Thank you to everyone for your replies. I rarely use gloves, and pick up drones and workers all the time with bare hands, so that is not an issue with me. I tried the technique of marking the queen and re-introducing her after a few minutes, last year, and the workers balled and killed her immediately. This is why I want to try the cage technique. I am assuming that if I plug the hole in the cage with a piece of marshmallow, it will take the bees a day or two to release her, and they will treat her like a new queen. I'll let you know what happens. Steve Newcomb