Long Live The Queen
In conventional beekeeping practices we are taught to replace the Queen bee every year. They call it requeening. The are a few reasons for this. Sometimes a hive looses their queen and you need to replace her if the bees don’t. Sometimes a hive is dwindling and the only way to save them is by brining in a new queen. Those are the only two reasons I support. Now, lets talk about the main reason people requeen: productivity. The idea is, humans want a productive, fertile, active queen in her prime. Most queens will live 2-5 years, but the older queens *might* not be as productive as the young queens. As a result, beekeepers are advised to requeen every year.
This means removing and killing the mother of the colony and forcing the colony, after this crisis, to adapt to the scent of a new queen in order to survive.
I seriously just came across a blog where someone had defined SPRING as S= Stimulate For Rapid Foraging Force, P = Prevent Swarms, R = Rotate Hive Bodies I = Inspect The Productivity of the Queen, N = New Queen, G= Give 1:1 Sugar Water. SPRING.
GAH! Basically EVERYTHING I teach people not to do.
We pour the acid of our youth-obsessed culture over everything we touch. If she’s not young, vibrant and popping out babies, get rid of her, even if she’s still fertile. Fuck. It’s like Patriarchy looking you square in the face and saying, after 35 we consider your a geriatric pregnancy. Might as well off us now.
What is a Queen? What is a Mother? Does a queen loose her value as she matures? Is a 22 year old mother better fit for the job than a 32 year old mother?
Hey beekeepers, the colony knows how to replace their queen when it’s time. Sure sometimes the new queen kills the old queen, but did you know that sometimes the both queens, young and old, live in the same colony together. Bet nobody every told you that.
Don’t listen to the bullshit. Don’t replace your queen arbitrarily. Don’t enforce the weakening of the species. And don’t for godsake, allow ANYONE to let you loose your sense of value. Fertility comes in many forms. Smash the Patriarchy not the Queen.