I installed a queen via a queen cage with a candy plug Friday early afternoon. I need to leave for business tomorrow morning at 8 or 9 AM. My choices are check the hive now and if not released do so myself OR wait until I come back and check Thursday and afternoon. Thoughts?
It would be safe to release her. Or let them chew her out.
Look at the cage, do the bees look like they are sticking tongues into feed and groom her or are they running crazy bending abdomen down like trying to sting?
Most naturally they are very happy to have a new Queen, so you will mist likely be fine. Let her out and when you return you can check to see if you see new eggs and larva and Pupae
Installed a queen into what? An existing colony? A package? A queenless colony? A laying worker colony?
Yeah, into what. If it was a package just dump her in.
I lost a queen last year putting her into a new nuc and I suspect that it was because I rushed it and let her out after two days...
There is some confusion here. A nuc would have an established queen so my assumption is that it was a split that you put in a nuc box. Whereas a package would have time with the queen in the cage in route.