Alright, I put a queen cage in front of the hive in the entryway (with a queen inside). An hour later, bees surrounded the queen cage. Are they going to kill her, or are they just attracted to the pheremone?
Jake
Is your hive queenless?
Do those around her look like they are trying to sting her or biting at the cage or are they trying to feed her? As buzzbee asked ; are they queenless? If so how long? If not why the queen? Is the old one failing or are there other problems?
They will surround the queen either way. If there is a queen in the hive, then they will kill the new one. If not, they MIGHT kill the new one if they don't get to know her first.
Are you saying you put her into the entrance from outside of the hive? Why was she not placed on the inside of the hive between two frames? Is this what your saying? Is this a common way to introduce a new queen that I've just never heard of before? Anyway MB is correct, some bees will always get on & around the cage. There are only two reasons for this, they are either trying to get to her to kill her, or they are feeding her because she doesn't feed herself. If they are feeding her they will also be eating away at the candy end of the cage.