My post raised another observation/question. What if the delay in releasing queens is a cause of queen failure with newly installed packages. Might not be a far fetched as it seems. We know that larva release pheromones. If the pheromones are not present, that might indicate a queen failure to the workers and they would take appropriate action and supersede the queen at the earliest time after they have some eggs to work with. That would put "queen failure" at 10 days and beyond until she starts laying after release. 10 days assumes immediate start of laying and 3 days until larva show up.Then you have the delay until the pheromones reach the level to signal all is well. So immediate release would help prevent queen "failure" associated with packages. Again, happy to be corrected. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html