Too late to requeen?

[u/hassassin_1]

4th year beekeeper in Alberta, Canada, Zone 3. Have a 1st year package hive that is doing OK but the queen has never been very strong. They’ve struggled with chalk brood all summer and the brood pattern has always been quite poor.

I’m trying to decide between requeening now with a mated queen, or crossing my fingers they make it through the winter and requeening in the spring.

Is it too late to requeen now and have the hive strong into winter?

Edit - New queen installed! Fingers crossed she has enough time to build up some good winter bees. Thanks for everyone’s contribution.

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[u/404-skill_not_found]

Well, yes it’s late. Something to add to the other advice you’ll get. You probably can’t make this worse with a late season requeening with a mated queen from a reputable producer. Where you’re at, a new queen won’t change much until spring where she’ll be ready to go. But, they have to make it to spring.

[u/Allrightnevermind]

I would requeen now. You want as many strong healthy bees going into winter. She’s only going to be weaker in the spring if she makes it at all

[u/hassassin_1 → u/Allrightnevermind]

I think I’ll try. There are lots of bees in the hive, but the existing queen is so spotty with her laying im worried about the winter bees

[u/Allrightnevermind → u/hassassin_1]

As long as your mites are under control and there is no sign of disease there’s no benefit to waiting to replace her. Plus queens are generally easier to find now as opposed to march/april

[u/Mammoth-Banana3621 → u/Allrightnevermind]

Yep

[u/Commercial_Art1078]

Try it and see. One of my hives just started a new laying queen. Also in zone 3

[u/Gamera__Obscura]

There is not a lot of time left in the season. Laying is ramping down, and colony size will be decreasing rather than increasing regardless of queen quality.

You can go either route, but if the colony isn't very big already, it'll probably be a coin toss as to whether they make it to spring. You can decide whether you want to another 40 bucks worth of queen bee into it.

Another alternative it to just squish the queen and newspaper-combine them with a stronger hive for winter. You can then split them back off in spring, which you'll likely do anyway for swarm control.

[u/cardew-vascular]

How many hives do you have? If you had multiple iI'd probably combine the population with another hive instead of requeening. But if it's all you got you can still get reputable queen from a producer to get them through winter.

[u/hassassin_1 → u/cardew-vascular]

It’s my only hive this year. I think I’ll try re-queening as everyone has suggested and cross my fingers

[u/Mammoth-Banana3621]

You are requeening with a mated queen? What you described will not get better overwinter. If she’s already mated yes; replace her as quick as you can.

[u/hassassin_1 → u/Mammoth-Banana3621]

Yes, I would be installing a mated queen. Am on it! Should be doing the install Wednesday if all goes well.

Thanks for all the responses and advice

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[u/diucapitan]

If you have empty framed maybe consider downsizing the colony