thinking of requeening

[randydrivesabus]

i started 3 hives from packages back in april....2 of them are doing well. the third has been slow from the beginning. the queen i received with the package was lost or killed since the package seems to have included a different queen in with the shaken bees. i gotta say that she seems to be subpar. the 2 other hives have filled 2 deeps. this one is still working on the first. so i think i would be best off purchasing another queen and trying to find the slacker and dispatching her. i think we still have enough flow coming for this hive to grow strong enough for winter. yes....i am optimistic.
anyway....any recommendations as to where to get a queen? should i kill the existing queen a few days before installing the noob? have any of you ever done this and then been unable to find the old queen?

[kathyp]

that's funny.  i got into my crappy hive today and saw the queen.  i went into the house and got a jar with some alcohol in it and went back, scooper her up, and dropped her in.

i finally got tired of the poor performance and only wish i'd done it sooner!!  i am going to let mine have a go at requeening.  hate to buy another so late.  i can always combine them with another hive.

[randydrivesabus]

i was thinking of letting them raise their own but i'm not sure that the queen was worthless because she got old or if her genetics are bad.

[kathyp]

i just figured as late as it was, i didn't want to buy a new queen.  i can do that next year.  this queen was so bad that i was in danger of losing the hive.  her daughter has to be better!  besides, the drones contribute to those genetics and there are plenty of them around.

don't know if it will work, but i'm going to give them a chance and feed the he** out of them.