[Terri]

Or, you COULD re-queen every now and then with a mated queen ordered from up north. Since the genetics of a hive are determined by the queen and the drones she has mated with, that really ought to do it, I think. There are no africanized bees up north, yet.

 

[Terri]

OH!

I should explain that africanized bees take over a hive by mating with a virgin queen.

The hive gets too crowded or the queen gets too old, and the bees decide to swarm and the old queen goes with them. They leave behind some of the bees and a few queen cells. When the young queens hatch, they fight over who keeps the hive. The victorious queen flies off and mates. Once she has mated, she is done with sex for good.

If she mates with africanized males, she will produce africanized offspring for the rest of her life. If she has only mated with non-africanized males, she will lay good eggs for the rest of her life.

If an africanized hive is requeened, the offspring will then reflect the new queen and her mates, and in 6 weeks when the africanized bees die of old age the hive will no longer be africanized.

If you like, you can order marked queens so that you can tell by looking at her if the queen has been replaced or not.

 

[Terri]

No, I HAVEN'T requeened yet. I am a beginning beekeeper. I have had one hive once, and I am looking forward to starting again this spring.

 

[Terri]

"How do beekeepers raise queens, from there good queens to put in new hives, and know that they have a good queen"

Yep. That is a problem where there are africanized bees.

Some southern queen producers are going to artificial insemination.

The problem is, the queens only mate on the wing and a fair amount of distance off of the ground. I don't remember how high: perhaps 20 feet or so?

If the conditions are not to her liking, she will stay near the ground and there will be no action.

My bee teacher put a virgin queen in a litle cage on a kite. Once the kite got a bit up, the local drones showed up. He then reeled in the kite, and when the queen got close to the ground all of the drones left.

Bees are VERY particular.