Requeening is the process of replacing a colony's queen. A beekeeper may want to requeen for several reasons:

• Failing Queen: The current queen’s brood laying pattern is poor and/or she is laying drones
• Change Colony Genetics: The current queen's offspring are not genetically desirable. Goals could be to replace the queen with one that has been bred and mated to produce workers that are:
  • Pest resistant or tolerant - one example is varroa sensitive hygiene
  • Less defensive 
  • Better adapted to the local environment

Ways to Requeen

There are three common queen rearing methods. Please note the procedures we offer are guidelines and are not intended to be the only successful way.  It is important to understand the why behind each step. This allows you to develop your own strategies when things do not go as planned.

• Mated Queen Addition

• Step	Summary	Procedure	Explanation
  1	Remove Current Queen	Find and remove the current queen. Consider preserving her for education and outreach.	To allow enough time to pass for her pheromones to dissipate before a new queen is introduced.  A queen right colony will usually kill an introduced queen.
  2	Wait	2 days, or 5-7 days for highly-defensive colonies.	The colony has time to realize it is queenless which makes it more likely to accept the new queen.
  3	Add New Caged Queen	a. Locate and remove all queen cells. Remove any attendants that may be in the queen cage with the new queen.   b. Place the closed queen cage with the new queen in the center of the hive between frames with screen facing up and candy end down. c. If the workers ignore the queen while she is in the cage she is not suitable and you need to get a new queen. d. If the workers are trying to sting her through the screen use duct tape to secure the cork. e. If in a scutellata hybrid area mark the queen in a closed area return her to the queen cage and duct tape over the corks.	a.The cage protects the new queen from rejection, balling and stinging, while allowing the bees to interact with her mouthparts, antennae, and spread her pheromones. b. Placing the screen up allows the beekeeper to observe the queen without removing the cage. The candy end angled down prevents it from dripping on the queen if it melts in the colony. c. If the workers are feeding her through the screen this is a good sign. d. We recommend marking the queen before being released to identify that the queen established in the hive is the one you introduced.
  4	Wait	2 days, or 5 -7 days for highly-defensive colonies.	The colony is given time to acclimate to the new queen's pheromones.
  5	Release New Queen	a. Open the hive and observe the workers behavior towards the new queen while she is still in the cage.  If calm behavior is exhibited towards the new queen, remove the plug on the queen cage to expose the queen candy. b. If aggressive behavior is still being exhibited towards the queen, leave her untouched.  Look for and remove any queen cells. Repeat Steps 4 and 5.	a. No additional comment. b. If the colony continues to try to kill the caged queen, remove her and combine the queenless colony with another colony so that the queenless colony does not become a drone layer. In Scutellata hybrid areas it is unlawful to allow colonies to supercede.

• Queen Cell Addition

• This method is recommended for areas with little to no Scutellata hybrids ("Africanized Honey Bees").

  Step	Summary	Procedure	Explanation
  1	Stimulate Queen Cell Production	At the donor colony temporarily remove the queen and bank her in another colony.	Removing the queen stimulates the building of queen cells to raise a new queen.
  2	Queen Removal	8 days after removing the queen from the donor colony in step 1, remove the queen from the colony you want to requeen.	Allow 10 days for queen cells to develop in the donor colony before attempting to transfer to the recipient colony.
  3	Wait	Wait 2 days.	The colony is given time to realize it is queenless which makes them more likely to accept the queen cell.
  4	Install Queen Cell	Carefully cut out a queen cell from the donor colony and gently press the royal jelly area of the queen cell onto the comb in the middle of the brood area in the recipient colony.   Be sure to maintain the queen cell’s vertical orientation.	No additional comment.
  5		Reintroduce Banked Queen              Reintroduce the temporarily banked queen from step 1 into her colony or replace her with one of the queen cells	No additional comment.

• Colony Produced Queen

• This method is recommended for areas with little to no Scutellata hybrids ("Africanized Honey Bees").

  Step	Summary	Procedure	Explanation
  1	Queen Removal	Remove the queen. If the colony’s characteristics are generally desirable, ensure <24-36 hrs old larvae are present. If different characteristics are desired or there are no suitable aged larvae, insert a frame from another desirable colony that has  <24-36 hrs old larvae.	<24-36 hrs old larvae are required because there is a finite time in development that determines whether a female bee will become a worker or queen. If the larvae are too old, they are already determined to be workers. When a larva that is too old is raised to become a queen, it will be an inferior queen.
  2	Wait	Wait 2 days.	During this time the colony starts building queen cells.
  3	Check	Check to confirm queen cells are being built. If not, ensure there are enough <24-36 hrs old larvae present, plenty of nurse bees, bee bread, and nectar.	No additional comment.

Post Requeening

• Monitor food stores and feed if needed
• Ensure new eggs are being laid. If not, you may need to requeen again.
• A colony with an inferior queen will attempt to supercede.  For the next month look for supercedure cells. In areas with scutellata hybrids, destroy supercedure cells and requeen.
• Once the new queen is established, mark her.

Hazards

Several common hazards present themselves when beekeepers requeen:

• Hopelessly Queenless:  
  • A colony without a queen is in an unstable state.  When a colony does not have a queen or open brood after approximately 4 weeks the workers' ovaries may activate and they start laying drones.  This leads to a colony that is mostly drones and will collapse.
• Rejection of a New Queen: 
  • Bees can recognize their own queen through pheromones.  If a colony still has the pheromones of their previous queen, a new queen placed into that colony is typically interpreted as an intruder and is killed.  
  • If a new queen is poorly mated she will be superceded.