Hello All,
A simple queen bank is the *Riteway* queen shipper from Mann Lake. These can
be bought cheaply. If you live close to a commercial beekeeper he might have
a used shipper he would give you.
1. make up sugar candy and stock shipper.
2. place queens you are unable to install in shipper.
3. shake bees from several frames of eggs & larva (less queen) into queen
shipper box.
It has been many years since I have had to bank queens. The last few years I
have had the nucs made up and the queens installed within hours of delivery.
In my opinion the longer the queens are caged the poorer the acceptance.
Beekeeping is all about careful planning. Try a later shipping date or make
nucs up early when the weather is better. You can allways cut out queen
cells.
. I do realize that weekend beekeepers need to bank queens when they arrive
midweek. I know when my priority mail arrives and am sitting by the phone.
This last spring one shipment was a day late as the Denver airport was
closed due to a large snow. You can set your watch by my queen breeder.
Queens were in great shape but I worried about the girls arrival. Rather
than queen bank a better idea might be to make up more nucs and install the
queens on a smaller amount of brood IF you have got enough equipment.
example:
one frame of brood instead of two or three. Add additional frames later. If
cold weather install the queen on a single frame of brood between two frames
of honey & pollen over a double screen on a strong colony. You can set these
up the weekend before your queens arrive.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri
Thinking
"Get those girls laying as soon as possible!"