The cost of a queen bee can range anywhere from $20 to $40, but you’re going to have to pay for shipping too, so that’ll bump up the price by about $10.
But what if you’re buying locally?
Well, if you’re buying locally, you won’t have to pay for shipping, but you’ll have to pay for gas instead. That’s no problem if you’re within 10 miles, but you’re going to have to go out of your way if you’re further out, and you’re going to be paying about $3 for each extra 10 miles you travel.
It’s not going to be exactly $3 per 10 miles, but that’s the rough price of gas for each 10 miles of extra travel.
You might consider that an approximation of “shipping,” but it’s probably easier to think of it as an extra $10 for the queen bee if you’re making a trip that’s more than 10 miles each way.
When Should You Replace a Queen Bee?
You should replace a queen bee every 2 to 3 years.
There are two reasons for this:
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The queen bee will start to run out of sperm and will no longer be able to lay as many eggs. This means that your hive will start to decrease in size until you replace the queen bee.
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The hive may become too full of the offspring of the queen bee and the population will become too dense. When this happens, the worker bees will start to create queen cells to form a new queen that can leave the hive and find a new one to populate. If the old queen is still there, then there will be two queens in the hive, which will cause a swarm to happen.
A honey bee swarm is when the majority of the honey bees leave the hive and try to find a new one. The old queen will leave with the swarm, and the new queen that hatched out of her queen cell will stay and become the new queen of the old hive.
Swarms are usually a good thing, because it means you can create a new hive out of the bees that left, but it can also be quite problematic if you’re not ready for it.
A swarm is a sign that the old queen bee had to leave to find a new hive before the new queen bee hatched out of her queen cell. This is because there was no room in the hive for her to exist, since there was already a queen in the hive.
If the old queen bee swarms before you are ready, then you’ll have to go out and capture the swarm to put them back into the old hive, or into a new one. The old hive will then raise a new queen from one of the eggs or young larva that are left.
When To Replace a Queen Bee Early
If you notice that the queen bee is not laying as well as she should be, if you notice that the bees are not raising enough worker brood, or if you notice that the bees are not raising any drones, then you should replace the queen bee early.
Also, if you notice that the queen bee is not laying anywhere near as well as she used to, then you should replace her early.
You can tell how well the queen bee is laying by examining the hive. If you see plenty of capped brood, then that’s a good sign. If you see plenty of open brood and eggs, then that’s an even better sign. If you see a good mix of capped brood, open brood, eggs, and larvae, then she’s laying very well.
On the other hand, if you don’t see much capped brood, if you don’t see much open brood, if there’s only a few eggs and larvae dotted around here and there, then that’s a sign that the queen bee isn’t laying as well as she used to.
Don’t be too hasty to replace the queen bee if she’s just laying a little less than she used to. It’s better to wait and make sure that it’s not just a temporary slump. If she continues to lay less and less, then you should replace her as soon as possible.
If you’re unsure whether or not to replace her, and you can’t find any immediate problems with the hive, then I’d suggest you do a frame transfer.
If the queen bee is getting old, then she’ll be laying a lot less, and this will give you a chance to replace her by taking all the brood frames out of the hive and putting them into a new hive with a new queen bee. This new hive will then become the new hive and the old one will become empty.
If the queen bee is not getting old, then she’ll just keep laying less and less, until the hive eventually becomes too small to sustain itself. When this happens, they’ll either die out or swarm.
If you’re not ready for a swarm, then it’s probably best to replace her early. If you’re not ready for a swarm, then you’re going to have to keep an eye on the hive and try to judge the best time to do a frame transfer to replace the queen bee with a new one.