Hi all,
I am a commercial queen breeder in Argentina.
Over the years, I have tried several different methods for queen banking involving both mated and virgin queens.
According to my experience, attempting to bank virgin queens is a total waste of time. Virgin queens are unattractive to worker bees, they release very little pheromone and are therefore not fed. Most virgins will die in less than 4 days regardless of the banking conditions.
I have even banked both virgin and mated queens into the same bank, only virgins and only mated queens. In all situations, virgin queens were short-lived.
You can watch a short video describing part of my banking procedures for mated queens at http://www.malkaqueens.com/ingles/video/videos.html (Video No. 21)
Sincerely,
Martin Braunstein
www.malkaqueens.com
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