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the longer you keep a queen caged the more time it will take her to lay. I
also is not good to hold them more than about ten days.
 
Dean Breaux
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Hi Dean--
 
If the queens are banked with young bees, and have adequate nutrition
available, then I'm assuming that the problem after ten days is the ovaries
regressing from disuse.  I'm interested in this because Roger Morse asserts
that queens can be kept for "many weeks" in a well-maintained bank, and still
recover to lay normally.
 
What happens after ten days?  Do you find that queens never recover their
original laying abilities, or is the problem viability, or something else?
 
Kevin