Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

I am about to place new queens into recently developed nucs that are from a very defensive hive.  The queens are in JZ-BZ plastic cages and I have been advised to cover the plug with duct tape for the first week of the introduction in order to avoid having them killed.
Hoping to get a few more opinions on this topic.  Please provide input as soon as possible as I would like to insert these girls today.
Thank you!

Do as advised then test for acceptance with the bare finger swipe across the cage. I will locate the thread that shows how to do this.
Jim Altmiller

Thanks!  I saw that technique on Randy Oliver's website (Scientific Beekeeping).  Really appreciate the rapid response!!

Here is the link to the thread:

https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=52028.0

Jim Altmiller

Excellent!  That observation hive is amazing!  One question, you don?t think having her exit candy blocked (taped) for a week is too long?

I released a few queens after 12 hours because the bees showed that they were accepting her. Easily moved with finger, fanning her pheromones etc. Took her some time to come out of cage but all is well. A week does sound like a long time.

I have left queens in protective cages for as long as a week and all was fine.  Normal is a few hours to a few days, but a week is possible, very possible.

3 days with tape. Then let them at the candy.
  In a nuc or regular hive that is plenty.
In requeening of a big full on hive, then a week of tape plus search and destroy e-cells before removing tape. 

Thank you!  Going to do the 3 days. If balled up, will wait longer. We found the queen in the diner hive, so I?m confident they are both queenless. Also took out all cups that spoked suspicious.  Really appreciate all the help. Love this forum! 



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Capitan,
I was saying to block the candy so that the angry bees cannot get to her. You need to do the finger test on a daily basis and release her when they are ready. This will probably take less than 3 days if they are queen less. The problem is that if they have eggs or young larvae and make a queen larvae they may not accept your queen. Hence the testing. If they do not accept at the 3 day mark I would take the hive apart and remove all queen cell.
Jim Altmiller

Thanks again Jim. Interestingly, Randy Oliver (Scientific Beekeeping) suggests doing basically the same thing. My first attempt at installing (3 nucs from the same hive) resulted in one dead queen after the first day. I called the supplier on it and they told me that checking was ?not good practice? kind of implying it was my fault. Good to hear someone backing up the approach. BTW, even though there was no warranty, they refunded me the cost of the two unsuccessful attempts.


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If the queen was still in the cage and not released, they did not kill her because you were checking acceptance.
Bee sure to place her in the top or bottom where you do not have to take the whole hive apart to check on her. Sometimes during warm weather I just slide the cage under the front opening with the screen facing up. I have also placed them in the feeder hole under the top cover with the screen facing down.
Jim

Imho, a dead queen in the cage is usually because she starved or froze. Or dehydrated. It Would be extraordinary for them to be able to sting her in the cage.  They may bite her feet.  They may ball the cage and overheat her. They may completely abandon her and cluster elsewhere when it is cold. Whatever the case the bees ignoring the cage, or guarding it, due to there being an existing queen or cells or laying workers.

Learned something really insightful from one of Kim Flottum videos today.  Until now I did not fathom that an individual bee may be choosy about which larvae and other bees (queens drones) they will care for and feed and which she will not.  Need to do some data mining to find support that hypothesis.  That would explain alot, especially with respect to when changing genetics in a hive.

In questionable conditions I like a push in cage.

Both queens accepted. Thanks for all the help!


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. Thanks for coming back with an update!