Queen acceptance?

[GSF]

I went into my three new package hives today(3 days after installation). All three were drawing comb (foundation). The queens are still in their cages. Each cage was covered with bees. I couldn't tell if the bees were aggressive or trying to free them. You could tell that they had eat some of the candy through the screen. All the comb in each hive also was centered around the queen cage. All three had some bur comb started between the frames where the q cage was and was about 5 inches in diameter. One cage actually had some comb being built off of it. I took the cork out of the candy end and puncture through the candy with a small nail. In two of the hives I was able to pull an empty comb from the other hives and place in there.

Would the comb suggest that they have accepted the queens and are ready for them to start laying?

Seems like I read if you put smoke in the hive they will accept newcomers better after the smoke is gone. Fact or fiction?

[jclark96]

I don't know about the smoke question. But if the bees have been in the cage for a few days, and in the hive for a few days, they shold be acclimated to their queen. Don't check on them for about three more days, and then only check to make sure the queen is out, remove the cage, replace the missing frames, and close up. After that slow down to a 7-10 day rate.

[RHBee]

Did you pick them up or were they shipped?  The reason I ask is, I give them a week for queen introduction.  If I'm introducing a different race 10 days and feed. In either case feeding helps. If they were shipped this time counts toward introduction period.

[10framer]

gary,
when we re-queened every fall we used to go through and kill the queen and immediately put the new queen cage in with a hole punched in the candy.  3 or 4 days should be plenty with a package.  they should have a swarm mentality and be bent on building up.  
i wouldn't smoke them a lot but that's just me.

[sterling]

I dump the bees out of the box into the hive then pull the cork, hold the cage inbetween a couple frames and let the queen out put all the frames in and close it up. Check in nine days and see capped brood.

[GSF]

Went in there this afternoon and all three queens were out of the q cages. I saw eggs in the first hive but didn't see the queen. The sunlight was in my favor. However in the other two hives I saw the queens walking around but no eggs - bad sunlight even with the jewelers visor.

One of the queens looked pretty slim. I'm thinking it may be that she will get bigger when she starts laying. These were packages with mated queens. How the heck do they know the queens were mated? There was 700 3lb packages setting on the floor in that metal building. Obviously, the commercial guys has it figured out. Any thoughts?

[10framer]

they are supposed to be laying before they're caged.  i helped a cage queens with a couple of commercial queen rearers in lowndes county back in the early 80's.  back then a queen would cost you about 5 dollars if i remember right.  there was one very big operation and at least two decent size operations within an hour of montgomery back in those days.

[drlonzo]

@ GSF  -  The commercial guys put their queen cells into "mating nuc's" and wait till they have had ample time to hatch, fly out, mate, and come back.  They are supposed to find the queen while doing the catching of her verify that there is eggs in the combs of the mating nuc.  If not they put her back, and go onto the next or kill her off for fear of drone layer.  Hope that helps..

[GSF]

Thanks, that's got to be pretty time consuming doing all that. It's kinda along the lines I was thinking tho.

[sc-bee]

Thanks, that's got to be pretty time consuming doing all that. It's kinda along the lines I was thinking tho.

And a lot of times it may not happen. Supply and demand. A queen should be laying for 21 days before shipping - how many breeders do you think tie up thier equipment that long ? Thus part of the problems of mass produced queens.

[10framer]

Thanks, that's got to be pretty time consuming doing all that. It's kinda along the lines I was thinking tho.

And a lot of times it may not happen. Supply and demand. A queen should be laying for 21 days before shipping - how many breeders do you think tie up thier equipment that long ? Thus part of the problems of mass produced queens.

yeah, it would take a huge operation to do that.  unless you have tens of thousands of mating nucs and a lot of hired help i don't think you could turn a good profit selling queens at 20 or 25 dollars when you can only produce one per nuc every 25-35 days.  that would mean most nucs would only produce a few queens per year in most of the country.     

[Michael Bush]

I have never seen a package that was aggressive toward the queen unless there was a virgin loose in the package.  I direct release mine.

[drlonzo]

I have never seen a package that was aggressive toward the queen unless there was a virgin loose in the package.  I direct release mine.

Michael - How often does that sort of thing actually happen?

[Michael Bush]

A virgin loose in the package?  About one out of twenty maybe?  Usually a queen dead in the cage on arrival is your first clue.