>Probably no need for the petrol treatment - I have often seen colonies change almost instantly when re-queened.  The most notable was when I killed a queen in a bad tempered colony and threw her body into the undergrowth; the colony immediately went quiet, even before I had introduced the new queen.  It was quite uncanny.

I have no dought that this can happen but I wondering if others have seen a lasting change in a colony's defensive behavior that began, almost instantly, after the queen is removed?  Also is there any science that supports the position that some part of the queen's pheromone profile acts as a releaser for defensiveness in workers? My experience is quite the opposite where it usually takes weeks to turn a colony around but I was recently told a similar story of an almost immediate change.  

I will sometimes relocate a defensive but productive queen into a small nuc and test her progeny for temperament instead of immediately killing her when there's the possibility that she only had for one bad patriline that she may have already expressed.  

Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

Former resident of Stratford on Housatonic 

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