Hi Bill
>From: Bill Greenrose <[log in to unmask]>
>...since I can just let them hatch in the incubator colony in 'hair curler' cages (Nicot system).
We are fairly new at this, but basically followed Dee's advice (who used to introduce virgins to supercede laying queens routinely).
Concern about acceptance (due to scent/pheromone issues) led us to use an actual incubator (not an incubator colony)...in our case, we used a reptibator (available from Amazon vendors), and had each queen emerge into separate 3 dram glass vials. This seems to be working quite well, and I don't know if results would be the same with virgins that emerge into colonies (even in cages).
>When you say that the virgins were introduced, was that done in any special way - smoke, spray of syrup, spray of syrup with EOs, etc?
for most of the queens, they were introduced directly from the glass vials within about 48 hours of emergence (where 3 out of 5 were still present 2 days later). another two were introduced within 72 hours (both were still present 24 hours after emergence).
after about 3 days, the vials start getting dirty inside (and the queens start getting stuck). The video and photos I posted are of a virgin that is being placed into one of the colonies that no longer had a visible virgin present (some possibility that she was on an orientation or mating flight).
I've been told that the JZBZ cages are impregnated with queen pheremone (does anyone know for sure?)...so I was reluctant to put any of the virgins into one (which were teh cages I had handy). In the end, the virgin in the photos/video was put into a JZBZ cage the night before introduction (because the vial was getting gross)...by this time, she was 6 days emerged, and was acting feisty (more wing flapping, crawling very fast, very active)....I think the video shows that the bees were pretty happy to see her (we will find out soon).
We also introduced one queen into a queenright colony (the laying queen was very yellow, the virgin was very dark), and will see what happens there.
The colonies were smoked (but not as much as Dee recommends). The one in the photos/video was just a light puff at the entrance before opening.
I'm trying to keep some up to date info on the specifics here:
http://thecompleteidiotsguidetobeekeeping.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=93&func=view&catid=15&id=11
....but I'm behind.
There were a number of top notch bee breeders at the conference (Mike Palmer, Chris Baldwin, Kirk Webster, Erik Osterlund, Dee Lusby), and it was fun to have something (incubator raised virgins) that most of them had never worked with (especially since we seemed to have some success).
At the end of the conference (as the queens were getting a little worse for wear...there was too much going on to care for them meticulously), We had a drawing for 5 of them (I think only 4 were taken). One reported her being chased out of the hive on introduction and found dead outside the next day (this is a new beekeeper, and his hive might not be as queenless as he thinks), and one has reported that he setup a nuc and she marched right in. I didn't feel comfortable selling the virgins (i could have sold 50+ if I had them), as I'm not confident of introduction success after 48 hours...but as the video shows, my concerns may be misplaced (we will see how she mates/lays).
deknow
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