First time installing packages need advice

[Bee Whisper82]

Hello All,

   Well to start off we put our packages in on Sunday 10th (yesterday)  and I installed mine first...on the queen cage was a cork on one side and a candy plug on the other but i didn't notice the candy plug under the metal disc that was attached to hang the cage in the package.   So i pulled the cork out and noticed there wasn't anything in the hole so I put a piece of marshmallow in hole and put in hive... I did everything else I needed to do before closing up....well my wife put her package in and on hers we looked closer and noticed the candy plug and installed it right this time....So I was doing some research and found out that the bees would release the queen to fast with the marshmallow so today I went out and opened the hive and noticed the marshmallow gone and queen still in cage with attendance so i put cork back in and pulled metal disc off the right end and put back in hive candy plug up with queen still in cage

Ok with all that said the question is have I done the right thing?   Any advice is welcome...Thanks In Advance

[Hops Brewster]

So the marshmallow plug was gone, and nurse bees were inside the cage taking care of the queen?  That means they accepted the queen.  Or they might be in there killing her, if she weren't accepted.  but let's think on the positive side and assume she's accepted.  They will now have to release her through the candy plug.  It will take another day or so.  It should be fine.

I don't know that the marshmallow plug releases the queen too fast.  It's the way I've done it with success on Q cages that don't come with a candy plug.

[KeyLargoBees]

No experience with marshmallows other than roasting them :-)

Here's my take on packages though....
1. Package bees are all jumbled up from multiple hives so there is already confusion and no "hive loyalty" which is a good thing as far as queen acceptance goes.
2. Bees are typically together in the transport cage with the queen hanging in with them for at least a day before they are shipped then a day in transit. And then a day in the case of your marshmallow or 3 additional with the plug.....plenty of time for a bunch of queenless bees to accept her royal majesty.

  In all likelihood you could release her direct when you got her and she would be fine but the candy plug is for precaution.

Replacing a queen that was ordered outside a package is a different story.... you are dumping in strange phermone into a queenless hive and the three day candy plug is needed then to insure they dont ball her and kill the intruder.

Hope that makes sense.

[Bee Whisper82]

So how would I have known if she was being killed?

[Hops Brewster]

When a colony wants to kill a foreign queen (not in a cage), or if they're angry with their own queen for some reason, they will ball her; cover her up with so many bees that she overheats and dies.  In your case, in the cage, she would probably already have been stung to death if they wanted her dead.  I'd bet she's fine.

[Bee Whisper82]

So would it be safe tomorrow to just pull that cork back out and let her out?

[Barhopper]

I'd leave them alone for a few days. After they build some comb check for eggs.

[KeyLargoBees]

Either /or you can see the hive and how they are acting we cant :-) If they are going about their business and have some cells built up at least halfway so she has some place to lay eggs then I would say release her but the choice is yours.

[BeeMaster2]

I would just release her. When you open the hive, how hard is it to see the queen in the cage. If the bees are moving very fast and totally covering the cage and biting at it and  very noisy then they are not ready. If it is easy to move the bees away with your finger then they are probably ready.
I have added a queen to a hive that had been queen less over night with no problem. I just let her walk onto a frame. She had no problems. I once tried to add a queen to a queen right hive. Good thing she was in a cage. They attacked and covered it in a ball of bees and were very noisy.
Not all balling is to kill a queen. I added frames of bees to my observation hive and tried to place a piece of paper between the 2 groups. The queen ended up in the wrong area. The bees balled her and I thought she would bee killed. Later that night she owned the hive. It was her bees that balled her to protect her.
Jim

[Bee Whisper82]

Thanks to everyone for advice...The bees have defiantly excepted the queen and she is laying now.......I just love this site for my questions people are so helpful  

[GSF]

Congrads! It's got a holt of you now.