Mike in LA asked what Wyatt Mangum did to enduce a marked increase in the successful introduction (of queens).

Answer: he removed the attendants from the queen cage before introducing the caged queen to his bees.  I don't recall what the statistically significant increase was, but my recollection when reading the article was, "Hmmm, if I can increase queen acceptance by that much simply by removing attendants, henceforth I will do so."  Since reading the article, and having removed attendants from that point forward, I cannot say if I have or have not noticed an increase in MY queen acceptance, I didn't keep the records either before or after to make a statistical claim.  Mostly I am removing the attendants while I'm in the process of marking my queens (as Peter recommended).  If as Wyatt's study showed, I am increasing the liklihood that my now marked queen will be accepted, that's icing on the cake.

Cheers,
Aaron


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