I've got 23 queens arriving in the mail tomorrow - the plan was to find the queens in my hives tonight and make them queenless for 24hrs then put the new cages in. I couldn't find a single queen to remove them... How many days can a queen stay in the cage for of I put some water on the mesh and keep the cages in a dark draft free place?
I've kept them over a week, (they had attendants) i would soak Q-tips in water and lay on top of the screened cage. I kept them in my den under my desk lamp to keep them warm,and prop a notebook or something over the top to make it dark. Just make sure they can get air and change the Q-tip twice aday. I had bad weather and couldn't work my bees, don't know how long you could do this. :? Jack
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I woud say 3 days. Then you get problems. Not at least one week.
23 queens is much and you need much nuc bees.
Easiest way is to move nucs to another yard that bees stay in nucs.
One frame of bees is enough to start. Then they need a piece of brood that they does not become nervous and not leave the nuc.
The queen will last as long as the attendants do. A drop of water a day, a quiet dark place and they will last a week easy. New attendants they will last much longer.
Quote from: Michael Bush on March 21, 2011, 04:48:43 PM
The queen will last as long as the attendants do. A drop of water a day, a quiet dark place and they will last a week easy. New attendants they will last much longer.
7 days and 23 queens. Not wise to build 3 nucs per day.
You should manage in two days with those queens. But you should move nucs 2 miles away.
No idea to order so much queens at one time and keep them in cage 7 days.
Rethink the system
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100% system is that you make a nuc over each hive.
There is a mesh between nuc and main hive.
You take a frame where is emerging new bees.
Shake all old bees way and let new bees emerge in the heat of the hive under the nuc.
Stuck all holes that no bee can go in or out.
Then give a new queen and keep all holes closed 3 days.
The queen start to lay and they get same odor from down stairs. You have time to find old queens.
24 h without queen does not quarantee that they accept the new queen.
Thanks Finski for your thoughts - the only reason there is a need to hold them for a few days is because i haven't been able to remove the queens in the hives that i want to place the new queens in to... I don't have the resources at the moment to make up 23 nucleus hives and pull all of my other hives apart to fill them as we're coming to the end of the season here and it would be too stressful for them. I guess all i was wondering is whether or not with water, darkness, fresh air, warmth etc they would be ok for a few days in the cages whilst i make the other hives queenless - i also want to leave the hives receiving the new queens queenless for 24hrs (fits in with my work schedule etc) prior to placing the new queens in. I'm expecting to receive the queens in the post either today (Tuesday) or, at the latest, tomorrow - they were posted on monday. Ideally they will all be in their hives by Thursday night at the latest so four days from shipping. If the hives are able to be queenless for 24hrs i might help them out a little by putting a small nail through the queen candy so as to give them a slight head start (thoughts on doing that?)
Quote from: Finski on March 21, 2011, 05:56:37 PM
Quote from: Michael Bush on March 21, 2011, 04:48:43 PM
The queen will last as long as the attendants do. A drop of water a day, a quiet dark place and they will last a week easy. New attendants they will last much longer.
7 days and 23 queens. Not wise to build 3 nucs per day.
You should manage in two days with those queens. But you should move nucs 2 miles away.
No idea to order so much queens at one time and keep them in cage 7 days.
Rethink the system
Quote from: Finski on March 21, 2011, 06:08:07 PM
The queen start to lay and they get same odor from down stairs. You have time to find old queens.
24 h without queen does not quarantee that they accept the new queen.
Wouldn't the odour from the bottom hive (queenright) confuse the bees in the top hive (Queenless)? also, 24hrs queenless plus the time taken for the bees to eat the queen candy - so she'd probably be in a queenless hive 72hrs before they eat through
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There are hives which do not accept a new queen. They are going to make their of queen cells. if honey flow is good, they seldom do that, but during bad weather they are triggy.
If bees are tightly fixed on the queen cage and they keep the cage with their jaws, the queen will not accepted.
You have heard about 2 queen colonies. Their scents are mixed there and the boath queens have the scent of the hive.
I use several tricks when i renew the queen.
First i try, what bees think about the scent of new queen. If they do not show much attention, it is a good sign.
If workers are eager to accustome with the new scent, it is not good.
Setting of queens is not easy job. It is easy to loose 30% of byed queens.
So i really need to pay attention to how the bees behave when i put the new queen cage in - if they ball her and react aggressively then i will have a problem with acceptance but if they seem quiet around her then it should be ok...
Quote from: Finski on March 21, 2011, 08:16:53 PM
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There are hives which do not accept a new queen. They are going to make their of queen cells. if honey flow is good, they seldom do that, but during bad weather they are triggy.
If bees are tightly fixed on the queen cage and they keep the cage with their jaws, the queen will not accepted.
You have heard about 2 queen colonies. Their scents are mixed there and the boath queens have the scent of the hive.
I use several tricks when i renew the queen.
First i try, what bees think about the scent of new queen. If they do not show much attention, it is a good sign.
If workers are eager to accustome with the new scent, it is not good.
Setting of queens is not easy job. It is easy to loose 30% of byed queens.
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Yes, those balling signs are what is good to watch.
If the workers put poison on the cage, it is difficult to get them accept the queen.
After capping their own queen cells they accept what ever.
They may violate queens antenna of leg even if they do not kill.
Quote from: brooksbeefarm on March 21, 2011, 10:22:16 AMI've kept them over a week, (they had attendants) i would soak Q-tips in water and lay on top of the screened cage. I kept them in my den under my desk lamp to keep them warm,and prop a notebook or something over the top to make it dark. Just make sure they can get air and change the Q-tip twice aday.
Seven days is not a problem , great idea with the Q-tip , think I´ll try that. :-D
mvh edward :-P