>
> >Nonetheless, the figure I've "heard" tossed around is a newly mated queen
> benefits from three weeks of egg laying and pheromone development before she
> is caged for a queen bank or shipment.


This figure is likely based upon the Aussie study (Apidologie 35 (2004)
383–388).  The timing was based upon the date that the queen cell was
inserted.  The data suggest that allowing a queen to lay eggs for a week or
two before caging may increase later survivorship.

However, there may be flaws in this interpretation (and some in Australia
suggest that there may have been other flaws in the study).

The aging of the queen may the most important factor, rather than the period
of egglaying:

"The 2001 experiment attempted to deter-
mine whether queen bees caught from their
mating nucleus at a young age and held in a
queen bank to age them before introduction
into established bee colonies was as effective
as holding queens in  their mating nucleus.
Results were inconclusive, data obtained sug-
gest that catching queen bees from their mating
nucleus at 17 days of age and holding them in
a queen bank to an age between 24 and 31 days
may be a satisfactory and less expensive method
for aging queen bees prior to introduction into
established bee colonies but the survival rates
appeared slightly lower than aging them to the
same age in the mating nucleus. This manage-
ment procedure requires further investigation."

It may simply be that aging of queens removes that percentage of queens that
normally fail in the first few weeks--regardless of shipping.

It would be prudent to see replicated trials to confirm the need for for
"aging" in the nuc before this figure becomes accepted as a hard and fast
rule.

Randy Oliver

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