Hello Trevor & All, Sorry for the late reply. Been out of town. I said: > I believe that poor acceptance comes from caged queens. After a few days of > egg laying her pheromones are normal (Dr. Gloria DeHoffman 2002 ). Trevor asks: Bob, can you give us the full reference for this. The Arizona bee lab Dr. Hoffman heads has been doing queen pheromone research with their mass spec machine. Found almost no pheromone level in a caged queen received through the mail. They found after released and egg laying the pheromone level returned to the normal level. Dr. Hoffman saw the low pheromone level of caged queens as a possible reason for poor queen introduction. I agree! She also showed slides of different spikes on the mass spec from different races of bees. AHB & EHB are different. Different spikes were talked about (and some shown) between races of bees such as Italians, Carniolans and Russians. She said the spike of the Russian was different when I questioned her. Sincerely, Bob Harrison :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::