^%^&&$it!

[zzen01]

 :'(! Well I hived them tonight(2 3lb pkgs) AND when it cam time to "install" Queeny(Pkg 1) I popped the cork out of the cage and found there was NO CANDY! Anyway Queeny turned into an ESCAPE ARTIST and TOOK OFF we could NOT find her(I forgot my Bee supplier's Queen Cages have just a cork no CANDY!) !  ! HOPEFULLY she will go into the hive be happy and LAY EGGS! Pkg 2/ I dumped them in OK BUT when I popped the cork out and was going to put her in btwn 2 frames I DROPPED THE CAGE into the Bee "Mass" and Queeny 2 went into the "mass" someplace. Anyway how bad did I screw up and when will I know if the 2 Hives have accepted the 2 queens?  :imsorry:

[Kathyp]

did you leave hive one open so that she could fly back in?  hive two will probably be ok. 

here is what i would do:  tomorrow,  i'd open the hives and look for the queens.  usually i woudn't open a new hive that soon, but you need to know.'

if there is no queen you have a couple of options.  1 would be to quickly order a new queen.  another would be to temporarily combine the hives then split when the one queen is laying well.  the split could be given eggs and hopefully you'd get a mated queen pretty quickly laying.  the second will cost you a month, but they usually catch up pretty quickly.

if you don't have a queen in either, you have no choice but to order queens.

[iddee]

If you are an experienced keep, I agree with Kathy. If you aren't, I doubt you can find either queen that soon. I would wait 7 days and look for eggs. I would also set the two hives 1 foot apart for the 7 days. If one has a queen and the other doesn't, there's a good chance they will combine themselves.

[AllenF]

Eggs on new white foundation are very hard to see, but an easy way to know you have a queen.   

[Michael Bush]

The one you dropped in will do fine.  The problem is the one that flew.  She may find her way back to the right hive or the wrong hive.  The California cages usually come with NO candy and are expected to be direct released.

[kd7kxw]

Yeah I had Californian cages too, the guy I got mine from gave me a handful of marshmallows and told me when I uncork the queen to stuff one in there. He said it worked as well as the candy but only takes 6-8 hours to get through.

[DoctorZ]

Yes, I had an antsy queen as well during a release of one of my spring packages. Flew right into the syrup. I rescued her, but she did not make it. (Snif) :'(

[zzen01]

Well kinda good news looks like the "Escape Artist" Queeny found her way back into the hive and is laying GANGBUSTERS! The other one that I "dropped" in is gone. I called Draper's Super Bee in Auburn, NE and they are sending me a replacement Queen! So life ain't all bad!!

[BlueBee]

Time to buy some lottery tickets with that money you were going to spend on new queens :-D

[Dimmsdale]

I also bought 2 packages from Drapers.  In one of them the Queen never laid an egg.  They replaced the Queen with no questions asked.  Great company!