Aarcher asks about how to keep an extra queen in a cage.
 
I have kept queens for extended periods of time in the following manners:
 
1.      Use thumb tacks to cover the corks and candy ends of the cages so that
bees do not chew out the cork or candy and release the queens.  Lay the
cages screenside up on top of a queen excluder placed over the second story
of a hive containing at least 15 combs covered with bees.  Cut down an old
super to make a 1.5 inch rim.  Place the rim on top of the excluder and
cover with the hive cover.  Use a gentle colony if available.  Use queens
according to the date they were put in the queen bank hive - oldest ones
first.
 
2.      Combine two weak colonies putting one colony with their queen and any
eggs and uncapped larvae below an excluder in the bottom box of a two story
hive.  Put the second - queenless colony and any capped and emerging brood
into the second box of the hive and place the extra queen cages directly on
the top bars of the second box of the hive.  Put a 1.5 inch rim on top of
the hive and replace the hive cover.
 
Feed the colonies a one to one sugar/water solution with Fumidil-B to
reduce the Nosema levels in the shipped queens, her attendants, and the
nurse bees that will make the royal jelly queen food.  Actually, I prepare
the queen bank colony by feeding the Fumidil-B at least three times to the
colony prior to using it as a queen bank.  I pour the warm syrup directly
on the bees to get as many bees wet as possible so they each lick each
other off and ingest some of the medication.  The last feeding is done
immediately prior to placing the extra queens into the bank.  Feeding
Fumidil-l has been known to increase queen acceptance by 25 to 50 percent.
 
James C. Bach
Yakima WA
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