The same principle is, of course, a large factor in the Supersedure of colonies from package bees. Such a colony is, practically, equivalent to a natural swarm which, in normal conditions, finds a home in an empty box or a hollow tree without combs. At the time a swarm emerges, the queen is not laying at her maximum. As comb is built, she fills it with eggs and keeps up with comb building. The colony is in perfect balance. Perhaps the package colony would be in such balance if it also, was installed in an empty box, or even one with foundation in it so that, as comb was built, the queen would gradually come to her maximum egg-laying.

However, to place this package colony on a fully drawn out set of combs and with honey coming in, or with plenty of food, is to throw it out of balance. Such conditions demand an actively laying queen who can fill the combs with eggs quickly.

What would, be more natural, if she did not, than for the bees to act as though the queen were failing, and to supersede her?

The best success with package bees that I have seen was where full combs of honey were used instead of empty combs. The practice was to have the bees delivered early in the season before much nectar was available; to install them on full combs of honey, and then let them alone until the main honeyflow was on. Supersedure was no problem. Colonies were boiling over with bees and were ready for supers when the winter protection was removed at the beginning of the honeyflow. These bees, being installed on combs of honey, had little room for brood rearing except as they gradually used the honey for that purpose.

The colonies, therefore, were in bal ance, and the queens not superseded. Of course, other factors influence Supersedure, but this one of colony balance is probably the most important.

Requeening As Part Of The System Of Management

Many producers have worked out their problem by using queen cells built at the proper time; killing queens one day and introducing cells the next day. Frequently this succeeds and is profitable, particularly in regions where there is, between honeyflows, a period when, if brood was reared, it would be done at a loss. The absence of a queen from a hive during such a period is an advantage, saving much honey which otherwise would be used in brood rearing and in keeping useless bees alive during a dearth. But there are regions where this plan does not work out well, and because it must be done in a very short time there are many beekeepers who hesitate at undertaking such a wholesale job as, for example, requeening one hundred hives a day for ten days.

If the honeyflow does not come too early in the season for a divided colony to build up to honey-storing strength by the time the main flow begins, and if there is a sufficiently early flow, or if the main flow is of long duration, a combined selective breeding and queen rearing plan may be used.