Hello Ham & All,
Ham wrote:
My question is during requeening do you eliminate the host bees in the
queen cage or leave them in the cage?
I prefer to introduce the queen without attemdents. I order my queens
without attendents in a battery box(not car battery). Removing the
attendents from a normal introduction cage is not tricky once you get the
hang of it. In front of a window works good. After the attendents are all
on the window open the window and release the attendents. Don't remove the
attendents till you are ready to install the queens and don't leave a queen
out of a hive without attendents. I keep queens in a battery box, queen
bank(without attendents) or install right away on arrival. NEVER do I let
them sit around . Make your nucs up before your queens come. I have
installed queens in the rain and with snow on the ground. I wouldn't make
nucs up then but I certainly would install queens.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison