Peter Borst wrote:

>* This is the first time I have ever heard that it makes the slightest
>difference what sort of bees ride along in the cage, other than if they
>are already old, they might not last another week. As I mentioned before,
>the purpose of the "attendants" is probably more for morale. Bees hate to
>be alone.
>
>* I was the one who used the phrase "pluck the bees off the comb". I have
>raised and caged queens and that's what we did. We seldom got stung doing
>it, I might add. If you can't grap a bee without getting stung, you
>probably can't grab a queen without hurting her.

   While working for my uncle Clarence in the 1950s, I caged thousands of
queen bees and worker bees to go into the cage with her.  We just grasped
any young bees on the comb for that purpose.  Virtually all queens we
mailed did very well.

                                                                Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106  [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]

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*
*    "The production of scientific knowledge is simultaneously
*  the production of scientific error."
*                                          Naomi Aronson, 1986
*
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