, or brood. This is a tricky one. Depending on the stage of queenlessness, the hive may already be raising a new queen. Since this is a more complex issue, it needs closer evaluation.
No Eggs, Larvae, or Brood
First, make sure you are able to spot eggs and larvae. If you are confident there are no eggs, larvae, or capped brood, then you almost certainly have a queenless hive. The most important question at this point is how long they have been queenless.
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If there is still capped brood in the hive, there is a good chance the hive has a virgin queen that hasn’t started laying yet but should soon. Give the hive a frame of eggs and larvae from a stronger hive and check back in two days. If they are beginning to raise queen cells all over the frame, then they are queenless and you will need to add a queen. If they do not raise queen cells, give them another week and you will most likely begin to see eggs from a new queen. If you don’t, wait another two to three days. If there is still nothing, then proceed with adding a new queen. If you don’t have a frame of brood to give the hive, simply wait another week and check again for eggs.
How to find Eggs in your hive
- If they have no brood, not even capped brood, they have been queenless for at least 21 days. In that span of time, they should have been able to successfully raise a new queen, and she should have begun laying. Assuming your hive is strong enough to survive, give them a frame of brood from a stronger hive (not necessary if you don’t have a second stronger hive) and give them a new queen as quickly as possible.
If your hives symptoms match any one of the above, it’s a good idea to go ahead and requeen as quickly as possible. For more information on this topic, you can always visit our Bee Help & Answers page on our website.
New Summer Queen
Summer probably isn't your first choice of when to requeen. But check out this video showing the improvement in this hive. The results speak for themselves. Queens are only available from April thru August, so if your hive has any of these issues, taking corrective steps can make all the difference going into fall.