If a hive isn’t doing well, it's often an issue with varroa mites. But when the queen is not performing, it’s off with her head.
The queen is the only bee in the hive laying eggs. Every worker bee comes from her. When she is strong and consistent, the colony builds. When she is failing, the hive slows down and starts to struggle.
Requeening means replacing that queen with a new one.
For the price of a few jars of honey, you can install a new, mated queen with known genetics and a fresh engine to kickstart your bees.
Below is a quick look at what that actually looks like in the real world—nothing fancy, just getting a new queen into a hive.
A new queen can change the direction of a hive quickly. You will often see a more consistent brood pattern—solid, even patches of developing bees—and a steady increase in population once she gets going.
It also gives you control over genetics.
When a hive raises its own queen—either after swarming or from what beekeepers call a “walk-away split” (dividing a hive and letting them raise a queen on their own)—you don’t always know what you’re going to get. In parts of the southern U.S., that can include scutellata genetics—what most folks experience as “spicy” bees. That’s one of the main reasons people get out of beekeeping. It’s not fun working hot, defensive colonies.
Requeening lets you reset that by introducing a mated queen that is already proven to lay well and build a manageable colony.
The process itself is straightforward. The old queen is removed, and after a short period, the new queen is introduced in a cage.
That cage has a candy plug. The bees chew through that candy over a couple of days, and during that time they are exposed to her pheromones and begin to accept her. By the time she is released, the chances of rejection are much lower.
That introduction period matters. If the bees are not ready, they may reject her. Giving it a little time increases the chances that she will be accepted and start laying.
Requeening is one of the most useful tools you have as a beekeeper. If something feels off in a hive, it is worth considering the queen as part of the solution.
It is a simple step that can make a significant difference.