> ...This is quite a large cage which is big enough to allow the queen to
> start laying before she is  released....When you observe that she is
> laying in the cells inside the  cage, she can be united with the new
> hive and her acceptance is almost  guaranteed' ...  I read ...that
> under no circumstances should the attendant workers be put into a Queen
> Introduction Cage with the queen,
 
Well, queen introduction is one of those things.  One day you can just
throw a queen into a hive without ceremony and she will be accepted, and
another day, you can do anything you want and find introduction iffy.
This is one of those things that are obvious to an old beekeeper and a
mystery to beginners. That reminds me, haven't heard from G.I. lately.
Not like him to bee so quiet...
 
There are many things to consider in handling queens and introducing them
to stranger bees.  I recall David and Dean both had comments that were
illuminating some time back, talking about banking queens.  Search for the
word 'introduction' at Nick's usual site (now accessible from my home page
& also see my signature below).
 
In this case, I imagine you are talking about a push-in cage.  This is the
Cadillac of queen introduction machines, second in reliability only to
introducing queens into small nucs of emerging bees (a slow process).
 
Most push-in cages have a candy tunnel which you can fill with granulated
honey, miniature mashmallows, or queen candy to allow the bees to
eventually release her.
 
As for the attendants, most people release them when convenient, by
putting the queen shipping cage into a large clear plastic bag and groping
around inside or other methods, many of which result in at least temporary
loss of the queen and much rushing around and worrying.
 
Personally, I am pretty careful to ensure that the bees want a new queen
or at least are in good humour before introduction, and have left the
attendants in or removed them as it suited me, and never noticed much
differerence in results.  I always feed sugar syrup or corn syrup
liberally before and during the introduction period (sorry, I know better
now, but just can't help myself).
 
> Such treatises also advise the beekeeper to leave a colony into which a
> queen is being introduced severely alone, for about 6 days. Would not the
> intrusion caused by checking on the queen laying cause the bees to react
> badly towards her?.
 
Well, we disturb the bees when we wish and have never noticed a problem,
but do try to observe some grace period for the queen introduction out of
respect to the 'experts' (who mostly spend more time with paper than
bees).
 
But also remember we are tuned to the bees to the extent that we probably
never even think of doing things a non-beekeeper or beginner would do in
normal course of learning.  we are also in an area where bees tend to be
pretty happy most of the time.
 
Allen
 
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