At 21:03 29/09/97 +0100, you wrote: >This is my first year with bees. > >Recently I got assistance in introducing a new docile type queen to replace >a 1995 queen. However, only three days after introducing the new queen, I >opened up the hive to retrieve the Butler Cage and had a bit of a look around. > >Afterwards I was told by a beekeeper that I should have stayed away from the >hive for 6 days, otherwise the bees might reject the queen. > >So now I just have to wait until I return from my vacation on 17Th October >to see have I a problem. > >My question is this: Are the bees not behaving against their own interests >by killing the queen? > >If the hive does not have young eggs. they have no means of raising a new >queen. They are thus faced with the prospect of laying workers which can >produce drones only. Are they not thus on their way to extinction?. Can >anybody give the rationale for their action (if that is what they have done). > >One other question - should I have made the hive queenless some hours or >days before I introduced the new queen?. I did not do this - I removed the >old queen just a few minutes before I inserted the new one. > >Thanks for help > > >Sincerely > >Tom Barrett >Computer Software Solutions Ltd >49 South Park >Foxrock >Dublin 18 >Ireland > >e mail: [log in to unmask] > > ********************************************************************* * Bernard Heymans [log in to unmask] * * Informix Bruxelles tel -32-2 - 711 11 30 * * Support Contract Specialist fax -32-2 - 711.11.22 * *********************************************************************