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Queen attendants

Posted: May 1st, 2018, 10:30 am
by garry
I have to introduce some queens into splits soon, is it worthwhile to remove the attendants that the Queens are shipped with, or is it just as effective to leave them in for the introduction period.

Re: Queen attendants

Posted: May 1st, 2018, 7:55 pm
by Allen Dick
It can't hurt to take them out and to do so without losing the queen, do it in a plastic bag you can get both hands into and watch through.

Also, place the queen cage on the top bars for a while and watch how the bees react. If some bees double up and grip the wire so they are hard to shake off, it is either a bad time -- wrong weather or robbing is going on -- or they have a queen.

Re: Queen attendants

Posted: May 3rd, 2018, 3:14 pm
by garry
Thx Allen, like the bag idea. I'll take them out.

Re: Queen attendants

Posted: May 3rd, 2018, 7:30 pm
by garry
That worked pretty slick, i've sprayed them down with water on previous occasions, to keep them from flying, the bag is better because they are dry and i can get them marked at the same time. I only had twenty so it went pretty quick, thx again

Re: Queen attendants

Posted: May 3rd, 2018, 10:49 pm
by Allen Dick
Yes. We've all lost queens or had to chase them using other methods. This the best method I've heard of.