This time of year I bring queens in to sell, I make the arrangements with
the breeder in January. I always try to have queens when the first packages
arrive since there is always queen losses or accidents/mistakes. This years
common mistake has been trying to put tiny marshmallows in the hole, I
guess a lot of the videos on package installation show this, some people
are doing this even though they have candy in the cage. Those young queens
are fast and they zip right out before the marshmallow is even near the
hole. Also packages have come in from a supplier with no candy or
attendants for the queen so I have replaced a few marshmallow escapees
because of that also, no others bees blocking the hole makes the queen
extra fast.

Our weather has been either windy, chilly or wet so I have not even tried
to start some queens here (Maine) yet.

I have heard there is a bit of a queen shortage going on, may be all the
beginners across the country are using tiny marshmallows and have ended up
using two queens for every package?

Karen T-K

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