Beehive Queen replacement by Mohammed Rahim
I get asked a lot why do you change queen every year? So good queens too? The short answer is yes, we change every queen. Our queens are rated and the best of them we keep, and breed beyond them.
Personally, I’m a big fan of young queens and a big fan of the queens born after Summer Sacranti.
Most of our divisions are not like most in the spring, but in the summer.
One reason I like changing queens every year is because it produces more quantities of phermon. Young queens leave more phermones than older queens.
In bees, Queen phermon controls many aspects of worker behavior and anatomy.
The main source of phermon is through the mandibular gland, which contains 5 well-specified compounds called Queen mandibular phermon or QMP.
QMP prevents ovary growth in workers, nurtures new queens, helps transition from nurses to pastures, attracts workers, reduces supersedures and swarm. .
New QMP functions are still being sought and findings suggest that QMP influences learning and memory, and a higher QMP boosts resistance to starvation.
Many beekeepers eliminate colonies, but they have food around them.
Many beekeepers battle supersedure and herd despite having enough room for the Queen and the colony.
And blame beekeeping?
Mites, this is right. We can control mites too.
This is why I say beekeepers know a lot about beekeeping and very little about the bees they keep.
The excess of information is not beneficial and people should stop following with their eyes closed.
When QMP is low, it disrupts the behavior of the colonies.
This makes things messy. Young queens are better dressed up during February, September, October and they also come in full production mode during winter.
The colony tolerates more intense colonies, causing high QMP produced by little queen.
This is why we replace queens annually and we replace them to October instead of spring.
We want Queens QMP to be the highest during winter and spring construction.
Beehive Queen replacement by Mohammed Rahim
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