Hi David-
 
Bee Boost with queen mandibular pheromone is a product sold by Phero Tech
Inc., in Delta, B.C.  Their telephone number is 604 940-9944.
 
Bee Boost is used mostly to attract foragers to crops that need insect
pollination, and can be delivered in any number of ways.  I remember their
literature contains a photo of a helicopter spray rig dumping out the stuff
by the tankload onto an orchard.  Presumably the QMP makes the bees curious
and they  spend more time messing around in the flowers than they would
otherwise.  I only know one grower who has used it in orchards (last year)
and he was pleased with the increased bee activity.  He still got lousy
pollination, but he didn't blame the bees for it.
 
Some beekeepers use it to quiet the bees in queenless packages or in bulk bee
boxes by making them think that a queen is present.  For this use it comes in
little cotton wicks containing a small amount of the stuff.  You just drop it
into the box, or hang it by the little plastic tag it comes with.
 
I thought about trying it out in five-frame nucs that I rent to seed
companies  for pollination, in which the beehive is confined inside a nylon
mesh cage along with the plants the breeder wants to cross.  Most nucs come
out of the cages in pretty poor shape, and have to be requeened.  I was
hoping to be able to save the cost of the queens by using queenless bees and
a Bee Boost wick.  Unfortunately, there are many other chemicals that bees
need to feel comfortable, including the ones that are provided only by
developing brood.  More importantly, the wicks only last about a week, and
the cost of revisiting the cage and replacing the wick two or three times
exceeded the cost of a queen.  On the other hand, there have been some
researchers in Canada who have  been successful in using queen pheromones
with queenless nucs in pollination cages, so there are apparently other
situations where it appropriate.
 
The person you should talk to at Phero Tech is Doug McCutcheon.  There is
also a fellow at Simon Fraser University who works with the stuff for
pollination, but his name escapes me.  He has written an article or two in
the ABJ in the last couple of years.
 
What is it that you want to do with this stuff?
 
Kevin Roberts