If you're putting a Queen in to a mailing cage how do you know which workers go2

[OzBuzz]

I need to put a queen from a hive I'm trying to save in to a mailing cage so as to introduce her to a few frames of bees/brood from an existing hive I have in a nuc. What I'm wondering is when pack the queen in how many workers should put in and does it matter which ones I put in? If so how do itell which ones they are? Thanks for your advice...

[Scadsobees]

If you are going to introduce it to the new hive within a few hours, skip the workers.   They are only there to care for the queen and if she don't need any attending...

Otherwise, if it is going to be a few days, then 2 or 3 workers from any comb will do.

[BjornBee]

I try to pick bees from the frame she came from. I look for one sucking up honey in the corner, a fuzzy new one, one or two right in the middle of the comb. I want nurse bees, young bees, and bees that are full of honey.

As for "any" frame...... I don't want field bees, which tend to be aggressive and perhaps antagonize the other bees through the cage.

Does it make a difference....who knows. But in all the queens I have mailed over the past 5 years, I lost two. So the bees I have chosen did a good job. And I get almost no beekeepers telling me of bad introduction problems.

Caging queens can be very educational. You may even find one of the old-time myths being wrong. The one about queens not feeding themselves...... :shock:

[iddee]

If she's going into the nuc immediately, don't put any workers in. If she isn't, pick the fussiest, white ones from a frame of open larva. As Bjorn said, you want the youngest ones possible.

[OzBuzz]

She is going straight in but will be in the cage until the other bees eat her out...

[iddee]

The nuc bees will feed her through the wire, or holes if it is the plastic cage.