Carrying queens in pockets will not subject queens to x-rays. Walkthrough metal detectors test for field capacity. When a ferros or other coductive metal is inserted to the field, it changes the value of the field. Since live bodies are not insulators, but conductors, the sensitivity of the machine (like a squelch) must be tuned down. This is why small metal objects sometimes don't set off the alarm and sometimes large muscular people will set the alarm off even when carrying nothing metalic at all and why you are allowed to pass when given a sweep with the wand (which is the same kind if machine).
Its just a metal detector, not x-ray. I think you are right that x-rays have a chance of sterilizing bees.
Scot Mc Pherson
McPherson Family Honey Farms
Davenport, IA
Bradenton, FL
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