Tom Barrett comments on Betterbee's new queen cage and asks about the
catalog description on its use.  Specifically, he is interested in whether
the queen should be caged with or without the attendants she was shipped
with.
 
I happen to live only 40 miles (64 km) from Betterbee and have seen this new
cage.  It appears to be excellent as it can be placed firmly (because of the
"legs") over a large area of emerging brood and because it is designed to be
sufficiently "open" so that the bees in the hive can sense the queen
pheromone, and feed her, yet not so open that they can ball her or attack
her feet.
 
In my opinion, it is not very important that she can lay eggs within the
cage, although she can certainly do that.  It is most important that the
cage be placed over emerging brood so that a reasonably large number of
young bees have her pheromone and freely accept her.  This seems to help a
great deal in the final acceptance when she is released from the cage.
 
This cage, made from plastic, is no more than an improved version of a woven
wire cage that beekeepers (in the US, at least) have been making themselves
for decades.
 
Tom correctly relates that many beekeeping books say that it is important to
release the worker bees from the cage the queen is shipped in, before
introducing her into the hive.  I am of the opinion that that advice is one
of those points that was stated by someone at one time, and has since been
repeated without further investigation.
 
I have seen a few references stating "it makes no difference to queen
acceptance whether or not the workers are released prior to introduction."
I have certainly introduced many many queens both ways.  IMHO, it makes
absolutely no difference whether the workers are released separately and
this is especially true if an introduction cage such as described by Tom is
used.
 
I believe this cage is about 4 inches (10 cm) on a side.  If placed over
emerging brood, in a couple of hours there will be far more of the hive's
bees in the cage than the workers shipped with the queen.  The emerging bees
will not fight with the workers shipped as they are too young, and the
workers shipped will not fight with the emerging bees as they are too
disoriented.
 
The final advantage of this type of queen cage is that the recommended 6 day
period of "leave alone" does not apply as the queen will have 200+ workers
with her when all the brood has emerged.  You could easily, and without a
worry, release her after 48 hours providing that 90% or more of brood has
emerged.
 
Lloyd
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