How resiliant are Queens in a Queen Cage?

[OzBuzz]

Hi Everybody,

Just wondering how resiliant Queens are in Queen cages normally? Mine had 6 attendants with her - she was packaged last Wednesday, went in to a hive (which i got froma cutout) on Saturday - got a bit beaten up in that hive (cage dropped from between the bars twice and now i've sat it on top of the bars with an elastic band over it to hold it in place) and has today been caged 6 days - some of the attendants are dead although she is still alive (atleast as of yesterday afternoon) so i'm assuming she is getting fed by the hive. I put a small hole through the candy to speed up them eating her out...

[Michael Bush]

The attendants often get killed, but it's a better sign of acceptance if they don't.  Dropping won't hurt the queen any, from the height she would fall in the hive anyway.  They will feed her and you can keep a cages queen in a hive that accepts her for weeks or even months.

[OzBuzz]

I manually released her tonight-all the attendants were dead-I saw the hive bees feeding her. When I released her they raced up to feed and preen her-queen introduction a success! Although manual release is not my preferred method